so, I will ask this question here because i know i will hear the truth. or at least data to argue with.

now most of these have come from moments when i find something that i want to find useful.
for instance those little metal Cyclone, or hurricane thingys people put in their intake tube. i saw one at a junk yard and didnt grab it cause i thought that it just CANT be DOING anything, especially anything noticeable.

what does a throttle body spacer do to create extra power.


Throttle Body boring? 2MM? seriously? by the time that 2MM made a difference, any real difference, do you realize how high the RPMs would be?


if i put these things that somehow make power AND save gas (<---oxymoron?) , while doing the Neon injector upgrade. maybe as far as a smooth tube, perhaps cold air, intake...k&n, Throttle body bore, etc.


is the fact that im using more fuel with those injectors going to be canceled out by "The Cyclone"? and make all this power.

i mean, i understand REAL power adders. boost, displacement, etc


i only ask because i stumble across things at the junk yard, and if i am missing out on some wealth of power, tell me. if so, im guessing i should make 50+ HP from...lets say....99+ intake, one of those ricer intakes to reduce parasitic drag, TB spacer, neon inj,"The Metal Thingy"

 

touche'

 

Neon injectors dont use more fuel, the spray the same amount of fuel, just out 4 holes instead of one, creating a better burn, and better fuel milage. Metal thingy would result in WORSE milage, due to the restriction in your intake. Cant comment on anything else.

 

The tornado's "metal thingies" you mention in my opinion are bs,they don't do anything worth bothering with.
The injector upgrade simply provides better fuel atomization due to a better spray pattern which leaves you with less wasted fuel,as already mentioned they don't spray more fuel, they just make better use of what is being sprayed.
The spacers are supposed to increase atomization also due to creating a vortex in the intake air stream,same as the tornado thing.I have never tried one so I dont really know if they work or are worth the money. I think you would have better luck with the spacer rather than the tornado.
I know you will ask whats the difference?? Well in my opinion the idea behind both are the same and sound however the difference is the distance they are from the actual intake of the engine.
If you think about it by the time the air from the tornado reaches the area of the intake where the fuel and air is mixed, any effects the tornado had on the air will have already been changed back to a normal (or close to it) stream of air because the device is too far away to control it.
The spacer however is as close as it possibly can be to where the fuel and air is mixed, giving it a much better chance of keeping control of the air and allowing it to mix better with the fuel.
That's my take on it any ways.I could be wrong.
Besides I thought it was better to have undisturbed airflow into the intake?Is that not the reason that most cold air intakes,turbos etc usually have smooth and strait as possible intake tubes?

 

Staff edit

I am down for doing all the upgrades in the world. Time and money permitting. But I think some of this stuff out there is a load of crap. I don't understand how it makes it to mass production scale.

 

I'm not sure about the Jeep spacers, but I know in the Mustang world they use a phonalic (sp?) spacer between the upper and lower to make the intake runners longer which helps with torque. I think that a spacer on the intake side of the of the TB also does something similar.

 

I watched a episode of horsepower TV or one of them on the fuel savers one time... the ones that attach on the fuel lines... the ones that attach to the spark plug wires... the tornado thing... throttle body spacers... stuff you put in the fuel itself... like 10 different things... none of them gained power on the dyno... its all abunch of crap... the stupid IAT sensor things on eBay are also false...

Bored throttle body and injectors are improvements in powers and injectors improve on gas mileage due to better atomization...

 

As with most "performace" parts such as cold air kit,exhaust etc. They move the power into a different range in the RPM band or make the best of whats already there like the injector upgrades which often time does equal more power but its usually very minor. Just My $.02

 

the only thing a TB spacer does is effectively increase the area of the intake plenum about 70cc, which may move the powerband a TAD down toward more power at lower revs. It's unlikely you'll notice a difference at all. The "cyclonic" effect they advertise is BS and completely useless - especially if you're talking about the ones that go in the actual intake tube itself.

