Chiming back in with a couple maintenance things and an intake upgrade.
I happened to pick up an AFE Power intake a few months back as part of a package deal when I was shopping for some other stuff. Figured it couldn't hurt to add a few horses to offset some of the weight I've been adding and this one is 50 state legal.
While I had the air box out I swapped in a new lower radiator hose. My power steering reservoir weeps a bit and drips on the radiator hose below. The fluid exposure seemed to be affecting the rubber and the hose was soft right at the spot where a drip forms on the underside. I'd previously wrapped the hose with silicone tape as a temporary band aid but needed to change it.
Comparing you can see it was starting to bulge. I wrapped the new one as well to keep it dry until I can troubleshoot the power steering. Kinda boring but worth mentioning in case someone else has the same issue.
The AFE intake seems to be a nice piece. The divider box is wrinkle power coated metal and dropped right in. The kit includes nicely sized edge trim to support the plastic tubing and even had a pad for where it can lean on the brake booster.
The one piece of the kit that wasn't so good was the plastic bung to tie back to the PCV system. Not a huge deal but took a good bit of filing and sanding to get the hose on. I had to take the leading edge bulge almost all the way off.
And here it is buttoned up. I'm using the dry sock pre-filter as well to help keep dirt from sticking to the filter.
How's it drive? Well when I first fired it up it stalled and died so I momentarily thought I'd done something wrong or it wasn't sucking air. Nope. Turns out my Jeep didn't like sitting for the time I was working on it (the bigger downtime with all my welding was likely the main culprit but this little session didn't help). Repeated trickle charging didn't enough to bring the battery back. Apparently I bought the old battery in Oct 2010, so I'm not feeling too bad.
Out with the old:
In with the new (trying a full size AGM this time):
OK, so how's it really drive? Nice. The power bump is enough to be noticeable. It pulls a bit more eagerly getting up toward the top (never a jeep's strong suit admittedly), responds quicker when you stand on it, and doesn't feel like it's constantly trying to change gears as often if you're 3/4 throttle powering up an incline. Supposedly makes about +9 hp, but I'm sure that number is mod dependent.
Link for some dyno testing on a I-6 4.0 for reference:
http://www.fourwheeler.com/how-to/engine/154-0804-jeep-wrangler-intake-shootout/
Happy New Year!
-Joel