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Review of the Direct Connection Stage 2 kit.

2396 Views 64 Replies 15 Participants Last post by  Zo6defector
Video review,


The short version is it really depends on your cars age and warranty remaining and what your goals are. In my case my car is a mid June 21 delivery with 3 1/2 years and 56,000 miles power train and 1 1/2 year 32,000 mile BTB warranty remaining. I wanted a solid 10.0 index car, with as little out of pocket costs as possible.

The DC Stage 2 kit at 4k out the door plus full remaining factory warranty intact and increased resale value (imo), plus after warranty expires I can always get a full tune buy HHP and gain that extra performance with low extra costs was exactly what I was looking for.

If my car was older or if I wanted max performance and didn't care about the warranty I would go with HHPs Stage 1 kit which is about the same cost but with the trans tune and more aggressive engine tune results in much better performance.

In my opinion I would say that if a person has less than 1 year left on warranty or is wanting maximum performance and doesn't car about warranty or resale value I would go with Josh at HHP or similar aftermarket setup, if it's a newer low mileage car and just want a nice reliable boost in power without losing the reliability, warranty, and maintaining the resale value of the car then I would go with the DC kit.

Hope this helps, if you have any questions feel free to ask.
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I don't even care about the warranty I just want the kits but that seems impossible for me to get here on the northeast. Maybe I'm looking to soon hoping I can get it done by July and still get some use out of it this summer
Thank you for the video, good work. Looking forward to the Stage 2, if it ever comes in...
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If the mopar extended warranty would cover it I would go for it--but with the M6 I don't dare increase power while it's covered since I've already detroyed 3 M6s with just stock power--4 more years of coverage on that...
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Thank you for the video, good work. Looking forward to the Stage 2, if it ever comes in...
Glad it's not just me
If the mopar extended warranty would cover it I would go for it--but with the M6 I don't dare increase power while it's covered since I've already detroyed 3 M6s with just stock power--4 more years of coverage on that...
I read somewhere they are already pushing it to the limit of 6M with the factory Hellcat’s torque.
All I know is that when I had my SRT-4 neon back in the day with stage 3R with toys, it was the best thing ever. Car ran like a champ with no issues and was reliable. They engineered the car and no one is ever gonna understand it like them. All for the stages even if they don’t outperform aftermarket. Your not only paying for horsepower, your paying for real R&D.
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I don't even care about the warranty I just want the kits but that seems impossible for me to get here on the northeast. Maybe I'm looking to soon hoping I can get it done by July and still get some use out of it this summer
Hey GSC where exactly are you located? I’m in central CT. I’m getting my pre stage and stage 2 kits installed on 06-01-23 at Branhaven in Branford, CT. I’ll be the 3rd one they do so hopefully no issues. I ordered everything on 04-19-23, all the parts are in including the extra gaskets.
Thank you for the video, good work. Looking forward to the Stage 2, if it ever comes in...
Glad to do it, on the bright side hopefully they'll have the bugs worked out by then, not that it's a big deal but would be cool to see the 885 hp lit up 😁
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Tech tip. HO will not engage w/ a CEL on. I have had a phantom CEL since day one when doing laps. Never while driving. However, it's been looked over many times by the dealer, and nothing found. Dealer said as long as it's this code don't worry about it. 160+ passes later, it doesn't bother me. It just did today.....

The light didn't come on until after the burnout, so I really didn't have time to clear it. It still ran fine, but in 91/93 mode.

Will cover the rest of my testing later.
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Great review Ron!
Thanks, it was very interesting just wanted to be sure I didn't waste my money and if so that nobody else did.

