I have an 07 two door with a 3.8 and it has a little over 100k and a 4 in lift. I am asking for anyone that has any input on power improvement add ons. I was thinking of starting with headers (long tube or shortys?), cat back exhaust, programmer, maybe if they are available cam and piston upgrades, and with all this being compatible with a future supercharger upgrade. Any suggestions or first hand experience would be helpful. thanks!

 

Ripp's website would be a good place to start. They have the most well known JK supercharger, long tube headers, and they use the Diablo tuner with their own custom tunes. (which, unlike Diablo, they actually test before releasing to the customers...)

Haven't seen anyone do any internal engine upgrades. Apparently, the 3.8 is already bored out so there isn't a lot of extra power for the cost.

 

Supercharge and regear, or get a different motor. Intakes, exhausts, and chips aren't going to make the type of difference you're looking for. If you do some searching, there's about a million and a half threads on this forum about squeezing out extra power from the 3.8L. I sold my 2010 and bought a 2014, couldn't be happier!

 

Goodl luck finding improvments on the 3.8. If you find anything that is of an actuall benefit pleas post it up as there are about 800,000 of us that would like more power.

 

I heard the 3.8s cannot really take much more then stock power. They start breaking things. Or atleast i was told.

 

Hmmm LS7? Hemi? 3.9L 4BT Diesel Conversion?

 

I don't know of any internal upgrades as far as pistons ,cams etc.



Gears will make an improvement

Programmers make an improvement but mostly with shift points on an auto

Sprintbooster will make an improvement in throttle response but won't actually improve power.

"Cold Air" intakes are a waste of money that net you 0 in the power department unless you are combing with a supercharger

Catback exhausts won't do anything for performance unless it is paired with a set of headers and even that is very minimal.

Ripp's Headers and tune will provide more power but I don't think too much of the other header brands because they don't have the tune.

Superchargers work well but are expensive and questionable when you have 100K miles. A leak down test will determine if your motor is still able to handle it.

Engine swaps are the mother load: thumbsup:

General Motors LS swaps are the way to go for gasoline
Hemi swaps are great too but have been known to have cooling issues.
Cummins 4BT swaps are great for diesel but they are LOUD as a MOFO and stink.

I believe the LS and Hemi swaps are, or can be made, emissions compliant and the 4BT is not.




Anyone that can correct what I've said, feel free. I have presented what I believe to be fact to help the OP. I welcome CONSTRUCTIVE criticism.

 

after reading a ton on here and jko, your best bet is saving for a swap.

ripp seems ok, but its benefits are higher in the powerband, so not really much of an improvement wheeling. I had a bullydog, i didn't notice a thing, sold it after like a month. intake and exhaust seem like a fair amount of $$ for iffy results - some people say nothing others think they get better mpgs or something like that lol.

I plan on doing nothing for the 3.8 and then eventually do an LS swap, but i only have 58k on it now so it will go for a while.

 

I also thought the cold air was a waste of money. I got one very cheap recently. An AIRAID. I swear I feel a bit more "seat of the pants" power.

Aren't there some kind of dynos that show at least 2-5 HP increase?

Gears are probably the only thing you should do.

 

I have an 07 unlimited and for a little boost in power I bought afe cold air intake and throttle body spacer , superchips programmer , afe cat back exhaust. It cost about $1000. I did one upgrade at a time to see what the gain was after install. The exhaust did nothing but change the noise. If I was to do it again I would not by a bolt on exhaust system. But the cold air was probably the most noticeable in power. Plus it sounds cool. Also the throttle body spacer did very little but I think it sounds cool too. The programmer also very little increase in power. For the money it all cost it wasn't really worth it. I think re-gearing would be a better way to spend the money. There was a video on YouTube where they did basically the same upgrades and it wasn't much gain in horsepower but it was a nice boost in torque.
Now on too the whole internals question there is a kit made by hesco that is a 4.1 stroker kit but it's about 4 grand and they don't list dyno readings. So is it worth it I don't know. But really if your looking for power then you have to have your heads ported by a head porter that bows what there doing. It's really easy to over do it when porting heads. So that's my two cents.