No
the only proven way to get more power out of a 2.4 is to boost it.

 

Yep, turbo kits are available!

 

remember its fuel AND air. so dumping more fuel in is not going to get you 24 more ponies without doing something else like different intake cam or larger valves.

 

Interesting. How does RPM make such claims then?

 

its RPM...
you'll get used to it

 

The tune in and of itself is going to raise the HP a couple. the intake you might get maybe 1 possibly 2 ponies out of it. Now the catalyst is going to be the heavy hitter in terms of HP gain. you will get a bump of 10 to 15 is using a high flow and 15 to 20 if going catless. RPM is giving you best case and this is what it would look like. 20 (catless) + 2 (intake) + 3 (tune) = 25 hp The injectors are more then capable to supply enough fuel for a 25HP bump. 50 or 75... meh I would replace them with larger ones.

This is about money spent to achieve that additional HP.

going catless in an of itself can cause problems if you live in an emissions state. So lets go with high flow cat numbers.

EPA certified high flow catalyst: 1300.00
intake: 300.00
custom tune: 900.00
--------------------------
total: 2500.00
cost per pony: 125.00


Now we look at a turbo kit. and you will see 125HP + gains

kit: 2500.00
tune: 500.00
------------------
total: 3000.00
cost per pony: 24.00

spending an additional 500 bucks gets you an additional 100 hp

If you have a 2006 base model you can upgrade the turbo and get over 400HP out of the engine. 177 is the stock HP. you are talking a 225HP gain over stock and that would be about 4,000.00 to do and that puts your cost per pony to < 18.00


Unless there is some specific reason to stay NA it doesn't make make a whole lot of sense to put that kind of money up with the gain being 20 or 25 hp.

 

It is also the same claim that was made when the "big wheel" turbo was being sold for the GXP. Truth be told the big wheel turbo didn't do a thing in terms of HP gain. What it did was it stopped the fall off of HP @ > 5500 RPM. The tune on the other hand is what increased the HP and it could be done without using the big wheel turbo and the results would be just about the same. It's a marketing ploy.

 

I don't disagree, but they way it is stated it appears that one factor increases power and the other doesn't. Ib fact you need more flow at higher rpm plus the programming to make use of it. I'm not sure that I agree that a retune without more flow from the turbo would get you the same output, though. I get around 375 bhp (based on a chassis dyno reading of 324 at the wheels and doubt that a stock turbo with any tune you like would get it there.

 

there are threads on here from about ten years ago where people with serious skills did everything they could do short of boosting and got basically nowhere.

they installed custom headers, upgraded the intake, changed the throttle body. All the normal hot rodding techniques and got a very few more HP.

The challenge is that as designed the 2.4 is very efficient and well tuned. It is pretty much at its peak output with factory parts.

Over time the headers started to crack and all kinds of issues were identified.

RPM is in the business of enticing people to buy their products. They are pretty good at that and are one of the very few after market suppliers still focused on the platform.

 

and you are running the big wheel turbo?

The big wheel turbo is only good to about 35lbs/min of air flow and that's on a good day. you also risk burning up the bearings in the turbo to do that. The turbo was not designed to spin at 200,000 RPM. It's rated maximum is going to be 150,000 RPM which is in the 21 psi area. you can push the turbo maybe another 25k and that would get you to 24ish PSI but you run the risk of burning it up. at 24 PSI the airflow is right around that 35lb/min airflow number. that's 350 to 360 BHP. which happens to be what the K04 is going to max out at without the big wheel. The difference between the 2 is being able to hold that number into the higher RPM band which is were the K04 fall flat on it's face. It doesn't move enough volume to be able to do it.

additional HP with a turbo is the product of pressure. The big wheel does not build any additional pressure. It only moves more volume. In order to build more pressure the turbo would have to spin faster and that is not what is upgraded in the big wheel turbo. The big wheel simply has a larger wheel so it can move more air.

 

You do not need to have a tune done to make use of the greater volume of air from the big wheel turbo. You will get less falloff at high RPM plain and simple. Now the tune alters how fast the turbo spins and that is where the HP gains come from.