dave1123

I wouldn't recommend it, not if it's your DD. You may wind up walking to work! Ask me how I know! Riding the bus sucks!

Willys55

spoken like a true lost soul, hardly useful advice

Cleman Simpson

I guess I missed the eleventh commandment. thou shalt only drive slow cars..
I am somewhat confused as to why nobody here tells folks to not jack up their jeeps and go tear up crap in the mud but then berate a guy for wanting to add ten or fifteen horses to his jeep so he can merge in traffic without getting run over?

Cleman Simpson

I guess I missed the eleventh commandment. thou shalt only drive slow cars..
I am somewhat confused as to why nobody here tells folks to not jack up their jeeps and go tear up crap in the mud but then berate a guy for wanting to add ten or fifteen horses to his jeep so he can merge in traffic without getting run over?

dave1123

Because running off-road or in the mud requires TORQUE and doesn't overtax the engine where horsepower tends to break things! When things get broken on jeeps, it's usually because of impacts with the suspension or body against obstacles you didn't watch out for.

Cleman Simpson

I mostly agree about the torque being better than horsepower in a jeep type vehicle, which is why my top recommendation was to lower gear ratios rather than soup up the engine, and or have the computer retuned to give more of a torque heavy performance profile if he wanted the increased power for off road.

Either way it is his vehicle and he didn't come here asking us to second guess his wisdom or intelligence or to give life counseling. If he wants a little more power I don't see a thing wrong with that, nor do I see it is anyones place to jump in here and start ragging on him for some minor modifications to HIS vehicle. Personally I prefer a minimum of 350 horses under the hood of my daily driver and if it ruffles somebody elses feathers well it aint none of their damn business how I spend my hard earned money.

dave1123

Oh, I hear you Cleman, I was young once! I've done my share of hotrodding and breaking thing. I guess I'm older and wiser now, needing a vehicle I can rely on. You are right! It's his vehicle and who are we to judge? I just remember standing out in the rain waiting for the bus and kicking myself! BUT, he asked for opinions.

Moco

Also, lets consider the fact that you're talking about bolting performance parts to a 230 hp motor (maybe 170 to the wheels) in a 4,000 lb, 4x4 vehicle, sporting truck tires, and going through a slushbox. On its best day, that thing may have produced a 17.XX second 1/4 mile. Speaking from a budgetary perspective, there is nothing 'low dollar' in the world that you can do short of pushing this thing off a cliff that will make it 'fast'. So you spend $1500 on exhaust, injectors, and whatever else on it and make it as fast as a base model automatic Kia? Yay, I guess?

Trying to make a Grand Cherokee 'fast' is like trying to play basketball in a business suit. It *can* be done, but why?

You might as well take that money and buy a $3-$4K fuel injected V8 camaro or Mustang and have a project car to make fast.

Cleman Simpson

Yep, trading it in for an older factory hemi equipped Grand Cherokee would probably be the most cost effective modification he could make. Then he would have way more power and a driveline designed to handle it. But like I said before it is his car and his money and he wasn't looking to build a NHRA dragster, he just wanted some inexpensive modifications to get a "LITTLE" more power.

Karmageddon

I have to say I agree with this statement. This exactly what I am looking for. Not that I don't have the money to do anything extravagant. I just don't want to with my DD.

munyanb

Ive been reading up on it more, check out hughes engines, they have tons of info and parts to choose from.
Get your air breather flowing easier, I found the inlet to be restrictive, theres supposed to be a dodge with a better throttle body adapter/cover I think, then there is a metal piece on top of the throttle body to hold the stud for the adapter. get rid of it and get a piece of all thread bent into an S shape in its place, Use a 185 or 180 thermostat, there is a sensor on the intake move it to a cooler location to trick the fuel system into more fuel, install an electric fan, make sure your down pipes are good and straight, no dents, may be a better down pipe you can buy, get a better Y pipe that isn't so turbulent, an aftermarket bigger diameter cat isn't very expensive, a slightly bigger better flowing tail pipe and muffler. I used a high flow cat, dynomax super turbo muffler , walker high flow tail pipe from amazon for less than 200 to my door. I'm not sure how much rocker arm kits cost these days but a little more lift in your cam helps.
Ive heard of dyno testing on the intake mod when you cut the runners down that says that mod loses power, although parts stores like to sell parts. There are adjustment to the throttle body that can be made to flow better, but I haven't found exacts on that yet. If you buy aftermarket parts, avoid the Chevy stores, they don't always research dodge much.
Eventually I will make a junkyard turbo or supercharger addition to a 5.2 or 5.9, but not on a jeep grand Cherokee, unless it were a 2wd , I would like to know more about the $500 supercharger mentioned earlier, ive heard of battery powered fans for induction, in fact a blower fan for a big SUV should blow a lot of cfm and not drain the battery like people say, if that were rigged into your air intake id think it would help. Other than that a nitrous fogger should be one of the cheaper power options, an air gap intake is a great first step, the cam can go up a good bit before the computer needs reprogrammed, and EQ or edelbrock heads. then you can do a bore, and pistons,

munyanb

I know of a grand Cherokee near Chattanooga that eats Camaros and ****s mustangs, It has a 5.2 without major mods or money put in it. Id be surprised if a stock grand Cherokee isn't in the 16's at least. Street performance and track testing in optimal conditions aren't really the same anyway. And now I feel like ramming a kia, lol
These are truck designed engines with torque in mind and they don't go after air flow so much, they can be made to flow for horsepower though.

munyanb

oh ive heard of using injectors from ford fusion that have the same opening volume but more holes, supposed to atomize the fuel better, I have not found it yet for sure that someone really tried it, I guess just check lots of specs on random other vehicles. and ive heard dodge people complain about the distributor , I guess aftermarket is supposed to be better. Go to dodge forums and check on what people are saying,

HP2

i think the crux of this is inexpensive and a few more ponies.

IMO, adding 5-10 hp isn't going to register on the butt dyno, yet you may be dropping a 2-4 hundred bucks for this improvement. If that falls within the realm of inexpensive and a few horses, than go after it. Air filter, intake spacers, injectors, headers can all be added for varying prices.

The Chrysler ECM is not easily hacked and reprogrommed, so you don't really have options there, although hand held tuners may be available. But, again, whats cheap for the return expected.

I wouldn't classify a gear change an inexpensive upgrade with the gears running $400 each and the install costing at least that much more.

I've got no beef about bumping up output of an engine, but the ability to make decent gains for fair money disappeared in the 1980s. Most vehicles built from then to now do not easily lend themselves to inexpensive upgrades and those upgrades tend to net less significant gains as the OEMs dialed in their combinations. In the quest to minimize emissions, a by product was more efficient engine operation. So shadetree modifications tend to produce lower returns than in decades past.