My First Space Ship

[R0ck39]

Well at least that's the best way I would describe the way my Jeep now looks, feels and sounds like from the drivers seat. From all the new gauges mounted displaying my AFR, Boost Pressure and Fuel Pressure. The DiabloSport Trinity mounted, monitoring and data logging so that Harrison and Joel (JerseyBoy) can get my Jeep dialed in just right. The boost controller sitting on the shelf just to the left and below the steering wheel reading the boost pressure and ready to be turned up upon completion of future modifications. Right next to the boost controller a hidden switch to open and close my new electronic cutout depending on how much attention I want to get while driving around. And of course the best part about my new "space ship" is the sound my new Stage 6 76MM Turbo makes as I put my foot on the gas and it spools up pinning me back into my seat and putting a huge grin on my face.

Quick Background... I've had my Jeep for about three and a half years and joined the forum just about right away. Since that time I have followed almost every build discussed on here. Though I will admit I did take about a 6 month break from the forum after breaking my foot and used what money I started saving for the Jeep upgrades on doctor bills. A year prior to that I used my Jeep upgrade savings account to put money down on a house. In the time I have had my Jeep and been on the forum I have seen a lot of changes on the forum including a lot of the original or veteran members of the forum moving on. Though I do not post a lot on the forum I am on here everyday trying to learn as much as I can and I sort of realized that now I'm one of the veterans as it seems like a new Jeep SRT8 owner joins the forum about every other day. So being a "veteran" I thought it would be a good idea and put up a thread regarding my build just like John (JPS043) and Waqaas (Untouchable) did in the last couple of months.

Onto the build.. My build is quite simple especially compared to some of the big builds out there. My Jeep is completely stock outside of my Borla Exhaust, a JET 180 Degree T Stat and now a Stage 6 76MM Turbo Build which included an upgraded fuel system and bigger injectors. I have the Stock 6.1L Long Block and Stock Transmission. I dropped off my Jeep with Stage 6 Motorsports in Jacksonville, Florida in late June just a week or two before moving back to my home state of New York from Orlando. In the year prior to dropping it off at Stage 6 I purchased some of the other items necessary for my Turbo Build. Got myself a DiabloSport Trinity, AFR gauge, boost and fuel pressure gauges and the proper gauge mounts. Then earlier this year I jumped on the sale by 1BAMFR (Keoni) for his slightly used 76MM Turbo as he was upgrading his beast to a 88MM Turbo. So from there the next thing I had to do was save up the rest of the money and drop off the Jeep, the Turbo and the other goodies with Stage 6. So the plan was to drop off the Jeep with Stage 6 at the end of the summer but I accepted a position with my company in New York so I dropped it off a little bit earlier.

I stayed in touch with Stage 6 and Harrison as we worked together on when the build would start and when I would come back down to FL to pick the Jeep up. Ultimately it was decided that we would debut my Jeep at VMP in mid September and I would meet the Stage 6 Team there and they would trailer my Jeep up for me. So as is the case with most builds Stage 6 ran into a couple of small problems toward the end of the build which were nothing of any major concern other than keeping the time table we had discussed and agreed on. Because of those small setbacks we came to the point where I had to decide what was more important to me: Putting the Jeep on the Dyno or keeping the Virginia Pickup Date. In the end I decided that for me the most important thing was keeping the time table and I was okay without the Dyno Numbers. Again this decision was made as I wanted to keep the return time table the same and pick her up in Virginia as I had taken the time off same with my father who went with me to pick her up. But since this as everyone know's was not Stage 6's First Turbo build they had plenty of data to get a good tune to me based on all the other builds they had done. I plan on talking with Jim from the HEMI Shop about what Dyno they use up here on Long Island and eventually see what kind of numbers my Jeep is laying down as a Stock Jeep with the 76MM Turbo.

The Results.. Well like I said I met Stage 6 with my Jeep at the Modern HEMI Event at VMP and got to test her out right away! I ended up getting in five passes that day recording a best time of 11.61 at 119 MPH running on race gas at approximately 7lbs of boost. All my runs that day were run on my Toyo Proxes and with all the seats still in the car and my best 60' that day was 1.82. So very happy with the 1/4 mile Track Results and looking forward to better times at ATCO in a couple of weeks! As for everyday driving the Jeep drives almost the same as it did before it's surgery which I love! Around town and normal highway driving the Jeep feels no different than before but when you stick your foot into the gas pedal the power the turbo produces is incredible and the Jeep pulls HARD!!! It's awesome!! No one bought these Jeeps for their great fuel economy but I have also noticed that though I get slightly less MPG's "City" Driving my MPG's went up on the highway! So for anybody worried about doing something like this for fuel efficiency reasons my average MPG's with about 500 miles on the clock since I got the Jeep back is about the same as before I got the Turbo installed. So to sum it all up I love my Stage 6 Turbo Jeep!!!

