to supercharge or not?

[timbotrog]

A mate of mine recently traded in his 79 series Cruiser on a Jimny, (wanted a Rubi but the dealership wouldn't come to the party on the trade in amount), because of the terrible handling, weight, lack of performance, horrid reliability.

Get a WG V8 Grand Cherokee, cheap as chips, heaps of mods, plenty of power, great fuel economy on the hwy and actually very reliable.

Love mine, it's been a great vehicle.

[multihull]

Thanks everyone for the lively debate and mud slinging. Now here's one from left of field. My last car was a tricked up Commander with all the fruit and a GDE ECU remap, what an amazing vehicle. The Merc 3 litre diesel had so much power, in fact too much you could blow off cars at the lights, do 4 wheel burn out on quick take off's and it was an incredibly capable off road car that did most of the hard runs at major 4x4 parks but it didn't have enough clearance hence going to a Rubi.
Now what about putting a Merc 3 litre and 5 speed NAG1 tranny into a Wrangler. The engineering is easy but the Canbus / computer programming and integration is the hard bit.
The benefits are; Heaps of power, pure low down torque 550 nm, excellent fuel economy 9 - 12 lp100, great for long range touring with 850 plus km on a std tank, or even tow a small van or camper trailer with ease, cheap and easy to get parts etc....
I'm working on it now but it could be an over ambitious expensive waste of money.
Any thoughts?

[wranglertj]

Originally Posted by outbreakmonkey

Easy to sling mud without providing any kind of actual retort to the points listed.

Best to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and confirm it.

Being that I went fishing and you took the bait the fool is the person looking at you in the mirror.
Obviously I have stung a nerve with you Monkey for some reason so have a beer and settle kettle.
Either way your comment was as generic as mine so let's not call the kettle black eh.
So let's retort shall we. For what you get for your money in a 70 series is very poor, some may say a cracking motor but that what they were. They were notorious for blowing motors (at least in the early ones) and I know this because we had one in our club and that's exactly what happened and dealership confirmed that this was not uncommon. I have also driven a cruiser with a twin turbo V8 and I was very unimpressed on how 'relatively' gutless it was. At the time I owned a little buzz box 1.6l fiesta and that was certainly quicker off the mark for some distance in comparison to that behemoth. Yep it is an easy choice to sell the jeep and buy a 70 series if you have a lot of coin or a generous banker.
To be honest you generally don't buy a wrangler for the power and these two vehicle are marketed at two very different demographics so they are really not interchangeable but hey more power is always nice but let's be honest why buy a wrangler if you want grunt.
Oh ps. Did you google that comment or were you hanging on to it? Either way good one I liked it and may have to rip that off too

[rang0]

Originally Posted by multihull

Thanks everyone for the lively debate and mud slinging. Now here's one from left of field. My last car was a tricked up Commander with all the fruit and a GDE ECU remap, what an amazing vehicle. The Merc 3 litre diesel had so much power, in fact too much you could blow off cars at the lights, do 4 wheel burn out on quick take off's and it was an incredibly capable off road car that did most of the hard runs at major 4x4 parks but it didn't have enough clearance hence going to a Rubi.
Now what about putting a Merc 3 litre and 5 speed NAG1 tranny into a Wrangler. The engineering is easy but the Canbus / computer programming and integration is the hard bit.
The benefits are; Heaps of power, pure low down torque 550 nm, excellent fuel economy 9 - 12 lp100, great for long range touring with 850 plus km on a std tank, or even tow a small van or camper trailer with ease, cheap and easy to get parts etc....
I'm working on it now but it could be an over ambitious expensive waste of money.
Any thoughts?

I think a v8 would sound better

99 tj, ls1, 4l60e auto, np231c/j hybrid, sye, tnt dual triangle long arm, custom 3.5 flex springs, bilstein 5100, custom dash, custom seats, warn bar, warn winch, 35". soon ford 8.8, xj d30 front, 4.56 gears.

[multihull]

A V8 uses heaps more fuel, has far less torque per CC and gives too much Kw at high revs which equals wheel spin which breaks components. Diesels give torque at far lower revs, Torque is grunt and gives a 4x4 what it needs, controllable power and amazing fuel economy.

[Johnboy]

That's why the rubi is matched to a petrol engine with the deep reduction gearing a diesel would run out of legs really quick but onroad the torque of a turbo diesel really suits. The only reason modern diesels have become so popular is the drive like petrol vehicle, however they do the same revs now so will not last 500k km like slow revving diesels of old. Common rail, high boost pressures and electrickery achieve excellent fuel economy but off boost low revs the torque is non existent it's all a trade off also nearly all modern diesels run dual mass flywheels to minimise the truck like feel off the Diesel engine costing big buck when they inevitably fail these are all considerations when looking at a modern diesel

[humdingerslammer]

I will stick with my JKU 07 Rubi a little longer. Yes it is slow, wobbles around like a cock in a sock, pants along on the straight towing a small van and needs a shot of Ventolin when asthma tries to overcome it as it pulls up a hill.

I could spend money on it but why? I've been here, there and everywhere with it and its still got some places to go. In pretty much stock form, it has been as reliable as. Yes things wear out, things break but what should I expect?

The money I don't spend souping it up I use for trips and travel. I wouldn't mind a Grand Cherokee V8 but am concerned about reliability issues. I wouldn't mind a 76 series Landcruiser but it is a lot to pay for a basic truck with less on it than the JKU Rubi.I could buy a Nissan Patrol, and pray forever that the motor doesn't blow up.

I have come across many a Toyota and Nissan driver on my travels who hate the guts out of their vehicles for a lot of reasons, mainly unreliability and fuel consumption and lack of guts.

I am keen to wait for the next gen Wrangler... it's only a year or two away. I am starting to save for one. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, I reckon.

Have a nice new year.