Bubba is back with an update to this thread with a pointer to lessons learned in this thread HP Tuners Lessons Learned 4.7 engine - DodgeForum.com

Any interest here in better mpg mods? - DodgeForum.com Reminds me to re-seal the bottom of the bed on the Ram & add the seals to the side of the bed/cab junction on the Dak.


This motor has shown me it has a ton of power that just needs to be set free. It is cranking out way more power than when I started and has proven to be a reliable solid motor.

Mods from air box to exhaust tip

• Opened up air box on both ends as much as possible with an angle grinder (to make quick work of it) and added sheet metal to direct airflow up into the filter & reduce turbulence from both sides (isolated both sides)
• Airaid intake tube with turning vane inside, (have a project on my plate to build a test fixture to test various turning vanes & pick the best)
• 70mm Throttle Body
• 2003 intake manifold with shorter runners
• 180* t-stat with adjusted fan on temps
• Mechanical fan delete
• 2 1.5" PL mods (I call it the potato launcher mod, see pic posted earlier), 1-15", 1-12" with ball valve to control flow (allows me to move the torque up/down rpm range)
• 1 3/4" PL mod of unknown length
• 12 hole injectors
• Wrapped fuel rail (need to re-wrap this)
• JBA shorty headers (2" collector port)
• Magnaflow y-pipe (2" matches JBA header port)
• Dynomax 3" cat back
• HP tuners programming to dial it all in

Lessons learned:

• Adding the PLs to the intake had a significant impact on part throttle performance
• Adding the ball valve to the PL allowed me to move the torque peak up/down rpms to a point
• Opening up the air box on both ends & adding the sheet metal insert into the box removed turbulence in the box where the flow from the sides were colliding, this was a very good bump in power. Most if not all intake noise is turbulence that is lost opportunity for power gains.
• MPG's went up 2 mpg when I finally (last step) added in the cat back exhaust. Exhaust flows un-restricted up to the cat. The whole "backpressure loss will kill mpg's" thing, which I was in that camp, has been blown out. What is really needed is a tune to match the engine config.

Never cracked this motor open, the block is as it left the factory in 2002.

@Magnoom There you go, lessons learned & shared. Turning vanes in the intake tube were an eye opener & got ported over to the Ram where it also provided a very nice bump in power. Laugh all you want but this truck screams in comparison to when I started, no HO or '08 cams installed, no headwork.

Edit: Forgot to mention... at some point this motor is going to need to be swapped, when that happens will go grab a Jeep HO motor and drop it in with the injectors & mods in place, dial in the tune and be good to go.

 

1. Still a 4.7 lol.
2. Unless there's a dyno sheet, the seat-o-the-pants-meter is wildly unreliable but if it makes you feel better......
3. FYI Nick from Air Ram died earlier this year so that resource is gone.
4. Don't bother with the 08+ cams, I had occasion recently to look up the actual specs.....the power increase in the 08+ was done with the heads, more compression and the intake manifold:
Early 4.7 cam specs: .443"/.4292", 243.5°/253.7°, 17.6° overlap (found in 2004 Grand Cherokee manual)
HO cam specs: .4724"/.4292", 236°/250°, 18° overlap (also found in 2004 Grand Cherokee manual)
08+: .443"/.4292", 243.5°/253.7°, 17.6° overlap (found in 2008 Dodge Ram manual and confirmed with 2010 Ram manual)

 

Agreed on SOTP meter, regardless, part throttle performance is leaps & bounds better than what it was. Since I do not drive at WOT there is no point in me dynoing it.

The key for me is the daily driving experience is significantly better + mpg's went up from the mid 17's to the mid 19's. Others who choose to do so can leverage what I shared. The wife is pretty happy with her jeep so far, she's reported back a low 16's for mpg's vs the mid 14's on the last pic she shared. That equaled a 13% bump in mpg's. The dynomax muffler goes on today (similar model to the one on the Dak), will see how it performs.

Thanks for sharing the cam specs... you indicate that the early 4.7 cams are = to the '08+ cams, is there a typo in there? '08 cam installers claimed it was a good mod.

 

Straight out of the service manuals. I had always heard they were an improvement....turns out everyone was full of ****. Feel free to look for yourself, the manuals are easily found. Here are screenshots:
2004 Grand Cherokee standard 4.7:


2004 Grand Cherokee 4.7 HO:


2008 Ram 4.7:



2010 Ram 4.7

 

Thanks for sharing, so i won't go chasing HO cams anymore

 

Don't mistake HO cams with the 08+ (apparently you've misread this). HO cams are a good upgrade, the 08+ cams are the same as the normal 99-07 4.7's.

 

Took a look at the 2001 Dak manual this morning & it indeed matches the '08 & up specs as you mentioned. Thanks for pointing that out.

I recently started tweaking a trans torque table in HPT to see the cause & effect. The day before I'd dialed down power (injector pulse width, while staying within +/- 5 on LTFTs) in an effort to squeeze more mpg's out of the daily commute. What I found was the tweaks brought back the power I'd dialed back, so I kept on tweaking it upwards and found more power from it via SOTP feel, it was clear what was happening. So I bumped it up until it stopped changing. MPGs took a hit after this yet LTFTs remained as it was so I have no idea how this table is controlling engine output, but it is.