Originally posted by Justacontour:
the srt4 only runs 8-9 psi. the stock motor can only push 18psi...

my friend set his to 20 and blew it.


You are wrong, your are wrong, and your friend is a moron then.

Stock boost level is 14psi. It does see spikes to 15-16psi. Boost is limited in 1st gear to 9psi. So if you would have said "in 1st gear" you would have been right.

The engine can handle more the 18psi even with a stock turbo. However the stock turbos stalls at ~19psi so it's not worth running higher boost with the stock turbo because you are getting nothing more then hot air and a very low rpm torque hump. (i.e. great for bench racing dyno numbers but worthless for any real world performance)
Also you DO NOT rate engine parts by psi level. That's silly because that's forgetting about numerous other variables like CFM FLOW & COMPRESSOR SIZE for instance.

The reason your friend "blew it" is because he didn't do any research and realize the stock programming is not able to handle signifianctly higher boost and leans out the engine. (as well as retards timing btw) He basically destroyed his engine because he wasn't being smart and didn't do some home work first. Probably was cheap and ran 87 octane as well.

Heck I don't even own one or "have a friend that owns an SRT-4" and know all this. More even.

Great little pocket rocket. Tough as nails powertrain. (stock setup can do ~280/320 @ 19psi with proper A/F & bolt ons ) Good handling. Nothing at all wrong with that even if it's a Neon.

2000 SVT #674 13.47 @ 102 - All Motor! It was not broke; Yet I fixed it anyway.