Inexpensive way to add power AND improve fuel economy! Nope!

[Whaler27]

Nope!

If you see claims like this they are crapola. Coil packs, cold-air intakes, throttle body spacers, high performance plugs and plug wires, chrome-plated gazornplats, high-speed dip-sticks… It’s all crap.

Stellantis and, previously, FCA, have spent hundreds of millions of dollars working on ways to develop more power while simultaneously improving fuel economy and powertrain durability. In the unlikely event their fleet of engineers, high-tech labs, and decades of research on their platforms missed the low hanging fruit, they’d simply buy the company that stumbled on the better throttle body (or whatever).

You can add tuners, nitrous, or forced induction to develop more power, of course, but there are no sub-$500 solutions that will give you more power AND more fuel economy AND protect/preserve your engine. The fact that people continue make these aftermarket companies rich is evidence of how gullible we humans are. It’s snake-oil 2023.

There really is one born every minute.

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[Apexcars]

I thought you were going to show that you had stripped out the interior of your Jeep to make it lighter or something.

 

[Deleted member 59498]

Maybe put some

I thought you were going to show that you had stripped out the interior of your Jeep to make it lighter or something.

One seat with Sahara radial tires on 4 inch lift!

 

[Northernlites]

Back in the 1990's I used to use a fuel additive made by the Schaeffer Oil Co. I had a 1993 F-150 with a 351 engine and A/T. I used the additive and honestly it boosted the gas mileage by 1-2 mpg. I checked it several times, making trips from Wisconsin to Kansas. It was only noticeable while driving mainly freeway miles at 55-60 mph. Not much effect city driving. Got to be a hassle adding it to every fill and plus it left a strong odor on your hands for days, so eventually I stopped using it. Not sure if it's even available anymore. Their para-synthetic oil was great too, but very expensive.

 

[Whaler27]

Back in the 1990's I used to use a fuel additive made by the Schaeffer Oil Co. I had a 1993 F-150 with a 351 engine and A/T. I used the additive and honestly it boosted the gas mileage by 1-2 mpg. I checked it several times, making trips from Wisconsin to Kansas. It was only noticeable while driving mainly freeway miles at 55-60 mph. Not much effect city driving. Got to be a hassle adding it to every fill and plus it left a strong odor on your hands for days, so eventually I stopped using it. Not sure if it's even available anymore. Their para-synthetic oil was great too, but very expensive.

There are definitely things you can do to fuel, fueling rate, etc that will generate more power or reduce fuel consumption.

There are propane injection systems for diesels that claim “More power AND up to 3 mpg improvement in fuel economy!” Of course, they don’t usually mention the increased cost per mile because the engine is now burning diesel AND propane.

My point is there’s no free (or near free) ride when improving engine performance, just as there’s no free ride on suspension improvement. We can and do improve our Jeeps, but achieving real improvement costs cubic dollars.

 

[RubiSc0tt]

TL; DR: You're not gonna out physics, physics.

 

[Whaler27]

In the 90s we bought diesel trucks we used for towing heavy boats. There were many things you could do to boost performance on the diesels of the 90s and early 2000s, many of which are now part of the Diesel engines of today, but the best of those changes eliminated engine-choking EPA devices, increased boost, and increased fueling rate. Also, that was before the manufactures were all in on the diesel performance game. Even then, there was a lot of chatter about the value of ”lower resistance cold air intake systems”.

From the late 90s until about 2010 I participated in various diesel truck forums. Lots of debate on air filter values. Finally, an engineer on one of the forums bought/borrowed equipment to test all of the major aftermarket filter claims — from added power, to particulate filtering efficiency, to tolerance to particulate load. The bottom line after all the testing was that, until the engines had extremely high fueling rates (and therefor required massive amounts of air), there was no benefit to the many aftermarket options, and some of them actually represented a threat to the engines, because they failed to effectively filter some of the larger particulates. Some of the aftermarket filters also ended up reducing airflow and increasing resistance, because they loaded with flow-choking particulates much more quickly. The research didn’t advocate for one filter manufacturer over another, but it did emphasize the need to regularly clean several of the aftermarket options. The conclusion was pretty clear. Unless you’re building a 700+ hp diesel, the factory filters from Dodge, Ford, and GM (and their aftermarket clones) were the most sensible balance of performance, engine protection, and cost/maintenance.

I’ll see if I can find that research and link it here.

 

[Tank the Jeep]

Where can I get one of those high speed dipsticks? How much horsepower does it add?

 

[aldo98229]

The only way to add power AND fuel economy to a Jeep Wrangler is to drive downhill in a strong tail wind.

 

[AFD]

Anecdotal, but I've added open-air intakes on 2 of my vehicles in the past and while they likely didn't add much horsepower, I did see a consistent couple of MPG improvement on each of them after the first month. Probably a little less protection for the engine as you mentioned, but a little extra HP and MPG, no matter how small, still isn't nothing. Neither of those engines had any failures or other problems even after 100,000 miles.

And Jeep does offer a sub-$500 factory intake option. So you're saying their infallible engineers are selling snake oil by stating their Mopar intake "provides noticeable horsepower and torque gains" since its not a standard option?

 

[jjvincent]

We keep all of these products a secret in motorsports. When I need more power I just look at the shelf. Do I put magnets on the fuel lines or a tornado in the intake or plug into the 12V system a product that cleans the electronics? I just don't know. I always have the secret weapon, the 200mpg carburator. We all seen the ads back in the 70's and knew that "Big Oil" bought out the guy out and thus only a few of us got them. I have it on my RV right now and thus I now need to change out the motor oil at least twice before I run out of a tank of gas (it has a 55 gal tank).

 

[Geronimo]

Nope!

If you see claims like this they are crapola. Coil packs, cold-air intakes, throttle body spacers, high performance plugs and plug wires, chrome-plated gazornplats, high-speed dip-sticks… It’s all crap.

Stellantis and, previously, FCA, have spent hundreds of millions of dollars working on ways to develop more power while simultaneously improving fuel economy and powertrain durability. In the unlikely event their fleet of engineers, high-tech labs, and decades of research on their platforms missed the low hanging fruit, they’d simply buy the company that stumbled on the better throttle body (or whatever).

You can add tuners, nitrous, or forced induction to develop more power, of course, but there are no sub-500 solutions that will give you more power AND more fuel economy AND protect/preserve your engine. The fact that people continue make these aftermarket companies rich is evidence of how gullible we humans are. It’s snake-oil 2023.

There really is one born every minute.

Yep, I really loved the magnetized fuel line scam in the 90s. Came by our office boasting of the thousands of dollars in fuel savings we would realize. Yhey are still out there selling that one to the gullible victims.

 

[The Last Cowboy]

In the 90s/00s, you could remove the noise baffle from the air intake and get some low% power boost while improving around town fuel mileage. Stock intakes are much improved today.

Stock air intakes/filters flow more than an unmodified engine is capable of using. Stock exhausts flow more than enough for most of the driving that the vast majority of people do. On a gas engine, a modified exhaust will flow better at the upper end of the horsepower curve, in other words wide open throttle. In many instances an aftermarket exhaust will actually rob power at lower RPMs on gas, non turbo engines.

 

[conFUcius]

Stickers are more aerodynamic than badges?

 

[Geronimo]

Stickers are more aerodynamic than badges?

Damn and I thought my tool box was bad.... kinda kewl actually. The hubcaps really complete the deal!!

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