The 350 is a nice motor to start with. Not to mention the steel roller cam. A stock chevy 350 puts out 230HP, and a true 207ft/lbs at peak. Thats not much gain from a engine swap, the L6 will put out almost as much as that, stock.

 

and weighs a good chunk less, and requires no work...

 

Exactly, the gains are minimal, and for the price tag, arent worth it. Now, if you said a 350 with a hotter Cam, Aluminum Heads, a efficient Flowing Induction System, and it was stroked to 3.83", than it would be a good upgrade. But the torque/hp will not be very noticeable due to the weight and minimal power change.

 

good points for sure but it also depends on what your doin with it crawlin...thats plenty and muddin id go more but thats me!

 

Sure its plenty, for almost any offroad application, but why drop the money on something thats barely an upgrade.

 

.............Back to cheap bolt in power.
I put a electric Taurus fan in mine. the viscus clutches rob any where from 2-5hp depending who you believe.
need a drill, angle grinder, and pop rivet gun in the way of tools.
http://www.go.jeep-xj.info/HowtoTaurusFanInstall1.htm
works grate.
There is also the late modle intake upgrade. However the guys with OBD1 91-95 seem to be happiest with it, as a couple of guys with 96+ were not that impressed.
The write up has a dyno chart on it as well.
http://www.go.jeep-xj.info/HowtoIntakeManifold1.htm

post 2000 TJ's had the same intake manifold.

I would not bother with the intake manifold until I had done the exhaust, 2.25/2.5 all the way through with headers and hiflow cat/muffler. ( or was going to do it at the same time. as the intake manifold has to come off when you put the headers on.)

 

Heres a 101 for you HorsePower guys.

"Torque is the only force actually measured when the car is on a dyno. It is what you FEEL when driving. It is the capability of an engine to TWIST the camshaft, thereby thrusting the car forward. Any given car, in any given gear, will accelerate at a rate that *exactly* matches its torque curve (allowing for increased air and rolling resistance as speeds climb). Another way of saying this is that a car will accelerate hardest at its torque peak in any given gear, and will not accelerate as hard below that peak, or above it.
Torque is the only thing that a driver feels, and horsepower is just sort of an esoteric measurement in that context. 300 foot pounds of torque will accelerate you just as hard at 2000 rpm as it would if you were making that torque at 4000 rpm in the same gear, yet, per the formula, the horsepower would be *double* at 4000 rpm. Therefore, horsepower isn’t particularly meaningful from a driver’s perspective, and the two numbers only get friendly at 5252 rpm, where horsepower and torque always come out the same.
In contrast to a torque curve (and the matching pushback into your seat), horsepower rises rapidly with rpm, especially when torque values are also climbing. Horsepower will continue to climb, however, until well past the torque peak, and will continue to rise as engine speed climbs, until the torque curve really begins to plummet, faster than engine rpm is rising. However, as I said, horsepower has nothing to do with what a driver *feels*."

 

actually it's the "crankshaft" not the "camshaft". cam controls the upper part of the engine.

 

it was a copy and paste, hence the " "

 

For the 4.0 there is no cheap hp unless you consider .5 to 1 hp a good hp upgrade (thus injector swap)Its all in what you say an upgrade is.Mine would be a 10 hp increase.All settled good.

 

Attachment 28532

 

weight of a 350 575lbs
weight of a 4.0L 515lbs
60 pounds of difference for a v8? i love my 4.0L great motor no doubt. but a v8 would be awesome. and for a 60 pound difference id do it. you wont notice it anyway. plus you factor in the the amount of weight for cage tires, wheels, dual cases, spare parts tools etc. your worried about weight with engine?! HA look at all the other stuff^^
hmmm aluminum heads are sexy 383 wouldnt be bad either. read what i said above with weight either way it wont matter with all the junk some rigs have on them. mine is 5700lbs dry. with no cage!
because we are men and like v8's!!! they also sound mean and are mean.
id rather do a 6.0L anyway so end of that coversation.

 

I have a fully built 346 ls1 camaro and it made ~450whp through a slipping automatic and stock throttle body. this being said it made about 400lbs of tq. HP is everything TQ is what you want in something that you want to go fast or hell even crawl. "TQ gets you going, HP keeps you going." Thats what my dad always told me. Now if you want a "Fast" car then buy a camaro, if you want a crawler then keep your jeep. Or if your like me you have a FAST car and need a daily driver to make it throught the winter. Get it running right, reliably, and safely then just rock it out with decent mileage. Most of the guys on here can vouch for this, with high power comes low gas mileage. And with any mods also comes with lower mileage aside from free flowing intake/exhaust, and even if you over do that it can be harmful. My camaro gets 9mpg on the highway. My jeep gets 22mpg in town STOCK to the core. Now alot of guys dont even pull that on the highway on this forum. Something to think about. How strapped are you? Can you afford mods? Do you want to go fast or do you want to go off roading?


Like i said if you buy a camaro you can have the best of both worlds :]


Oh and most mods arent worth the money. My build in my camaro cost me a total of about $20k after tuning time and it only made like 200whp over stock. But it rolls out. So you better have deep pockets if you want to start seriously modding stuff.

Two things that NEVER work well together is: CHEAP & HORSEPOWER

 

60lbs gains you how much horse power? @230 horse, that extra weight is enough to outweigh the gains. Ever heard of power to weight ratio?

I'm not saying a V8 would be bad. What I am saying is that for the V8 to be more than a conversation piece, it better have more power than an 18% power gain. Take into consideration the extra money you'd need to spend as well.

You wanna factor in the weight of a cage, tires, wheels, cases, parts/tools, but you don't take into consideration the extra weight the motor brings, and the lack of HP gain.

To really make it worth it, you'd have to spend plenty of cash. And at that point the means are starting to outweigh the end.

 

Big block chevy.

But, seriously...this thread keeps coming around and around and around. Everything I know of to make horsepower causes stress to engine components way out of proportion to the benefit.

If you want "power"...get 4.10's or 4.56's. It's cheap, easy, and won't destroy a perfectly good inline six cylinder motor that was never meant to do anything more than what it does...drag three thousand pounds of suv thru mud, snow, and whatnot.