Stage 1, should I?

[amazingarthur]

Gang,

I love the idea of a Stage 1 kit. I am however a bit concerned about reliability and practicality.

I am on the road. A lot. I put 17k on it just in 8 months.

Should I steer clear of a Stage 1 because of this? Also, where do I buy it and who should install it?

Thanks!

[retroman715]

Arthur,

First off let me say your Cruizer looks Awesome! I love the Boyd's and the ghost flames. As far as your question concerning Stage 1, I just did mine. It drives like a different car. The seat of your pants performance is incredible. Chrysler should have done this car with stage 1 as stock. I don't know of any implications of the install except that people love it. I drive mine relatively normal til a "Ricer" needs a spanking. There is virtually no difference in drivability until you hit the gas. Then this little 2.4 comes alive! If you have other questions concerning warranty and the such, I would suggest talking to your service dept. to see how they feel about installing a Mopar performance stage 1 kit and if they woulds still warranty your vehicle with the kit installed.

Just my 2 cents.

retroman [?] "NEWest" Stage 1 member [8)]


Keep on Kruzin'

[PTGT_Boy]

Stage 1 (I'm assuming its an auto GT) does a fairly decent job fine tuning fuel management, transmission shift points, and increasing boost your max boost to 15 psi (14 PSI for stock). However, most of the benefits are top end, therefore driving non-aggressively you wouldn't really be doing any abnormal wear as if you were driving Stage 0.

For daily driving, you most likely will not see much of a difference other than MAYBE a small increase in MPG and quicker shifting. If you go WOT, than you will see a difference.

If you have an 04 model, its just a switch of the PCM. If your dealer has a problem with mods, than just use your old PCM for service. It may sound like a pain to take your PCM in and out, but using a wrench for 10 minutes isn't that bad.

No, I don't have Stage 1. I'm still waiting for Stage 2 [:0].

[Mike-in-Orange]

Like Nike says in their ads.

[Mean Green]

20,000 miles on stage 1 and still loving it!

[PTGT Redman]

It's really not a lot of work for the S1, consider the improvement.
90% of it is just more aggressive PCM programming.
And it's swappable to stock config if u needed to.
So, it's not like you're tearing down the engine and putting in new cams and stuff. Bang for the buck it's a good deal, and as far as risk goes, I think most concerns lie more with issues of emissions rather than any damge to the engine.
I installed mine on my 01 about almost a year ago and I am very satisfied with it. Heh, I can't remember what the car was like stock.

[azptcruiser]

One of the big benefits that I noticed was the shift point of the automatic. The Stage 1 noticably improved this. Clean, crisp shifts in true Automatic; with Autostick being more responsive and crisp, too.

I also believe that it slightly improved the gas mileage...as long as I keep my heavy foot off of the pedal.