Flashpaq/Exhaust/CAI?

[Pznivy]

Welcome Dr. Evil.

X3 on WEIGHT. Cutting weight is like adding horsepower. I love the mods on my jeep but if I could shave several hundred pounds off my truck it would be great (Ross you should start a weight saving thread. Let's have a JL weight loss contest!!). Save the cost of exhaust. Unless you can open up breathing from the heads back there aren't big gains to be had. I have an AFE CAI on my 3.6 pentastar. I didn't install it for HP or throttle response. I did it for sound.

The motor can only burn what it breathes. Like all of us you're at part throttle most of the time. In our case the tune will determine air/fuel and the TB will meter air flow which together create a charge for the cylinders and dictate horsepower. It's the same air flow wither you have a CAI or TB spacer or not. There's no getting around the throttle plate (if you do, then there's no getting around intake/exhaust valve size, which if you do there's no getting around bore & stroke, and so on and you can see where we're headed until there's no getting out of the doghouse when our wives figure out what we've spent).

Response can be improved with the CAI and TB spacer if that's the goal. The flashpaq program, if it has an aggressive timing table and air/fuel table, coupled with 93 octane fuel can certainly make a change. It can make a different mix of fuel for a given volume of air and adjust timing to ignite it a more efficient time.

^^^ This guy gets it.

Other forums are about heavy armor and huge pointless tires. At JeepLab, The attitude is. KEEP IT FAST!

Armor is pointless!

Avoid Steel anywhere you can!

Our jeeps are cars! A fast car beats a slow car every day of the week!

We don't want the trucks to be pigs and then say "hey its a jeep, performance cannot be good" That's crap! BB is a rocket. Sweet pea is a rocket. Jesse's Girl is a rocket. All putting down 0-60s as fast as a Supra Turbo. (supra did 5.5 in the nineties)

Have that AND climb anything? Thats the goal.

Rant over. (I hate heavy jeeps. can you tell?)

[Dr. Evil]

Our jeeps are cars!

Say that on Wrangler Forum and prepare to get SLAMMED!

[UselessPickles]

I vote "NO" on the throttle body spacer. I have not been able to find any evidence that they do anything at all for modern port-injected or direct-injected engines. The original theory behind throttle body spacers was to give more distance/time and/or create turbulence for the air/fuel mixture from the carburetter to mix more thoroughly before entering the cylinders. From what I've read online, this actually did improve performance on older carburetted engines with the carb/throttle body mounted directly on top of the engine with a small intake manifold.

The Pentastar has its throttle body mounted on a large intake plenum, then then has an intake runner going to each cylinder's intake port. The fuel injectors are in the lower intake manifold, inside each individual runner, very close to the intake ports. A throttle body spacer will have no impact on how the fuel mixes with the air, and will have very little impact on the volume of the intake plenum. The intake plenum itself is likely already acoustically tuned to enhance airflow at certain rpm ranges. A spacer could actually make things worse at those rpm ranges.

Some more reading material about throttle body spacers:
http://www.tundraheadquarters.com/bl...-body-spacers/


I've used a tuner (Diablosport) on a stock jeep, running the 93 octane performance tune. It definitely improved low/mid-rpm throttle response. I think a tuner is worthwhile especially if you also plan to change tire size and can take advantage of its speedometer calibration features.

I have not used a CAI, but the general consensus seems to be that the sound is the most significant change. If the sound makes you happy, and you don't splash through deep water, then go for it, but don't expect big performance gains.

I think all of these options (tuner, CAI, exhaust) more subtly enhance throttle response rather than significantly improving full throttle acceleration. If you like the noises they make, then the sounds combined with improved throttle response will overall make driving more enjoyable. Just don't try lining up against a mustang thinking you'll win

[Dr. Evil]

The Pentastar has its throttle body mounted on a large intake plenum, then then has an intake runner going to each cylinder's intake port. The fuel injectors are in the lower intake manifold, inside each individual runner, very close to the intake ports. A throttle body spacer will have no impact on how the fuel mixes with the air, and will have very little impact on the volume of the intake plenum. The intake plenum itself is likely already acoustically tuned to enhance airflow at certain rpm ranges. A spacer could actually make things worse at those rpm ranges.

Pickles - does this paragraph also apply to the older 3.8 engine that I have? No Pentastar for me.

[UselessPickles]

Pickles - does this paragraph also apply to the older 3.8 engine that I have? No Pentastar for me.

Yeah, same general design for the 3.8. And pretty much any engine from the last 20 years.

[2k13jk]

A throttle body spacer will give you absolutely zero gains on a fuel injected motor

[UselessPickles]

A throttle body spacer will give you absolutely zero gains on a fuel injected motor

... except for throttle body injection systems. Basically the early EFI systems that were a direct replacement for the carburetter (and modern kits for upgrading old muscle cars to EFI).

[Dr. Evil]

Out of stock on the CAI so I will wait. Just going with the tuner and exhaust for now. Maybe in the spring/summer I will do the CAI.

[WhiteRavenRR]

Welcome to JeepLab. Seems that there is finally someone other than myself who has the 3.8. I run 35's with a 2.5" lift and I use a Flashpaq Tuner. This is my daily driver but it also sees the earth in its natural habitat on occasion.

The Flashpaq will help out some but it's no substitute for regearing. I didn't buy a Jeep to go fast. I would be happy with just not loosing power on hills. The Flashpaq still doesn't overcome that. It's a relative minor solution for a bigger issue.

The exhaust is only going to let out what the engine is taking in. Aftermarket exhaust will be more streamlined and let out the exhaust more efficiently while maintaining proper back-pressure.

Just remember, no matter which route you take, you are driving a billboard.

[Dr. Evil]

Welcome to JeepLab. Seems that there is finally someone other than myself who has the 3.8. I run 35's with a 2.5" lift and I use a Flashpaq Tuner. This is my daily driver but it also sees the earth in its natural habitat on occasion.

The Flashpaq will help out some but it's no substitute for regearing. I didn't buy a Jeep to go fast. I would be happy with just not loosing power on hills. The Flashpaq still doesn't overcome that. It's a relative minor solution for a bigger issue.

The exhaust is only going to let out what the engine is taking in. Aftermarket exhaust will be more streamlined and let out the exhaust more efficiently while maintaining proper back-pressure.

Just remember, no matter which route you take, you are driving a billboard.

Thanks for the welcome. Yeah, there are a few of us 3.8 dinosaurs lol. I totally understand the flashpaq is not a substitute for gearing. I am not meaning for it to be. I also didn't buy the Jeep to go fast. As a matter of fact, I traded in a Mini Cooper with the supercharged engine for the Jeep. In saying this, that doesn't mean I wouldn't like to get all the performance out of it that I can WITHOUT re gearing. Not too many hills here in the Northeast so that isn't an issue.