courtsm3

Stick to tried and true methods. SC, gears and tuners. I say tuners b/c i noticed a nice change in the way my 3.8 drove. Tuners also have other neat and needed functions ( gear change/wheeling options ). No longtubes for the 3.6 b/c of the manifold design but a off road exhaust isnt a waste of money. Keeps everything tucked up nicely. A branch being kicked up from my rear tire took out my stock muffler. Again SC, gears and tuner will give you the most bang for buck. Love my gears and tuner. SC is next!

RiverCityOffroad

I would leave the stock exhaust alone all the way out to the last muffler. I replaced mine with a smaller Borla muffler ONLY because I had to because of my rear suspension setup. It didn't cause any loss or gain on my 2012 and I am pretty happy with the power that the 100% stock motor provides on 37s with an auto and the current 3.73 gears.

I'm replacing those 3.73s with 4.56 because I find myself manually downshifting it on the highway, but it is definitely acceptable. It's been that way for almost a year now. I expect it to be a ton of fun with 4.56s in it both on and off road.

I am on my 5th JK and this one is by far and away much more pleasurable to drive than the 3.8s I had before. I imagine this motor (3.6) with a Ripp would be pretty dang exciting.

Marcus

goaterguy

Why is it that you need so much more power from the Pentastar? Are you towing big trailer? You know the JK is only rated at 2,00 lbs (2 doors) and 3,500 lbs (4 doors) which the Pentastar can easily handle.

Think about this, Jeep (Chrysler) increased the horsepower from 200 to 285 and the torque, decreased the engine displacement, improved the fuel efficiency, potential reliability (the Pentastar is used in Police vehicles) and drivability with a $0 increase from 2011 to 2012. Also designing the engine to pass emissions and noise on all 50 states and a few other countries. Do you really expect for this engine to go to 400 hp with a chip?

Be glad that we can still buy a vehicle as unique and customizable as the Wrangler in a world where you need to advertise 40 mpg to be competitive.

tribulation138

How r u on your 5th jk. They have only been out since 2007. I plan on having mine for 10 more years

mikestoick

Your are like minded with me in the fact that we think the star is a great motor really. And you have great arguments for it may i add. I just started this thread to play devils advocate and see iff people are building the star engine w/ success. It would just be cool to see a wrangler with insane balls under the hood haha. But yea man thx for your input. Jeep on.

palehorse

1. Lower gears, gears, gears... and GEARS!
2. Off-road cat-back exhaust to primarily improve clearance, but also improve sound and MAYBE a very slight performance increase... maybe.
3. Tuner for a VERY slight performance increase, modifying shift points (auto), and reprogramming for fear and tire changes.
4. Did I already mention gears?

And, if you're really wealthy, and/or really desperate to beat rice-burners at stoplights, add the RIPP SC for a ridiculous amount of added hp and torque. (The added torque being the key off-road benefit)

Seriously, though, the Pemtastar is a pretty decent V6 right out of the factory, so most of the above isn't necessary to really tear up the trails and rocks...

Captain Obvious

I'm going to go ahead and go the other route with my comments...

I have a 12 JKUR. While it's no race car, I've always had the opinion that it had enough power with my only complaint being the tip-in off idle being jumpy (when going from idle to giving throttle it's not as smooth as I'd like and there's not a smooth enough transition). I just finished putting on lift, 37s, and 4.56 gears. Before I put the lift on I expected the after lift/tires power to be horrible and for the Jeep to be a dog based on reading comments on here.

I'm very happy to say that it honestly feels like the same amount of power I had stock. Proper gearing is the key!

PhxRainey

I cannot say enough good things about SC a Jeep. (and no I do not work for RIPP) as far as the trail goes it does not change that much. I ran the Rubicon last year with mine with the SC. Most of what you need on the trail is Torque and the low gearing most of us have provides that (I run 4.88 and a 4:1 rubi transfer case on 35's) .

Where the SC's shine in on the highway. I drove to the Tahoe area last year in my Jeep from Phoenix, and it weighs 5300-5400 lbs. empty, I can run up the highways at 70 and still pass people with no problem. Really the only limit on speed is the tires and suspension.

In short I would not be using my Jeep as a daily driver without one.

Good luck.

Baddintentions4u

Once again the old saying holds true. "There's no replacement for displacement"!! Good luck with your endeavors but I seriously doubt that you'll get with you're looking for out of your current setup or any other setup involving a V6 besides the Ford Eco-boost that you're inquiring about.

B 1000

I agree with things that you say in this post. However... I don't see why Chrystler doesn't have at least an option for a bigger engine. With people dropping 6K for a supercharger or 20-25K for a V8, why wouldn't Chrystler do something similar.

And the main thing that I want would just be lower end torque. I used to have a ZJ with a 5.2 that could pull trailers in the dunes. My JK can't pull itself through the dunes at the same ability. But I do agree that it's impressive to see a Wrangler get up to 22 MPG, where as the previous generations barely got 15-16

Also I should note that I have the slowest Pentastar I've ever been in. I think I just ended up with a bad one. My buddy with the same 35" tires and 3.21 gears is substantially faster than mine, which has 4.10 gears. And I recently drove a 2013 with 37s that kills mine in power as well.