Whoa, good questions, Jeff! Without chastising anyone in particular, I will definitely say that I've had good success with particular throttle bodies, throttle body spacers, and air intakes on 4.0L Jeep engines, while others have clearly not made a dang bit of difference at all. The Painless throttle body made a big difference by itself, and our tester tells us that the 1-to-2-mpg improvement was based on only the throttle body installation.
As for TB spacers, I've had excellent luck with the Poweraid and Lite Grip units. That being said, I will tell you that I've seen no improvement with a TB spacer when used on a '99-to-'06 4.0L intake manifold. The TB spacers are basically making up for a deficiency in perfect airflow into the engine, and when Chrysler revamped the intake manifold design, they improved the air flow passages and made the TB spacers unnecessary.
Where's the Nissan Love?!
What's up guys? I have an naturally aspirated '03 Xterra that I love and I can't wait to start building next year when it's all paid off. Right now, it's modified with a custom-made snorkel and cold-air intake, Toyo Open Country ATs, and the rear sway bar has been removed. I know it's not much, but it's a start!
I don't understand why more magazines don't build an Xterra. The Xterra is a very capable machine.
I'm wondering if you guys could do an first-gen Xterra build for prerunning. I would love to see an Xterra prerunner!!!
Thanks!
Dan Eriksen
Sioux City, Iowa
Well, Dan, we honestly just don't have that many inquires about Xterras, and that's why we don't build one. The Titans were big for a while but we haven't seen too many more built since the economy took a turn, and we just built a Suzuki Equator (which is basically a rebadged Frontier), but the Xterra is something we rarely see in a prerunning uniform. I see Xterras all over the place for being driven by "outdoorsy" people to national parks and on light trails, but I haven't seen too many hardcore Xterra builds. When you finish yours, please send us some pics for the magazine!.
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