Turbo 2.5

[StG58]

I was searching for HP - Torque charts for another thread on here and ran across a discussion about a turbocharged Jeep 2.5 liter. Interesting stuff to read about, but probably not all that practical or useful in the grand scheme of things. For a mere $5,500 or so you can have a TJ that puts down a whopping 170 HP and 200 Ft pounds torque to the rear wheels. That's only slightly more than the stock 4.0.

Despite Frank's woes with @Stinger, you're still better off with a Chevy V8 swap.

 

[Chris]

For $5500 I'd just save up some extra and do a V8 swap. That's way too much money for not that much of a power gain.

 

[StG58]

For $5500 I'd just save up some extra and do a V8 swap. That's way too much money for not that much of a power gain.

That's what I thought. Plus, who wants a TJ that sounds like a WRX? Zoom...pop, zoom...pop.

 

[Chris]

That's what I thought. Plus, who wants a TJ that sounds like a WRX? Zoom...pop, zoom...pop.

No one, haha.

And we'd have to get @Stinger to give us a rough idea of total cost, but I suspect for about 10k you could get a V8 swap done. So it's about double the price, but the end result would be 5 times better than a 2.5 Turbo (aka WRX, haha).

 

[Chris]

Now on the other hand, $2500 for a bolt-on supercharger kit for the 4.0 isn't nearly as bad. That's much more realistic in terms of bang for the buck ratio.

 

[Ahoragi]

I'd rather swap in the 4.0 and supercharge that. IIRC Blaine did it to a 4.0 and it sounded like it was worth the work/$$.

 

[StG58]

I'm keeping the 2.5 I have the way it is. I have never intended to modify it or swap it out. I did find it interesting that someone actually did do a custom turbo setup on a 2.5 though, and thought I'd share the results.

 

[Stinger]

I was searching for HP - Torque charts for another thread on here and ran across a discussion about a turbocharged Jeep 2.5 liter. Interesting stuff to read about, but probably not all that practical or useful in the grand scheme of things. For a mere $5,500 or so you can have a TJ that puts down a whopping 170 HP and 200 Ft pounds torque to the rear wheels. That's only slightly more than the stock 4.0.

Despite Frank's woes with @Stinger, you're still better off with a Chevy V8 swap.

I learned enough that I won't have those woes on the next one!
I is really hard for me to give an estimate based on what I did because it was SO MUCH MORE than just a V8 swap. However, just a swap should run in the neighborhood of 8-9k. Depending on acquision of the drivetrain and the swapper doing all of their own work.

 

[Chris]

I learned enough that I won't have those woes on the next one!
I is really hard for me to give an estimate based on what I did because it was SO MUCH MORE than just a V8 swap. However, just a swap should run in the neighborhood of 8-9k. Depending on acquision of the drivetrain and the swapper doing all of their own work.

I was thinking 10k, so that sounds about right. My thought was purchasing an entire donor vehicle and doing 90% of the work myself.

 

[Stinger]

I was thinking 10k, so that sounds about right. My thought was purchasing an entire donor vehicle and doing 90% of the work myself.

Chris I bought my donor from a auction via carparts. It was a 2012 Chevy 2500HD 4x4. It was a fleet truck that was wrecked in the Wyoming oil fields. I looked for several months for a late model Hemi powered vehicle and bid on several. However I set a budget of 5k for a donor and would not exceed it. NO late model Hemi powered anything for that price. So I started looking into the Chevy arena. Tons of relatively cheap after market support and many completed swaps documented in several web sites made my choice simple.
Selling my 4.0 and 6 speed, plus almost all of the donor truck cut my expenses down tremendously. What I didn't count on was that the truck was so new that few people needed the replacement parts I had to offer. Took forever to unload some stuff.
As far as Stinger having a lot of problems-—-I post a bunch of things to help others gathering information. I don't mind sharing my experiences. Now I have almost 10,000 miles and a week in Colorado and two trips to Moab along with a lot of exploring trips on the rig I can say I would not hesitate to do it again and I love what I have got now! Just FYI.

 

[StG58]

I've heard a lot of good things about the Chevy V8 swaps into various jeeps. Most of them turn out reasonably well, if planned properly and the work is done with any kind of craftsmanship. Heck, I stuffed 400 small block into a Vega one time and it was a total riot for what it was. I appreciate your sharing your experience with your swap, Frank. Stinger turned out nice.

 

[Chris]

A Chevy V8 is just about as reliable as they come too!

When it comes time to do my swap, I'm going to do a Chevy V8. We'd all love a Hemi, but personally I think parts availability (and reliability) for the Chevy V8 would probably be a bit better.