Boring the throttle body is actually very effective on our vehicles. The stock TB necks down after the butterfly valve. By boring this area out to match the top of the TB and the intake hole below, it's no longer a bottleneck for the air. Some people take this a step further and get a even bigger bore and a bigger butterfly valve. This type of mod is only effective if you've made other modifications to the engine/exhaust (bigger injectors, stroking, headers, etc) to support the extra air intake.

You're also thinking about the power band the wrong way. Opening up the air intakes this was moves the power band lower, not higher. You lose some high RPM HP, but gain some low RPM HP/Torque.

As far as economy vs power. It's physically impossible to gain both. You either make mods to get better economy at the expense of power, or visa versa. You can't have the best of both worlds.

The injector upgrade does NOT increase power on it's own, but a lot of people see performance increases simply because the injectors are CLEAN vs the dirty stock ones they took out. The main benefit of doing this mod is the neon's are 4-hole injectors (vs the stock 1-hole), yielding better fuel atomization and better throttle response.

You didn't mention them, but i'd thought i'd add that "Power Chips" are completely useless on our engines.


Basically, the best thing you can do short of stoking the engine is to install the neon injectors to attain better throttle response, and install a FREE-FLOWING intake and exhaust system to boost the engine performance. Everything else is crap.

 

Also, the 1999-2001 intake swap onto a 1991-1995 4.0 has shown to yield about 15hp on the stock OBD-I 4.0L due to it flowing better and having more plenum area (changed to assist with power loss due to emissions restrictions).

 

True statement...

To me the only mods worth doing to a 4.0 is 99+ intake swap... 703's... bored TB... good ignition setup like msd... high flow cat with 2.5in pipe... stock header cause I think price to gain ratio for one is stupid... and that's about it... that includes a stroker kit or anything else extreme... just not worth it... if you need anything more then regear...

 

I disagree. A good free flowing intake/exhaust and a good ignition system that gets a more complete fuel burn will increase fuel economy and power. More complete fuel burn (which the Neon injectors help with as well) = less wasted fuel + more power pushing on the piston. Free flowing intake and exhaust = more air into the cylinder and better scavaging of burnt gases.

Just my $.02.

 

that makes some sense, but how much of an increase would you really see? The injector statement seems plausible as you're burning the fuel more efficiently. However i can't see the addition of more air to the engine increasing fuel economy since the ecu will increase the fuel supply to re-balance the system.

 

I don't think more air makes better gas Mileage... I think free flowing and cold air helps though...

 

I'll throw in my .02

Chrysler, Ford, Honda, etc spend millions of dollars and have thousands of highly educated engineers and have government mandated fleet gas mileage standards. If adding a $20.00 widget would net a measurable increase in mpg they would be installing them from the factory.

As my old room mate used to say, "it's tough to beat the engineers"

Also with any EFI motor if you don't have a full understanding of what effect the change you make is going to have on the EEC you may be adversely affecting the performance.

Sometimes you will here people say "take the thermostat out, the engine will run cooler and make more power" However (at least for ford EFI which I am most familiar with) if your engine doesn't reach 196.5 degrees it will not get into it's most efficient fuel curve so you will lose mpg and not get any performance increase. (now if you tweek the EEC that is whole different story)

As far as intakes, some times you have to modify them, in my xj I will have to remove the factory air box to make space for some things, but if I could I would leave it. Some people actually need a snorkel because they actually go through water, most of the time all a snorkel does increase the length of the air intake in a way that was never intended. It probably doesn't do any good or bad in most cases.

I am sorry my experience is mostly ford, but I had an EFI 460 in my bronco, four wheeler did a great write up on a bunch of stuff. If you have time here it is. (wow this article is 12 years old!)
http://www.performanceunlimited.com/...g/results.html

One of the interesting things is that there is a little restrictor in the factory intake, they found that if you take that out you get an increase in hp and a decrease in torque. Looking at the intake you think "why the hell did ford put that restriction in the air flow" Well somewhere some engineer realized that by adding that thing you would get more torque...

Anyway if something did improve mpg it would be installed by dealers not sold on late night tv.

Things that will improve performance the companies will have actual dyno results. (look at exhaust systems etc)

Things that someone did and they "feel a hp" increase probably didn't.

Nathan
99 cherokee only mod so far is gas props on the hood