The Future: The next step for me is to start putting some money away to put in a Paramount Transmission and Torque Converter. I am pushing the power limits of the transmission right now but so far the Jeep has felt great but plan on getting this done in hopefully the next 6 months. Once that is done I may just have to go for the Stock Block 1/4 mile record Moving on from there I am still undecided on what direction I want to go but I am thinking either a Forged 6.1L from one of the engine builders on here or maybe just hone out the stock cylinders and put in a forged rotating assembly. That part of the process is probably a year away at minimum. As I make future updates I will update the thread with the new modifications and results.

Well I hope that this build thread has been informative and perhaps entertaining to hopefully at least most of you on the forum both veterans and the newcomers and to those looking to do a build of there own down the road. If anybody has any questions don't hesitate to post up on this thread or send me a message. My apologies as I have been lazy and have been too busy driving it around and not snapping any pictures so I will take some this week and upload them.

Before I go let me give a shout and Thanks to the Stage 6 Team:
Harrison, Dwight, Shrek and Joel.
I have very much appreciated your patience with me and my million questions! You kept me updated and informed during the build and continue to help me me now with not just my revised tunes but with my continued questions about the Jeep now and it's future.

[R0ck39]

Reserved for pics...

[roadboy]

I will be watching this thread closely as this will probably be a very similar route I will be taking. It is seems you have the best of both worlds. Drives like stock everyday but a monster when you hit the loud pedal. Will you be driving it through the winter months?

[jkalbin]

Has your base tune been revised yet? Or was it for any of the trips down the track? That's some pretty awesome time for 1 mod

Also a bit curious what your original and current hwy mpg's are... I could care less about city, we all have too much fun stoplight to stoplight anyway

Congrats on having the build finished, I'm sure many will be following in your footsteps

[R0ck39]

Originally Posted by roadboy

I will be watching this thread closely as this will probably be a very similar route I will be taking. It is seems you have the best of both worlds. Drives like stock everyday but a monster when you hit the loud pedal. Will you be driving it through the winter months?

Yeah like I said I love that the Jeep drives like stock when I'm just driving around town or merging with traffic onto the Highway but when I want/need that extra power I just push a little harder on the gas As for driving in the winter it really depends on what the winter is like. I plan on keeping my Jeep for a long, long time so I don't want to expose her to much bad weather. I'll miss driving the Jeep too much to just let it set but I won't being take out in any blizzards ha.

Originally Posted by jkalbin

Has your base tune been revised yet? Or was it for any of the trips down the track? That's some pretty awesome time for 1 mod

Also a bit curious what your original and current hwy mpg's are... I could care less about city, we all have too much fun stoplight to stoplight anyway

Congrats on having the build finished, I'm sure many will be following in your footsteps

I'm currently on the third revision of the original tune from Stage 6 and JerseyBoy. Stage 6 put the original tune in then did a little driving and Joel got them a revised tune. Then I took her down the track and gave all the logs to Joel who got me the revision I am running now. I recently sent some "Around Town" logs to Joel to have him take a look and perhaps send me another revision.

The next time I take the Jeep on a highway trip which will probably be next week I will reset the average MPG to get you an idea what the Highway MPG's are. I'll even try to do one trip at waste gate only, 5psi, and then another trip at 7psi and see if the MPG's differ.

[Marylandm3]

Congrats buddy! You definitely have a beast!

[2007srt8]

congrats..always fun when you get to play with your new mods

[Untouchable]

Nice Jeep Rhett
I saw it the other day when it was at the Hemi Shop
I am from Fl but now live in New Hyde Park and work in Huntington, we should meet up/line up

My MPGs are atrocious, and thats with a 6.1. I see about 9 city and 12-13 hwy. Get into boost and forget it.

[Harrison@Stage6]

Glad you're diggin it Rhett!! What people DON'T know is this Jeep was a year in the making. I was about to start have to charge Rhett for tech support.

Rhett.... I looked over your logs from VMP and you were only running 6psi on your 11.61 pass. We need to bump it up a little for Atco.

[J&D's SRT's]

Congrats Rhett, sounds like you're really enjoying the Jeep with the extra power. Nice write up thanks for taking the time.

Jim