In need of a little more power

Joined
Sep 21, 2022
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65
Location
Tennessee
At first I was fine with being slow I knew what I was expecting with a lift and 33s but I didn’t expect a dodge caravan passing me like it was nothin so I’m on a mission to give my tj some more power I’ve been spending lots of money on it recently this will just have to be another thing. My tj has a 4.0 and it’s an auto
 
36 hole injectors will get you another 30 H.P. but you need a cold air intake system to get the most out of it ! another thing most people don't believe is long seat bolts will really improve your H.P. ! get 1 1/2 in longer seat bolts and leave the front one's just started in the hole and take it for a ride, you'll swear you just added 100 H.P.
 
if your buddies start complaining about how slow your JEEP is. remove the front track bar and take them for a ride and I bet about the time you hit 30MPH their begging you to slow down ! then tell them their a bunch of pussies ! :ROFLMAO:
 
if I’m saying too much please forgive me but I was 17 once and it really wasn’t pretty-

At that age you want things to go fast , you want them to look good and you don’t have enough money to even hardly pay attention-

If it is the later model transmission you can make the overdrive turn itself off when you put it in gear

Otherwise don’t waste a lot of money trying to get a little more out of it all you’re going to do is get very little gain for the investment.
 
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I reckon you’re probably right I’m sure there’s plenty of things I can buy instead that’ll help me out on the trail instead anyhow

I get it dude, I'm 18 and I got the 4 little squirrels (2.5l) under my hood, I've had it for over 3 years now and eventually you'll except the speed and just learn to account for it. In the 3 years the only thing I've done to try to make it drive faster is regear and I just did that 3 days ago. They aren't fast but at the same time I know it kept me out of plenty of trouble, I have a lead foot. If you seriously need more power, regear and if that's still not enough do forced induction and or a stroker. None of those are cheap by any means but they are the ones you will get results from. Another thing to take into consideration is how you build your jeep, you mentioned putting the money into mods that will support it better offroad, when it comes down to choosing your parts, try to avoid steel where you can, it'll cost more for sure but it will bog your jeep down even more if you throw every heavy good looking part you can find on it. Again, I say this because I am in the process of making mine into a better daily driver which means I am taking off half of the heavy steel parts that I originally put on for the lighter aluminum variants.
 
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I reckon you’re probably right I’m sure there’s plenty of things I can buy instead that’ll help me out on the trail instead anyhow

Getting home means more than getting anywhere fast-

Hang in there buddy-

I would love to tell every young person in the world this-

Enjoy being the age you are, Have a good time. At the same time don’t get so caught up in that you screw up your life.

Don’t rush through your teenage years you will look back at them as some of the best times in your life- But don’t try to make them last until you are 30- Life has a lot of good things for you and good things don’t always come to those that wait, they come to those that prepare and work for it and reach for it.

Don’t let the pressure of not knowing what you want to do or how to handle everything get to you- You’re already taking care of a vehicle and showing responsibility and doing that with everything that you need to do will take you about as far as you need to go.
 
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36 hole injectors will get you another 30 H.P. but you need a cold air intake system to get the most out of it ! another thing most people don't believe is long seat bolts will really improve your H.P. ! get 1 1/2 in longer seat bolts and leave the front one's just started in the hole and take it for a ride, you'll swear you just added 100 H.P.
@SolarYellowshortbuss please ignore every word of the above which was not intended seriously. 🤣

Regearing your axles to the correct ratio will totally restore the power lost due to the 33" tires. Since you have the 42RLE 4-speed automatic transmission, assuming it's a 2003 or newer, you need a lower axle ratio than would normally be used with a manual transmission or the older 3-speed automatic. 5.13 is my recommendation for 33's which will be perfect both on the highway and offroad.

If you do happen to have a 2002 X, that means you have the 3-speed 32RH automatic transmission which went away in 2003. The proper gearing choice with the 3-speed automatic for 33" tires would be 4.10. Though if you have plans to eventually install 35" tires I'd regear to 4.56. Regearing is too expensive to do twice for a minor tire size change like from 33 to 35".
 
@SolarYellowshortbuss please ignore every word of the above which was not intended seriously. 🤣

Regearing your axles to the correct ratio will totally restore the power lost due to the 33" tires. Since you have the 42RLE 4-speed automatic transmission, assuming it's a 2003 or newer, you need a lower axle ratio than would normally be used with a manual transmission or the older 3-speed automatic. 5.13 is my recommendation for 33's which will be perfect both on the highway and offroad.

If you do happen to have a 2002 X, that means you have the 3-speed 32RH automatic transmission which went away in 2003. The proper gearing choice with the 3-speed automatic for 33" tires would be 4.10. Though if you have plans to eventually install 35" tires I'd regear to 4.56. Regearing is too expensive to do twice for a minor tire size change like from 33 to 35".

I do reckon the rehearing would be the best options for me cause that completely slipped my mind when thinking about power I had plants to regear but never got around to it
 
Never had a stroker and I wouldn’t run a supercharger again. The only thing I would do to the 4.0 would either be a stroker or a turbo short of an engine swap.

Man i thought you loved the thing, what was wrong with the supercharge? I've been thinking about a supercharger in my build plan...
 
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I reckon you’re probably right I’m sure there’s plenty of things I can buy instead that’ll help me out on the trail instead anyhow

there you go Jeep's weren't designed to even be remotely fast, but they were made to go places other vehicles wont go. like Jerry said a regear is really your only option other than a engine swap, It all takes money and I know at 17 I didn't have much.
 
I do reckon the rehearing would be the best options for me cause that completely slipped my mind when thinking about power I had plants to regear but never got around to it

What is your current gear ratio? (and which transmission)

Personally, I'd recommend against searching for more power. There is no easy or cheap way to add power to our old Jeeps. A cheap fart-can muffler and cold air intake won't do anything significant for you. Gear it correctly and accept the fact that a Jeep is not a tuner/sports/muscle car. Buy one of those for spirited driving, keep the Jeep for "Jeep stuff".
 
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Man i thought you loved the thing, what was wrong with the supercharge? I've been thinking about a supercharger in my build plan...

There is simply no good supercharger kit out there for the TJ. The Boosted Tech setup is a piece of garbage. You get a bit more power but it’s an outdated unit, has no intercooler, isn’t very efficient, and doesn’t come with anything close to a decent tuning solution.

The Magnum Powers setup is nice, but it’s far from a bolt-on “kit” and will take lots of time, effort, and money to get it working right.

The Sprintex is an inefficient unit that again lacks good tuning and am I get cooler.

Superchargers in general can’t come close to a well designed turbo setup. They take a good amount of engine HP just to turn them. Turbos don’t suffer from that problem.
 
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There is simply no good supercharger kit out there for the TJ. The Boosted Tech setup is a piece of garbage. You get a bit more power but it’s an outdated unit, has no intercooler, isn’t very efficient, and doesn’t come with anything close to a decent tuning solution.

The Magnum Powers setup is nice, but it’s far from a bolt-on “kit” and will take lots of time, effort, and money to get it working right.

The Sprintex is an inefficient unit that again lacks good tuning and am I get cooler.

Superchargers in general can’t come close to a well designed turbo setup. They take a good amount of engine HP just to turn them.

Does anyone make a quality bolt-on turbo kit?