Wait....you are in Jacksonville Florida and have issues with hills & bridges?
No way you're towing something heavier than mine and I've towed from Raleigh to Ft Lauderdale, Raleigh to Minnesota, Houston and Wilmington.

Let's get some specifics....what do you mean when you say... "really puts a strain on my engine"? Is it heating up? Is it flipping out of overdrive a lot?

What RPM are you turning at 70MPH, when not towing?
How many miles?
What maintenance have you done to date?

 

Wait....you are in Jacksonville Florida and have issues with hills & bridges?

Those on ramps and off ramps are a *****!:rofl: I lived in the Keys for a short time.

 

I'd recommend an external tranny cooler if it's getting too hot. I got mine from B&M. Also are you towing using OD?

 

The 2002 HO intake manifold or the '03-'04 4.7 intake manifold ('02 HO manifold was different from the standard 4.7, '03 and later the HO and non-HO share the same manifold) are good for a little more HP (most online sources cite them for 10-15 HP) and they drop right in place for the most part (slight differences in the vacuum system, I believe the older manifolds have an extra vacuum source that needs to be capped). You can find them on eBay for less than $100 fairly often or you can pull one from your local junkyard.

If you want the most power out of an intake manifold upgrade, the '09+ manifolds are the way to go, but due to the 2nd Gen 4.7's using throttle by wire and a different throttle body bolt pattern, you need a throttle body adapter which is found on airram.com. Unfortunately it is rather expensive.

 

HO cams will do exactly what you're looking for

 

Got a good source on any for a reasonable price? HO cams are exceedingly hard to find.

A junkyard or eBay search will yield plenty of newer 4.7 intake manifolds for reasonable prices. Plus not all of the gains the HO made over the Non-HO were attributed to the cams themselves.

 

Got a good source on any for a reasonable price? HO cams are exceedingly hard to find. A junkyard or eBay search will yield plenty of newer 4.7 intake manifolds for reasonable prices. Plus not all of the gains the HO made over the Non-HO were attributed to the cams themselves.

ebay has em. The cams contributed to most of the gains you see in the HO. Pistons/intakes/fuel injectors offer far less gains than the cams themselves. Safe to say they will accomplish exactly what the PO is looking for with is more torque/hp throughout the power curve especially when towing.

 

I'm getting an exhaust

Talk to Kolak.

Are you towing with your OD on?

 

ebay has em. The cams contributed to most of the gains you see in the HO. Pistons/intakes/fuel injectors offer far less gains than the cams themselves. Safe to say they will accomplish exactly what the PO is looking for with is more torque/hp throughout the power curve especially when towing.

Gonna need a tune for those cams. Tune is just as important.

 

Crane will regrind cams for the 4.7 as well. That's worth looking into if there's no HO cams on Ebay.

 

Gonna need a tune for those cams. Tune is just as important.

tune would be required for a different grind cam such as 206,212,etc but for factory HO cams you don't need one. Would you get more out of a tune when pairing cams with your exhaust and intake? Absolutely, but these cams are able to be swapped in no tune necessary. Most who tune (SCT) the 4.7 have a bit more mods than HO cams to require a tune.

 

Crane will regrind cams for the 4.7 as well. That's worth looking into if there's no HO cams on Ebay.

Crane regrinds HO cams into other grinds such as 206,212,212x etc however a regular output 4.7 cams could never be reground into a HO cam. They run on different center lines. I'm not totally sure if there's any gains to be had regrinding a reg. 4.7 cams.

 

I haven't personally had any done, but a customer of mine spoke with them last year and they had him send a set of _stock_ 4.7 cams to them for regrinding and he was very pleased with the results. It was a new service they were offering at the time. I haven't had time to do the research on the specs, so I just thought I'd pass it on here on the forum since I never really get to do that very much and I just wanted to give the OP something to investigate that I know is a service they offer.

 

That's great news. I would of never thought you'd see any results from the stock 4.7 cams. Definitely a cheaper route to have them ground vs spending the money on HO cams then sending them out.

 

I do see at least one set of used HO cams on Ebay right now but wow they want $600.00 for them!

 

Do you think a TCM swap would help the OP since he has the 99? I'm sure once on the highway hitting 5th just not sure about the lower gears on the ramp. Dodge guys pay anything for their 4.7 performance. $600 on a set no one can find isn't a bad deal (fees included on ebay). Even Airram was asking $525 which was up from the average online price of $400 a few years before that.

