Being the thrifty guy that I am, I've waited since late 2005 to pick me up a Charger R/T. I thought I got a pretty good deal today on a silver 2006 R/T. It's in near mint condition, 62,000 miles, and doesn't look like it it has ever been modified. It feels mighty powerful, but now that I've had the car for nearly 4 hours, it's time to start MODIFYING IT!

I will start searching posts, but in the meantime - what gives the best bang for the buck, the Predator / InTune? CAI? Throttle body? I'd rather start with bolt-ons than start diving deep into the drivetrain. - John

IMO the best bang for your buck will be a Diablo tuner....

I did long tube headers(available btw), cai, predator, mbrp catback on my R/T. The best was the headers but had to remove them because the cheeck engine light stayed on.

-Daty

Thanks for the info. This car seems to run strong except for the infamous lifter tick. everyone, please keep recommending mods and what worked for you best.

I've read a lot of good things about superchargers too, challengertalk.com has a lot of good info/real experiences too.

-Daty

The basic mods still work.CAI and exhaust upgrades and then a tune.Past that the $$$ climbs quickly.

There was an extensive article in one of the mopar mags within the last year about modding these and at what levels the factory parts give up the ghost.

06 Daytona and 09 Challenger R/T's. No lifter tick.

AmsOil 0-20 in the Charger due to MDS shutdown and 0-30 in the Challenger tracpac. The Challenger had a tick in it until the tires were properly smoldered and the rev limiter bumped a few times.

No mods except shock-tower brace. Drain and top off the trans with a good synthetic if you don't have the service history. 5.7's are sweet throttle and 24.5 highway.

Dennis, your writeup had me ROFL. I need to learn about MDS shutdown. -J

If you want to upgrade your exhaust get a system off an SRT8. The SRT8 manifolds are factory shorty headers (the stock 5.7 manifolds are horrible), and the rest of the system is 2 3/4" in diameter, where as yours is 2 1/4" (The 5.7 Challengers with the Trac Pak came with 2.5"). You'll need the mid pipes as well cause they are specific to the SRT8 manifolds. This is the upgrade I plan for the spring on my 05 Magnum RT. You won't get any CEL with this mod as they are factory parts.
The CAI is a good one as well, it's the first thing I did to my car, and from what I heard the Diablo tuner really wakes these cars up (that's planned for the spring as well). The LX cars are HEAVILY torque managed from the factory. You can feel it when you nail it from a stand still, and when the car shifts while under power. You can feel the car lay down, shift, then come back on. You can dial this back with the Diablo.
For what the cars are you won't be disappointed, they get mid to high 20's for mileage and can run low 14's high 13's stock, pretty sweet set up

That does sound like a cheap and easy mod! Did the 180 thermostat hurt the mileage at all? (Like it really matters).

contact mike@ostdyno.com He is the guru for tuning these cars. He also sells prediators and has tuning packages if buy from him. He can work some magic...