Hello everyone,

I am the proud new owner of a 1998 Dodge Avenger 5 speed with 108,XXX miles on the clock.  I looked around at a couple Avenger based forums and decided I liked this one the best.  Now, I'm generally new to cars although I'm not completely oblivious.  I have a couple of questions about the car for you guys that I was hoping you could answer for me.

- I was looking to replace the stock rectangular air filter with a cone shaped air filter (most likely K&N).  Where would you guys suggest to buy the adapter to fit the cone air filter onto the stock location?

- I was looking around to try to find information on a CAI, but could only find information regarding the 6-cylinder version of the car.  Does the 420A have a mass produced CAI option available or would I have to make a DIY one?  Would this even be worth the time and effort, or would the performance gain be negligible?

- What kind of oil and spark plugs do you guys recommend I use?

- Is there any other information about the car I should know about?


Thanks guys,
Bill

My friend had a spare Weapon R kit that he gifted to me (don't ask) that just went onto mine two days ago.  It replaces the entire filter box and intake pipe up to the manifold with a spiffy looking chrome pipe and filter cone.  Can't say yet how well it works; my engine's idling smoother, has more pickup and doesn't seem to 'work' as hard to coast down city streets in 3rd (stick) as it used to, but I also replaced the old fuel filter, pcv valve, plugs and wires at the same time so it's tough to say how much of that came from the kit.   

My one complaint with this kit is that it didn't come with any mounting solution, and basically just hangs from the manifold by the rubber collar and c-clamps wedged between the battery box and the rocker cover...  I do worry about vibration damage to it or the things around it in the long term.  It might not be the kit's fault though, the instructions did mention something or other about mounting, but this kit had been opened a year or two ago already by my generous friend and mayhaps it was missing a part or two.  I'm also concerned that it just sucks up whatever air's in it's vicinity, which is mostly like hot air coming through the radiator.  It may breathe better, but what's it breathing?  Time will tell if I keep it on there or not -- I already had a K&N in the filter box.

Welcome,

5w30
Get the ball joint recall done if applicable
change the timing belt, water pump, idlers and tensioner

Turbo the car

That is all

Synthetic


NO! timing is too finicky of a thing to do it yourself unless you happen to be extremely mechanically minded. DT is nowhere near a noob as far as engine repair goes and even he suffered a minor setback with his timing. >.< Unless you know exactly what you are doing on the timing, i'd have a good shop do it for the labor warranty. That way if anything goes wrong, it's not your fault.

The CAI is universal whether you get a short or full ram intake. You might have to do a 'little' modification depending on the size you get. If you want the best, AEM [$$] if you want to save a little money, eBay.

As far as the cone filter goes, once you get the CAI, as long as you keep it clean, any cotton cone filter will be fine. You're not going to be running the projects that DT and Nykon are currently engrossed in, so you aren't going to need anything more than simply a filter that gets the job done. same goes for me. lol
However, if you really want to get a K&N filter, somehow, I managed to influence my old boss at Advance into making one of the generic universal cone designs that K&N makes a stock item, so the next time i'm there, i'll get the part number and post it up. and a tip, don't go for the 3" CAIs, the ones i've seen [and used] are just too bulky in the engine bay and do nothing but push against the battery too much.

As far as purchasing it from your local Autozone [only time i'll ever recommend them for anything EVER], go here [Spectre]. This is a direct link to their catalog. Select Modular Air Intake, scroll down to Mitsubishi and select the second one 'Eclipse (CAI)'. This will show you all the parts [yes you have to buy them seperate] that spectre makes to assemble your own CAI. The only thing i can think of that you'll have to figure out how to use properly is part number 8707 and you'll see why. I like the fact that it looks different and if i were to get one myself, that would be the only reason. It's not like it's going to be any better than my current CAI. They both server the same purpose and accomplish the same end result: a CAI.

And welcome to the site.

yeah, but your Avenger has been through hell and back.

AEM dryflow filter.

95-99 Eclipse non-turbo cold air intakes fit perfectly fine.

Valvoline 5W-30 conventional oil and NGK spark plugs.

Those are my recommendations