Intake upgrades

[gw204]

Well fellas, I think I already know the answer to this but just need some reassurance before I drop the cash.

I'm going to begin the mods to my '00 XJ. Nothing too serious. The Jeeps main purpose is towing my boat and I have all the "necessaries" already planned.

What I'm looking for is a little extra giddy up. I'll be starting w/ the intake and moving quickly to the exhaust, but I'm leaving that out of the picture for right now. That will happen as soon as I sell my '88.

I'm going to be installing some sort of open air filter system. What I have in mind are (most to least expensive) the K&N FIPK Gen 2, a Rusty's air tube w/ K&N or a homebrew tube w/ K&N. All will get heat shields. I don't like where the Turbo City Rock-It tube puts the filter so please don't suggest that, if anyone is using it. What I'm not sure is justifiable, it whether or not the K&N kit provides enough additional benefit over using the stock tube w/ and adapter and open element filter to cost almost $200 more. My gut tells me no way. What have your experiences been?

I also plan to bore out the TB and install a spacer? Any suggestions for spacer vendors, I had Rusty's in mind, or is this another item easily made. I'm coinfident I have the skills to do it, but right now time is the limiting factor. It might be worth paying the $$$ just to get it here quicker.

Any other suggestions are welcome. Thanks. So far, the XJ is completely stock.

I also have a BB I bought for the old XJ that I never got around to installing. Been kicking around the idea of putting it on the '00 and getting 30" tires. Could I make up the lost torque and HP w/ bolt on's instead of opening up the axles so I wouldn't kill my towing capacity? Gears is something I don't really want to do and would be just as happy w/ 235s at stock height as 30s at 2" up. Well, almost... :)

Brian

[CW]

make yourself too but they may or may not actualy do anything. You can relocate your IAT for an additional 1-2HP too. If you still think you need more power but don't want to do gears or internal engine work you can find a set of axles at a junkyard from a 4 banger. They have 4.10's and if you can find them for less than a set of gears most of the time. Check out Dinos site for more info. (http://www.jeep4.0performance.4mg.com)

[Gojeep]

As for the spacer and the t/b boring it is easy to do it yourself. I have the info on my site if you want to check them out. At least this is something you can do to your 00 that couldn't be done on the old 88. At least you already have the much better inlet manifold which I want to add to my 95!

[juicexj24]

http://www.xj-armor.com/

This site has some great parts for the intake, and bored throttle bodys as well as other stuff. The guy who owns it is Steve. Great to deal with. I got the throttle body for my 88, 175.00 for a replacement Renix bored out. But his air tube will work for your XJ. Juice

[TOZOVR]

First let me say that I have a bored TB, a snorkel and a bored spacer...and there really is not a lot to be gained in the XJ's intake tract. Until you've modded the internals seriously, it's just extraneous IMHO.

You will gain a little throttle response and a few HP, but not anything near many companies advertised gains.

[Speed_racer]

IMO taking out the AFR is the cheapest *free* bit of added airflow related performance possible!

[2xtreme]

As far as intakes go, I would agree that none of the above will make a substantial difference but they will all help and should provide some better throttle response. My opinion is that the K&N kit 2 is way too much money, Rusty's is ok if you have no time or fab skills. But making your own is a very simple and inexpensive alternative. I would buy the largest K&N you can fit in what ever location you decide (I personally would put it on the pass side of the compartment just to provide more room for a second battery and provide cooler air).

Exhaust will probably provide more benefit than intake, but once the exhaust system is done you should also see more benefit from the intake changes also.

Michael

[rav]

have you thought about the ASE chips, they claim a dyno proven 16HP increase, too bad they dont have anything for my 88 but they certainly do make one for your application. The only thing that would deter some guys from it is that you have to send your ECU to them.

http://www.asechips.com/

Ravi

[REDXJ4FUN]

I personaly stay away from chips unless you need them to help compinsate for other mods. Deffinatly do an airfilter kit of some sort. I have made ,many of them out of 3in stainless steel tubing and i always use a shielded K@N filter like you see on the ricers.the board out TB works realy well too but if i recall the intake you have realy wount gain anything from a spacer since DC already added to the intake after seeing how it helps. that and a cat back set up from jegs or summit for 80 bucks or soo and it should have some nice power for liittle work.

[TOZOVR]

The 4.0 we all drive is very close to bing optimized right from the factory. you can eek a bit more out of it before opening it up, but not much...

I rode in Joe attardo's 1989 with a cam and some minor bolt ons and it was impressive...I think the cam made a substantial improvement.