A little more HP.

Upgrading the Air Flow and Exhaust on a 2001 4.0L Wrangler and three speed.... What is the general consensus?

Every time my buddies ask me about new intakes, I ask the same question. Have you ever been in a situation where you needed more power? Probably not, most likely lower gears are the need when tires go big. My factory intake box does pretty well at keeping water out, so I am kinda partial to it. Exhaust is a differant story. With exhaust the question is... Why not?

Ok what u got? 4L I6?

Its a good rig, nice power. Do a new air intake system, with a throttle body spacer. I like the k&n system. Airbox, filter etc. Then you can look at a new camshaft, chip mod. Magnaflow exhaust or equilvellant. New exhaust manifold, banks etc. If you got cash to burn you can get it supercharged, gains up to 200HP, gets it close to 500hp.

However all this costs alot of cash. I have been trying to think up ways to gain torque, I might go with a atlas 2 transfer case, with lower gears. I have read of something you can bolt on that increases torque, it slips my mind now. You got a 5 speed manual stick, transfer case stick, then you got a 3rd stick into the cab. It slips my mind, will have to read over all my jeep mags again.

Im hopefully upgrading my in and out as well pretty soon. Since my '94 is a daily driver im lookin to get the most mpg out of it as possible since I killed 'em a while back with my lift and tires. Im going with a K&N Cold Air and a Borla cat back; hopefully leading to a complete exhaust system replacement. A friend told me it'd sound like a V8 with the cat back. How credible that info is is beyond me though.... Im hoping at least... Hope this answered something..

Somehow I doubt it, but im no expert. I have read posts here in other forums. A 4 cyl still sounds like a 4 cyl, v6/I6 still sounds like a v6/i6. If you want v8 sound, swap engines. I like Joe Rogans ride :) on that show "Rides"

If you want the V8 sound it is not hard to have, espicially with a "big" inline 6. Don't go with a custom setup though. Buy a system designed for the application. Flowmaster has several series of mufflers to get the exact sound you want. A hotter cam would help also if you want that big sound, but it's not for a daily driver. Go to your exhaust guy (you do have an exhaust guy, right?) and ask him, he'll let you know exactly what he can do for you. My opinion, lose the cat, I am from Alabama, I don't have to pass emisions. :)

Stroke the engine. My stroker kit was pieced together from an older 4.2 I6 and man does it sound mean. I don't run a CAT and I have a 40 series muffler. VVRRRUMMM. Overall the stroker kit including machining the block ran me less than $950. Back that up with a header, throttle body, and Jet chip! I can do smoke shows all day long with 33" tires :-)

has anyone done a 350 swap, or a 454? I can see a 350 being done, but a 454?

There is no reason you couldd't swap anything you wanted in there, all it takes is time and money. I've seen a 97 with a 327 (which is the same as a 350 or 400 small block). I think a big block(396, 402, 427, 454, 502) is to heavy for a mild jeep, and cosidering my 402 gets 6 mpg on my nova I don't wanna put it on a Jeep with 35's

Do the K&N cold air intakes really make that much of a difference? Also is there much of a difference between the K&N's and the cheaper knock offs? Also I've toyed with the idea of "Jet" chips, do they really improve performance that much?

Intakes do make a differance, especially when you start making other mods as well. Intake and exhaust are quite often choke points that limit gains from other mods