Welcome to the forum.

Seen some guys that claim to have added power to the 3.6 l but after a few posts, they left to never came back again.

Doubt more power is needed but, someone here may have some answers for you.

Good luck!

 

Your old 2007 van apparently had a 3.8 liter V6; a well regarded engine with good longevity and good economy for the 1990s and early 2000s. That said, it was an old design with only two valves per cylinder, a single cam in the valley between the cylinders, and pushrods actuating rocker arms which in turn actuated the aforementioned valves. The 3.6 is a 4-valve per cylinder/ double overhead cam design which has roughly 40% more horsepower and 10% more torque, in spite if the fact it is a smaller displacement. Said another way, not at all surprising your new van is quicker even though the new vans weighs almost 600 pounds more (imagine how quick your 2007 would have been with the 3.6 liter engine).

As for adding more power, I rather doubt there is all that much you can do, Chrysler has done a very good job of optimizing your engine for good mid-range torque.

 

Performance mods.

Hello Les here. As per above. Not much can be done to wring any substantial performance out of the engine. Any exhaust or intake mods that may be available from companies like K&N or Magna Flow etc only really make a difference at high rpms and costs are high. Typical performance gains could be as low as 5 bhp. One thing I have done is to run a K&N air filter in all my vehicles. Buy once and it will serve for the life of the vehicle. What I have tried is an old performance trick that is free. Remove the air intake box that houses the filter. Remove any baffles etc that would slow air movement into the throttle body. Kind of like porting and polishing an intake manifold. On the bottom of the box pre filter side drill two or three 3/4 inch holes to help increase air flow. Make sure that they are positioned so as not to pick up water or road debris. Get a hot glue gun and glue some fiberglass window bug screen over the holes on the outside. This made a difference on my 2005 with the 3.3. Be aware that more intake noise will be noticeable.

 

Any exhaust or intake mods that may be available from companies like K&N or Magna Flow etc only really make a difference at high rpms and costs are high. Typical performance gains could be as low as 5 bhp. One thing I have done is to run a K&N air filter in all my vehicles. Buy once and it will serve for the life of the vehicle. What I have tried is an old performance trick that is free. Remove the air intake box that houses the filter. Remove any baffles etc that would slow air movement into the throttle body. Kind of like porting and polishing an intake manifold. On the bottom of the box pre filter side drill two or three 3/4 inch holes to help increase air flow. Make sure that they are positioned so as not to pick up water or road debris. Get a hot glue gun and glue some fiberglass window bug screen over the holes on the outside. This made a difference on my 2005 with the 3.3. Be aware that more intake noise will be noticeable.

Think those K&N filters are just a waste of money on modern engines. Worked fine on carbureted engines but not on modern engines.

 

The big difference in power is the variable valve timing, which lets the computer adjust cam timing using hydraulic power to keep the engine producing the most torque in low-midrange and then overlap the valve timing at higher RPM for more horsepower at higher engine speeds. I loved the feel when we had a 5th gen, with the 6 speed transmission.

I've had 3.8s in my 3rd and now my 4th gen vans. My 3rd gen felt like it had more low-end torque than my 4th gen, even though it has less peak horsepower (3rd gen 185hp compared to 4th gen 215hp). I wish the engineers would have made a variable length intake plenum for the 4th gen engine.

To add power, the exhaust can be tuned (bigger piping, or an electric exhaust cutout in the front to route exhaust to a freer-flowing, louder system on the highway). I think there is a 3.6 supercharger available too. My favorite way for more power is to reduce the weight by removing the seats, but you can't do that with stow-and-go.

 

There are larger throttle bodies out there, but no real need for them until other mods are done. There might be cams. There are high flow cars. A tune will need to be custom.

For dress up, some SRT wheels are nice. Some blacking out to your taste. You already have black bezel headlights, but there are versions available with clear corner lenses and/or smoked outer lenses.

 

Not sure if this will add some horses but, if you have money to spend:

https://www.prodigyperformance.com/blog/36-pentastar-performance-upgrades.html


Think this is more appropriate for Jeep enthusiasts, which we don't have here.

 

As levy said, a K7N wont buy you much on an FI engine, and I have yet to see a supercharger system for a transverse mounted pentastar, but there are a few turbo options out there that could be adapted and are tried and true in the jeep world (this is the direction I am getting ready to go after the first of the year).
As far as the performance difference,
1. like shipo said, by design the 3.6 will make more power....but there is a lot of difference in how the power feel when you go from pushrod to DOHC....as much as I love my gen5, there are times on the freeway where I miss the rolling torque curve of the old 3.8...the 3.6 has more punch, and there are a few rolling hills on part of my daily route where I keep the cruise set at 75..in both vans that is/was just shy of 2k...with the 3.8 it would always pull it in overdrive, in the gen5 it drops to fifth....and if it grabs 4th, the fun really starts.
2. The transmission - you've got 6-speeds vs the old 4...1st is a lot lower which gets the weight moving very easy, and the spacing between the rest of the gears is really tight to keep it all on tap...

keep in mind, when you compare the performance of the two motors the designs make a big difference...the 3.8s could pull decent up to about 4500 RPM where they got winded and the real sweet spot was the 3k to 4500...with the DOHC and VVT, the pull starts at 4500 and runs to 6k....you gotta flog it a bit, and when you do it does proves it will hold its own.

 

Thanks!

It makes sense that the newer and more modern engine design is zippier. My old 2007 3.8 would really struggle to pass on the highway, whereas my 3.6 in the R/T just leaps past.