Root Moose
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- ON, Canada
It's been a week since I finally buttoned up my 2001 Jeep with a Banks Torque Tube header, APN stainless mini cats, custom stainless cat, new NTK O2 sensors and Gibson stainless cat back. I didn't get around to making a new 2.5" S-pipe - basically ran out of time.
Also added a Chinese copy of the ARB snorkel and a bored throttle body (63 mm IIRC).
I did these mods because the exhaust was rotting off and the rest was basically a kind of "if you are changing this anyway" kind of thing. I added the snorkel more for look and an attempt at "ram air" than anything.
Commuting downtown into stop and go traffic from an hour away has given me a chance to get use to the new sounds and feel of the Jeep with the exhaust.
For the most part, not a huge difference from the seat of the pants. My Jeep runs heavy, around 4200 lbs without passengers. You can tell it has a bit more power and more so torque. It doesn't kick down as much when going up hills or gently merging with traffic.
It also seems to be getting an extra ~75 km per tank in range. When the Jeep was stock I'd get ~500-520 km per tank depending on how much city driving was done per tank. My wife drove it as her daily for a number of years and then when I lifted it I didn't really have a sense of what was normal range any more. After the lift it would get 400-410 km per tank. (speedo is corrected, within a few percent of GPS at highway speeds)
Last tank was ~480 km. On 32" tires and ~4.5" of lift and a bunch of stop and go traffic I figure that is pretty good. It'll be interesting to see how it fares on the road trip. First leg is ~11 hours at four lane highway cruising speeds. With the trailer in tow that'll probably be ~110 km/h.
To be honest, I was kind of let down with the seat of the pants impressions. I figured there should be more to it.
Then I got our tent trailer out of storage and took it for a quick shake down run for about 15 minutes of driving. Ok, this is where the difference can be felt.
Our trailer weighs around ~3000 lbs or so. And it is quite a bit wider than the Jeep so it catches the air. The Jeep always felt laboured when pulling the trailer but it does not any more. I won't say it feels peppy but it doesn't sit in the back of your mind making you wish you had more engine any more. It was truly a night and day thing. Very usable and almost effortless without feeling like you are abusing the machinery.
So in the end I don't regret the changes and money spent. I would have spent a portion of the money to replace the stock crap anyway since it was time to replace. In retrospect, 13 years out of a factory exhaust in the salt belt is pretty good.
FWIW, where I live is a few hundred feet above sea level. I don't know if you guys in higher elevations would notice as much difference.
Also added a Chinese copy of the ARB snorkel and a bored throttle body (63 mm IIRC).
I did these mods because the exhaust was rotting off and the rest was basically a kind of "if you are changing this anyway" kind of thing. I added the snorkel more for look and an attempt at "ram air" than anything.
Commuting downtown into stop and go traffic from an hour away has given me a chance to get use to the new sounds and feel of the Jeep with the exhaust.
For the most part, not a huge difference from the seat of the pants. My Jeep runs heavy, around 4200 lbs without passengers. You can tell it has a bit more power and more so torque. It doesn't kick down as much when going up hills or gently merging with traffic.
It also seems to be getting an extra ~75 km per tank in range. When the Jeep was stock I'd get ~500-520 km per tank depending on how much city driving was done per tank. My wife drove it as her daily for a number of years and then when I lifted it I didn't really have a sense of what was normal range any more. After the lift it would get 400-410 km per tank. (speedo is corrected, within a few percent of GPS at highway speeds)
Last tank was ~480 km. On 32" tires and ~4.5" of lift and a bunch of stop and go traffic I figure that is pretty good. It'll be interesting to see how it fares on the road trip. First leg is ~11 hours at four lane highway cruising speeds. With the trailer in tow that'll probably be ~110 km/h.
To be honest, I was kind of let down with the seat of the pants impressions. I figured there should be more to it.
Then I got our tent trailer out of storage and took it for a quick shake down run for about 15 minutes of driving. Ok, this is where the difference can be felt.
Our trailer weighs around ~3000 lbs or so. And it is quite a bit wider than the Jeep so it catches the air. The Jeep always felt laboured when pulling the trailer but it does not any more. I won't say it feels peppy but it doesn't sit in the back of your mind making you wish you had more engine any more. It was truly a night and day thing. Very usable and almost effortless without feeling like you are abusing the machinery.
So in the end I don't regret the changes and money spent. I would have spent a portion of the money to replace the stock crap anyway since it was time to replace. In retrospect, 13 years out of a factory exhaust in the salt belt is pretty good.
FWIW, where I live is a few hundred feet above sea level. I don't know if you guys in higher elevations would notice as much difference.