I'm still blown away that Josh at HHP did all the Dyno work for free, that's just above and beyond awesome.
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Thanks for the video!! Great content.
Thanks for the video and the pros and cons. I was just talking to buddy about that yesterday and I was on the fence of the stage two kits or just going to a tuner , and kept going back and forth between resale if that ever happened and retaining the value with direct connect dealer installed type options. I have a 2020 redeye with 7600 miles on it and most of me doesn’t want to decrease the value nor hurt the warranty. I’m def not a purist but with these cars , in my opinion and the value of them already would be crazy not to go with what’s offered by dodge.
do have a question, what’s your opinion on resale value if you did get an extra tune from and outside vendor on top of the stage kits? Wouldn’t that maje the value go down a little by using any outside vendor to break into the computer or other work ?
Thanks for the video and the pros and cons. I was just talking to buddy about that yesterday and I was on the fence of the stage two kits or just going to a tuner , and kept going back and forth between resale if that ever happened and retaining the value with direct connect dealer installed type options. I have a 2020 redeye with 7600 miles on it and most of me doesn’t want to decrease the value nor hurt the warranty. I’m def not a purist but with these cars , in my opinion and the value of them already would be crazy not to go with what’s offered by dodge.
do have a question, what’s your opinion on resale value if you did get an extra tune from and outside vendor on top of the stage kits? Wouldn’t that maje the value go down a little by using any outside vendor to break into the computer or other work ?
You're most welcome was a lot of work but a lot of fun doing it.

If your going to get aftermarket tune I wouldn't spend the money on the stage kits for 2 reasons, 1 it's cheaper and you'll get more out of it by going the aftermarket way initially and 2 if you do it afterwards there's no way of hiding it (P1400 code) so it defeats the main reason for doing the stage kits in the first place.

Conversely if in the long run the stage kits are a drag on the cars value, though no idea why they would be, you can undo it and nobody will be able to tell.
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In the long run a unmodified car will always net you a higher resale than a modded one. Now what that resale value will be in the long-term who knows.

In my case I don't care about that my main reason for going this route was the ability to run 10.0 index, to get away from the junkers in bracket racing, and not have to work on the car if something breaks, again that is very dealer dependent make sure you get confirmation beforehand and a witness 😁.
You're most welcome was a lot of work but a lot of fun doing it.

If your going to get aftermarket tune I wouldn't spend the money on the stage kits for 2 reasons, 1 it's cheaper and you'll get more out of it by going the aftermarket way initially and 2 if you do it afterwards there's no way of hiding it (P1400 code) so it defeats the main reason for doing the stage kits in the first place.

Conversely if in the long run the stage kits are a drag on the cars value, though no idea why they would be, you can undo it and nobody will be able to tell.
Ok, I’m an older guy so I probably articulated wrong - when see say it throws the code P1400 code? Does the stage kit throw it or after market tune?

and as far as the stage kits, I would presume they wouldn’t take away value but maybe even give it more because it is an mopar option instead of third party . I was thinking that was kind of what you were getting by your original post but I’m could have read it wrong.

I guess I’m trying to get a better idea of which way to go
In the long run a unmodified car will always net you a higher resale than a modded one. Now what that resale value will be in the long-term who knows.

In my case I don't care about that my main reason for going this route was the ability to run 10.0 index, to get away from the junkers in bracket racing, and not have to work on the car if something breaks, again that is very dealer dependent make sure you get confirmation beforehand and a witness 😁.
That makes sense. It seems by what I’ve seen, every dealer is charging different prices which seems sketchy to me. I live in South Carolina so my closest power broker is in NC at Hendricks. But not far from them and MXA acceleration .
Ok, I’m an older guy so I probably articulated wrong - when see say it throws the code P1400 code? Does the stage kit throw it or after market tune?

and as far as the stage kits, I would presume they wouldn’t take away value but maybe even give it more because it is an mopar option instead of third party . I was thinking that was kind of what you were getting by your original post but I’m could have read it wrong.

I guess I’m trying to get a better idea of which way to go
The DC kits and tunes are installed using Dodges factory PCM unlock codes so there's no P1400 code, aftermarket tunes have to "crack" the PCM to unlock it which is unauthorized and results in P1400 code.

The value part is subjective is all I'm saying to me it does add, to someone else it may not.
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Great review. And props for doing that all in one take; you're better than many youtubers out there who have to splice their videos together in shots because they keep F'n up.....
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