'98 4.0L cam upgrade

[codyyy]

Has anyone done this, and is it worth it?
I was thinking of some bang-for-the-buck upgrades. The engine is stock so far, only upgrade being a cat-back exhaust. I've researched around and did find the 62mm throttle body upgrade, although I don't know how much performance would be gained with just that and the cat-back. I'd plan on a better air filter too.
But I was thinking a nice cam and lifters might give me some better performance, although I don't know much about this. I tried searching cam upgrade and came up with a bunch of stroker threads, which is good but not what I'm quite looking for. I'd still like to run 87 though. Thanks.

 

[wolfpackjeeper]

most of those stroker cams will work n a stock motor. and there are several threads in this section on cams.

for a cam to give you the most bang for the buck, you will need intake and exhaust mods, and some light tuning. I never did an aftermarket in my stroker, the cam specs on my 1992 camshaft were just fine. For the biggest buck cam you will also want springs, and retainers.

 

[codyyy]

I plan on boring my TB out to 62mm as well as putting a better flowing intake filter on there like a cone filter.

 

[wolfpackjeeper]

be better off going with a heat shield or building a bigger box, rather than just sticking a Rusty's kit with a cone on there, the cone draws too much hot air.

 

[Dr. Dyno]

The cam should be the very LAST mod you do to a 4.0 engine. There are plenty of others that you can do first:

Cold air intake
62mm TB
62mm TB spacer
Header/downpipe
Catn'back exhaust
Dual electric fan conversion

Then you can get into internal engine mods like a ported head/performance cam. Doing the cam with a stock head is a waste of time. You'll have to remove the head to change the cam anyway so why leave the head stock?

 

[codyyy]

Yeah after doing more research I realized it's more trouble than it's worth. However now I have some questions on the header and throttle body, although I'll research more on it. I'd like to bore my own TB and want to know how much power gain it has with a better intake. What header works good. Never heard of the dual fan conversion, I was just gonna buy a nice fan off Summit. I'll research all this crap up though, I know these questions have been asked.

 

[Talyn]

Do some more searching on the dual fan. Its not quite as easy as getting one off summit. Check out http://www.go.jeep-xj.info/ for info on the fan mod. As for boring your own throttle body you will only get to 60mm with out having to replace the butterfly valve, even that its not as simple as bolting on a new butterfly. But 60mm is a good start. At least I think its 60mm.. could be less. Check out Dyno's site as it has a lot of the info. As far as headers I haven't seen one that hasn't cracked. In that case get the APN header. Its cheap and if it does crack you are only out $120 instead of like $500. If you decide to go a full 62mm or 63mm check out http://www.strokedjeep.com/ for some good prices on machining. As for the air intake look at S&B and AFE for a good intake.

 

[codyyy]

I was thinking about making my own air intake by buying a nice K&N filter and putting my own pipe on it. Seems that eBay and Rusty's along with a few other people just take a cone filter and put a tube going to the stock tube. I'll have to read up on the throttle body, I wanted to bore it out myself, I read someone did it and it came out good, I'd buy another TB for that in case I screw up so I still have the stock one. Thanks for the info, I'll look into it.

 

[wolfpackjeeper]

unless you make a heat shield that completely seals off the area where the cone is, it is a waste. And if you go offroad it will hydrolock in water about 30 times easier. Without the heat shield it will just suck in hot air and negate any gains from flow.