Performance Enhancer

[icarl]

Does anyone know anything about the "[FONT=arial, helvetica]AirAid PowerAid Throttle Body Spacer" ([/FONT]http://www.suvxccessory.com/ards-310-506.html ?

Does it increase fuel economy and low end torque for the liberty like it says?

 

[desertkj]

I have not heard good reviews about those. Mostly a snake oil kinda thing. I don't think they will harm the motor, but don't do anywhere near enough to justify the cost.

 

[Dave]

It's just as good as a "Type-R-Sticker"......

Dave

 

[BMF454]

I bought one on ebay, it wasn't air raid brand but basicly the same thing. I agree that you don't get enough increase to justify the cost. I felt a little more throtle responce but not what the manufacturer suggests. I called the company (Helix I think was the name) and they told me it would only be about a 6 hp increase. This was after I bought it and was stuck with it. K&N, premium gas, synthetic oil, and proper tire pressure are the best ways to get cheap horse power. I haven't tried exhaust yet but I see they make headers and high flow cats and mufflers to let them breath, but all are quite expensive.

 

[icarl]

6 hp? not worth it to me. I need someone to build a magical wand that converts my jeep into a legendary off road machine that gets 300hp and 30 mpg all at the same time.

 

[Atrus]

Why do you claim premium gas, BMF454? Unless the Liberty sees knock and subsequent timing retardation, premium does nothing for you, and in fact, may reduce power.

The rule of thumb is, run the lowest octane you can without pinging.

 

[JeepJeepster]

Atrus is right.. It can actually reduce power..

 

[CRD4Liberty]

Atrus is correct, if you dyno an engine with various grade of gas the regular will give more horsepower. The premium cools the burn and extends it not giving the transfer of BTUs to power that regular does. That said if your engine requires a better grade of gas because of higher compression or piston/combustion chamber designs than not running it will sooner or later burn a hole in the piston.
You also couldn't give me a K&N filter to put in my rig, one of the worst if not the worst filtering "FILTER" on the planet. Oil analysis on engine running them show 500 to 1000% more silica (sand) is found in the engine. There has never been a SAE certified test I've seen that didn't put them way down on the list if not at the bottom. When you clean the filter if you put to much oil back on, and it's easy to do, you'll waste all your emission sensors down pipe.

 

[tjkj2002]

Why do you claim premium gas, BMF454? Unless the Liberty sees knock and subsequent timing retardation, premium does nothing for you, and in fact, may reduce power.

The rule of thumb is, run the lowest octane you can without pinging.

You are not entirely correct on that one,I run premium and get better mpg's and performane than using regular,my KJ pings to high hell with regular.Also it states in the '02 manual to use premuim for towing and carring alot of internal weight,I'm 1400 lbs over stock,plus my Jet stage II chip advances my timming to use the premium.

 

[Boilermaker]

plus my Jet stage II chip advances my timming to use the premium.

Not to hijack, but i'm curious what your impressions are of the Jet chip.

 

[BMF454]

All I know is that I drive 66 miles a day and I can feel a huge difference between premium and regular pulling the mountains of Colorado. As for my K&N I change my oil every 3000 and wash and re-oil my filter and have had no problems in any of my vehicles including diesels. My feelings are if it was so bad why is it the best selling filter on the market? For any vehicle. I think that most people wash them wrong and over oil them, thats why they get such bad reviews.

 

[tjkj2002]

All I know is that I drive 66 miles a day and I can feel a huge difference between premium and regular pulling the mountains of Colorado. As for my K&N I change my oil every 3000 and wash and re-oil my filter and have had no problems in any of my vehicles including diesels. My feelings are if it was so bad why is it the best selling filter on the market? For any vehicle. I think that most people wash them wrong and over oil them, thats why they get such bad reviews.

Yep I'm in CO to and premium helps out with all the mountains you need to climb around here.It really helps running premium while in 4-lo climbing rocks at 10,000+ ft of elevation to.

