birdmann

I was actually thinking about boosting my heep after I rebuild the motor. ford injectors and a mega squirt, custom log style manifold, water to air and a t3/t4 hybrid running on like ten pounds. lotsa $$$ though.

nopi

so regearing is better than the turbo setup i was thinking about......by what you all say..

Grip

if you really want a low boost turbo setup, go for it. its not as hard as everyone is making it out to be. google some of the keywords i posted on the 1st page.

i have put together a few turbo motors made to handle gobs of boost, and make lots of useless power.

piecing together a budget friendly, low boost setup is super easy, and about as much work as a real lift kit. there is some fabrication on the exhaust manifold side, a little wiring, and you will need to run an oil feed, and return line. you can buy a small, universal intercooler, and an intercooler pipe kit to help you put together a small intercooler to keep the cold side cooler.

megasquirt would be your best bet for fuel management on a DIY setup, or you could run a air fuel piggy back controller made by apexi, and i think AEM makes one too.

get a wideband, to keep AF ratios in check when tuning.

here is the mustang i put together in my garage last summer. No expense was spared on this build, i have pics of every single part inside the motor, as well as a documented build sheet.Oh and i didn't use any cheap *** throttle body spacer type parts that do nothing, or spectre (pepboys brand) cone air filters.


1st and 2nd pic show the stock heads that died on the dyno at 422whp/370tq, and lifted due to boost causing a headgasket leak. 2 weeks later AFR heads were thrown at it, as well as a jegs box intake manifold to gain torque back before a retune making 583whp/579tq on 110 octane, at 9psi. the car was later retuned for 9psi on 93 ocatane due to 93 octane being way easier to obtain for a daily driver during the summer. it made 552whp/543tq after the 93 octane tune.

jblack'00xj

A turbo setup would legit fun for a garage project on a XJ imo. Lots of room and fairly simple set ups. But Im in engineering so I like that kinda stuff. Ive wanted to boost my BMW for years now but after getting my XJ, between the 2 whips, snowboarding, and guns the only money going to the BMW is for basic maintenance and up keep..


But back on topic. Heres one thing Ive hit a speed bump on, in a lowrider: For an intercooled system. Where would you put the intercooler? Its pretty tight space infront of the A/C cooler and I feel like another huge a$$ cooler infront of that might not be too conducive to our already poorly ventilated motors. And you cant mount it lower, behind the bumper like on cars because it might get damaged.

Food for thought. what do yall propose?

Grip

ditch the AC to make room for the snail, and intercooler piping, mount the intercooler in front of the radiator.

for a low boost setup, you dont need a massive intercooler maybe 30" long, 3" wide, and 10" tall

jblack'00xj

No A/C?! Man you crazy. Its the south rolling your windows down only gets you so far come july and august. lol

Grip

then keep the a/c and run a small sidemount intercooler that blocks half of the ac condensor. there are always options, but a sidemount will make you be more creative with how you run your pipes.

1988cherokee

is that a hellion kit? That looks like the same setup I put on a friends car with a 331 r block motor. Oh and by the way GRIP thanks for finally posting some usefull info to help out the OP

Gee oh Dee

The exhaust manifold is on the opposite side as the ac compressor. That will be fun.

Megasquirt isn't plug and play, and is above the level of most DIYer guys doing it in their drive way. It would be a time consuming process. More fun, still.

Anything put in front for the radiator on a boosted XJ will destroy its cooling ability. Even more FUN!


Its really not easy to hack together an efficiently working Turbo setup. Key word being efficient.

It would be a blast, and its possible, but not easy...or cheap.

Grip

You are wrong, it is easy, and cheap. Just takes common sense, and a basic understanding of turbo's, plus a little research.

Reread everything i posted. I gave options. He can use megasquirt, or a piggy back afc. Look at the 306ci engine on the stand in the pic i posted. The turbo is connected to both exhaust manifolds, but is on the passanger side. You can, and should do the same on a 4.0L because it would be stupid to create alot more heat under the intake manifold.

As for intercoolers, i also gave options. The mustang, and my rx7 both create way more heat than a 4.0L, both of those cars make alot more power, and both cars run full size intercoolers infront of the radiator. The rx7 has ac too.

The bottom line is that there are options, and for a low budget, low boost game plan. It can be easily done except for the exhaust manifold fabrication (which in reality isnt that hard at all compared to putting a real lift kit on an XJ)

jblack'00xj

Yea but a moostang and rx7 dont have coffins for engine bays.. The tight fitting, poorly ventilated design of the cherokee engine bay doesnt necessarily allow for the "ease" you that you've experienced in other applications. Basic turbo might be an "easy" set up for you, or so you think. But the dynamics specific for a XJ make it a bit tricky. Gee oh Dee does make a valid point as did I with being hesitant with a front mount intercooler. For a cheap, low boost, non intensive set up you're theory of a small intercooler might work. But that could be contradicting to what we are pushing for: Do it right, do it big.

I say if you're as capable with turbos as you claim, start a XJ turbo build and help us work out the kinks lol.

Gee oh Dee

I can already tell you haven't spent much time under the hood of an XJ.

Good luck getting the piping routed to the passenger side.

I hope you try this.

1988cherokee

To get it to the passenger side you would have to run the pipe like the factory exhaust under the trans then up the side of the block it can be done with thought full planning

Gee oh Dee

You mean right by the starter? Then where would the exhaust go after the turbo?

1988cherokee

something like this would work