 

Does your '99 have the factory tow package? This is important because the FTP came with 3.73 gears in the diff(s). This will make a huge difference in towing ability with large loads on the trailer.
The HO parts will not be much help with towing; they increase top end power. For towing you need low- and mid-range power.
I towed a large boat from San Diego to Kansas several years ago. Going through the high altitude mountains from Flagstaff through Santa Fe was not a big deal, but I was not in OD and I have the 3.73 gears.
If you don't have 3.73 gears, then installing them would make the biggest difference for the least amount of money and be fairly simple. (you can deal with the speedo offsets)

 

I'm guessing it being a 4.7 limited he has the 3.73 gearing. The HO cams provide power from low-mid range torque/hp. Years ago I was big into the 4.7 with the dodge guys. I've seen the dynos and spoke to many guys modding their 4.7s. Most guys with average mods intake/exhaust and a well kept motor we're seeing 20+hp/20tq. Most don't see how that's possible when the HO motor itself only claims 30hp more. They wonder how Pistons/injectors/intake/heads and ecu only account for 10hp or so but in all reality it just does. I'll be sending another set out to crane for my next motor. Hopefully doing 206 cams. I'll be sure to share some numbers once I build the motor and get it installed.

 

Dodge is rather famous for underrating the output of their performance motors, so it wouldn't surprise me if the 4.7 HO's put out a bit more than they were rated for when new.

As you know there's been plenty of 4.7 guys who've swapped to the HO or Common Core 4.7 manifolds and gained 10+HP depending on existing mods, with the later '09+ manifolds being good for considerably more. The runner length inside the manifolds helps a bit with low end grunt, but a proper cam profile will offer a bigger bump in the low end power.

 

Great info here but only crickets from the OP with 2 posts.

 

I've been thinking about the newer style manifold. I currently have the 02 HO and it woke up stock 4.7 a bit. Throttle response improved as well as pulling strong thru the mid RPMs however it does a nose dive after that. Newer style claims to help it pull the higher rpms however it doesn't install easily on a wj. I believe there are only a handful of guys who have completed it on a jeep.

 

Does it have the tow prep package? My 01 4.7 does not have the tow package but I have the tow prep which includes the 3:73 gears. I think its everything but the hitch and plug.

 

Curious- has anyone seen a 4.7 with 3.55 gears? I don't think it exists. We all know the 4.7 comes with the 44a and I just wanted to confirm that they're all geared 3.73 only difference being vari lok or open.

 

The only ratio listed for the domestic D44HD is 3.73. Some export models may have come with 3.91 but 3.55 was never listed.

 

3.55 is the standard ratio on the 2.7 CRD.......just for information.

Sent from my SM-T310 using JeepForum

 

Ahhh. you are correct. I unearthed my WG export catalog and they do list a 3.55 ratio for the D44HD. That's not in any of the 1999-2004 domestic catalogs.

 

Well the left cam can be had for $150. The right cam HOLY **** though. Is that one made from platinum?

 

They gold-soldered the diamond-encrusted "R" onto it to distinguish it from the left.

With performance mods, a nice set of long headers also works great
and yes my WJ does have a set on - nice difference

:cheers:

And you sir are the worst kind. "My headers are great, I'm not gonna a link to a video to them but here's my youtube."

before buying this specific one, test drove two others, and both of those once at higher revs on the highways would sort of die off at higher revs
my one pulls through all the way to 200km/h
it feels scary at those speeds

Don't mind speeds with SFA vehicles, not any scarier than anything else- stable enough. Scary when you are driving something that can't stop for **** though at speed whether a large truck or little car...

I'd like for it to pull a touch harder but not sure how much is too much on a cast crank 4.7... (don't really want it to shut off after the optimal redline as that's a bit of a waste)

I'd like to know a price on them. Hopefully they're not made of unobtainium

It's a rather common alloy of gold, platinum, and unobtainium coated in Uranium- so they keep production rather low.

But seriously, for torque alone the headers make a huge difference. My old truck had just headers on the 318 for years and that's the biggest difference in torque besides the compression.

Have to remember there's not a bigger motor for WJs. You can hack the frame for an LS/Hemi or go back to a Magnum- there's not much in the way of options as none of those are ideal to people- and all of those are probably a bigger waste of time and money than forcefully-inducting a 4.7. Unless you step up hard in the gear ratio, you won't get to feel much of an increase from any of the newer motors though- and the only reason you would with a Magnum is if it's a stroker since they're so cheap.

 

How much?

Sent from my SM-T310 using JeepForum

 

Not even sure if you can order the cams from anyone. They're on national back order and have been for years. Some sites have the left and may list the right but I'm pretty sure they won't have it. Been this way on lots of sites for awhile now

 

Actually AirRam has ONE set available now. For a mere 450$ quid

http://airram.com/product.php?categoryid=1268&productid=1823

 

Actually AirRam has ONE set available now. For a mere 450$ quid http://airram.com/product.php?categoryid=1268&productid=1823

i was referring to any site claiming to sell new. That's a good price too. Someone should deff jump on those

 

Thanks everyone for all of your help and advice, this is some great info. The vehicle is completely stock and yes it does have the factory tow package. I do all the scheduled maintenance on it religiously. I always tow with the OD off and never go over 60mph when towing. My boat weighs right at 4000lbs dry weight and if it's full of gas add on a little over 1100lbs and then tackle and ice and everything else and I'm pretty sure I'm right at the max of my tow capacity if not over. Another problem I'm having is if I'm towing long distances the motor burns oil and I have to stop around every 100 miles or so and add a quart of oil, is that normal?