 

[tjkj2002]

Not to hijack, but i'm curious what your impressions are of the Jet chip.

I notice a huge difference when I have taken it off(for warrenty work),my hog just doesn't accelerate and shift worth a darn with it off,again I'm running pretty close to my max GVWR so it helps me out(may not for others).The stage I chip is a joke,many poeple say the stage II is to but it helps me,it's not no throw you in the back of the seats increase but it is very noticeable when you have added a bunch of extra wieght(all my 3/16"+ steel armor and tools).But you need to run premium to see the benifits,you should run a 180 thermostate but nobody(at least I have not seen any yet) makes them as of yet for the KJ.

 

[Atrus]

Hey guys,

That's the point I am getting at. If you're experiencing knock, by all means, use higher octane fuel. But, if you're cruising around Kansas in a stock KJ, you're going to have a hard time justifying how premium extends fuel economy.

 

[Boilermaker]

tjkj2002, thanks for the info. I'll admit, I haven't heard a lot of good things about the Jet chip and the 3.7L engine. Then again, who knows how many of those people didn't spend a few extra dollars for the stage 2 chip. Just goes to show, there aren't really any shortcuts when it comes to getting extra performance.

 

[karter]

Hi all, new to Jeep Liberty's ,purchased an 05 Limited with 75k on but in very nice condition . I've done the usual tune-up , spark plugs were original and worn out !!, fluid replacement ( everything down to bleeding the brakes ), and a few minor repairs ,front turn signal and taillight lense and bulbs . First impression compared to the rest of my fleet ,throttle response was lacking , meaning , you had to give it a lot of throttle to make it accelerate . The tune-up helped and this past Sunday I installed a Gibson cat back exhaust , also helped a little .
Today I installed the Poweraid throttle body spacer (very simple ,20 min.install ) . Inital impression is much better off-idle throttle response . So much so that I ask my wife to take it for a ride without telling her what I'd done . She came back and said the same thing , it gets up to speed much easier, she was originally put off by the throttle response when we bought the car . I actually had tried the Poweraid throttle body spacer on a 02 Chevy Silverado P/U I purchased new and experienced the same effect . It also gave my Silverado about a 2 mpg increase , we'll see if it has the same effect on the Liberty . First impressions , it's put the throttle response were it should be .

 

[leerdmn]

You also have a certain amount of unburned octane with premium, and therefore leads to a carbon buildup over time. If left alone over the course of 100,000 + miles, this can lead to a drop in compression.

 

[jnaut]

I bought one on ebay, it wasn't air raid brand but basicly the same thing. I agree that you don't get enough increase to justify the cost. I felt a little more throtle responce but not what the manufacturer suggests. I called the company (Helix I think was the name) and they told me it would only be about a 6 hp increase. This was after I bought it and was stuck with it. K&N, premium gas, synthetic oil, and proper tire pressure are the best ways to get cheap horse power. I haven't tried exhaust yet but I see they make headers and high flow cats and mufflers to let them breath, but all are quite expensive.

Be wary of any company selling you anything which reports a horsepower increase stated as a whole number. Performance enhancements almost always give you horsepower increases as a percentage of total HP.

 

[Powerslave]

These PERFORMANCE devices are a resistor that splices in with the IAT sensor to fool it into thinking the air is colder to get more fuel into the mixture. Some are a fixed resistor, some are dial in potentiometers to change the mixture on the fly. Without an A/F Ratio gauge, you can't tune them properly.

You can buy your own resistors, and short them in place, in the harness for results, but, without a gauge, you can't tune it.

The IAT is a THERMISTOR: The PCM supplies a voltage signal to the sensor through a resistor in the PCM, and measures the voltage. The voltage will be high when the incoming air is cold for a richer mixture; and low, leaner mix, when the air is hot. By measuring the voltage, the PCM calculates the incoming air temperature. The IAT sensor signal is also used to adjust the spark timing according to the incoming air density.