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Easiest ways to increase HP / Fuel economy?

snooble

By snooble
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snooble

snooble

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Howdy all,

I've been a happy Dodge Journey owner since last July, but the thing that gets me is the hunger for fuel. For what it guzzles it should have a bit more HP under the hood.

Anyone know of any relatively easy changes I could do that may help it along? Was thinking changing my air filter for a K&N to see how that helps.

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Atavio

Atavio

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Well, the owner's manual reccommends 2 things:

1) Driving slower.

2) Avoid the following blower settings as they WILL turn on the AC to dry the air EVEN if you have the temp. set to a warm setting:

Auto temp. control, front defroster, feet, or any combination of those.

Dealer said the car's GVW is overweight at just about 2 tons (supposedly), ain't no way to get around hauling all that weight around and using up too much gas.... I get 14mpg in the city, and can get from 19-20 mpg on the highway; previously found that highway mileage is the same if i go 60-80mph on the autobahn.

I'm starting to think that undercarriage wind resistance and the rear bumper play a big role in excessive wind resistance and consequential high fuel consumption.

Howdy all,

I've been a happy Dodge Journey owner since last July, but the thing that gets me is the hunger for fuel. For what it guzzles it should have a bit more HP under the hood.

Anyone know of any relatively easy changes I could do that may help it along? Was thinking changing my air filter for a K&N to see how that helps.

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diggit

diggit

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Howdy all,

I've been a happy Dodge Journey owner since last July, but the thing that gets me is the hunger for fuel. For what it guzzles it should have a bit more HP under the hood.

Anyone know of any relatively easy changes I could do that may help it along? Was thinking changing my air filter for a K&N to see how that helps.

Was thinking of going the K&N route but decided to wait to see if they come out with a ram air solution for my 2010 SXT. I installed a K&N oem replacement on my '04 Liberty and got a little less fuel consumption (16L/100km vs 19L/100km avg city), a throatier sound ( :D ) from the engine and it does feel like its got little more pull. Plus for $20 i bought the recharge/cleaner kit and I don't have to buy another air filter for the Jeep anymore. Had it in for about 5years and never a problem.

I highly recommend K&N, just beware of the imitation one size fits all bug eye/ram air solutions on ebay and such. Some people have actually noticed reduced performance from some of these.

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crunkfrunk

crunkfrunk

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A new filter might free a little something up but it's not going to be very measureable

I don't think there is much to increase HP yet, HP Tuners is working on expanding their support to Dodge but that hasn't happened yet and I'm not sure if the Journey will be tuneable

For better milage you could try higher octane gas, which will give you slightly better performance if the ECU is programmed that way, and stay off the pedal

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dandooley

dandooley

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Well, the owner's manual reccommends 2 things:

1) Driving slower.

2) Avoid the following blower settings as they WILL turn on the AC to dry the air EVEN if you have the temp. set to a warm setting:

Auto temp. control, front defroster, feet, or any combination of those.

Dealer said the car's GVW is overweight at just about 2 tons (supposedly), ain't no way to get around hauling all that weight around and using up too much gas.... I get 14mpg in the city, and can get from 19-20 mpg on the highway; previously found that highway mileage is the same if i go 60-80mph on the autobahn.

I'm starting to think that undercarriage wind resistance and the rear bumper play a big role in excessive wind resistance and consequential high fuel consumption.

i get 24mpg on th highway.. and its true same mpg if going 60 or going 80mph.

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dp360

dp360

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Driving style will have more impact on fuel economy than anything else. My wife is a binary driver - it's either full on or full off with the accelerator. I'm real smooth. No matter what the vehicle, I always get 15-20% better fuel economy than she does.

My 3.5L V6 SXT gets 19-20 MPG (U.S.) around town (which is a 60/40 mix of hwy/city driving). On a recent road trip I averaged 25 MPG hwy, but it was really 23 one way and 27 the other.

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radrob

radrob

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:dance: i had a 2008 avenger with the cai and loved the sound & the differece in power,sold it but kept the cold air intake and put it on the jurney,same motor and set up, everything lines up preffect except the snorkal,just a bit of modin and she was good to go :shift: she sound good &has more power,not munch but enough
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dp360

dp360

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:dance: i had a 2008 avenger with the cai and loved the sound & the differece in power,sold it but kept the cold air intake and put it on the jurney,same motor and set up, everything lines up preffect except the snorkal,just a bit of modin and she was good to go :shift: she sound good &has more power,not munch but enough

What CAI system do you have?

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radrob

radrob

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k&n for the 3.5L avenger awd and i think it will get better the more my engine gets broken in,right now i'm sitting at 9200km .i know this becouse of my avenger had to be broken in too,and once that happens she'll be a quick lil bun wagon :happy feet:

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Swerv

Swerv

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k&n for the 3.5L avenger awd and i think it will get better the more my engine gets broken in,right now i'm sitting at 9200km .i know this becouse of my avenger had to be broken in too,and once that happens she'll be a quick lil bun wagon :happy feet:

Radrob can you tell me if this is like the intake you purcahsed that fits the journey?

http://www.autoanything.com/air-intakes/61A1915A0A0.aspx?kc=MERCSHOP&from_search=1&mr:referralID=286164e6-7004-11df-a41e-0026b95a1734

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warbird24

warbird24

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One thing that has not been mentioned is to be ANAL about tire pressures. Have them at or ABOVE the pressure listed for the vehicle.

The cautionary side of this is do not have them too high or you will run the risk of having the center of the tread wear more.

Fluid changes....Synthetic Oils. While this may not do a lot, it will do something and to me it is worth it. On the AWD versions I do not

know what they use in the rear "PUMPKIN" but changing to Synthetics there also will help if it is allowed.

+1 on the K&N Air Filters.

Hyper Miling.....Changing your driving habits to get better mileage. Look over this site:

http://www.hypermiling.com/

There are many little things you can do just driving to get better mileage. This can be done on ANY vehicle! When I drove

class A Fuel Tankers, I could get 1-2 MPG better than the rest of the fleet due to my methods of driving. In my POV's

when we travel my wife routinely gets 2-4 mpg less than when I am driving the same vehicle. Put her in my Jeep,

reset the overhead computer, and her average is always 4 mpg less than when I drive the same roads.

Now with my Camaro, my normal driving is 23 mpg in mixed driving. If I pay attention and soft pedal the Camaro

Ive's seen in the high 28-29 mpg area.....But WHO drives a Camaro that way? LOL!

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JTroy

JTroy

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One thing that has not been mentioned is to be ANAL about tire pressures. Have them at or ABOVE the pressure listed for the vehicle.

The cautionary side of this is do not have them too high or you will run the risk of having the center of the tread wear more.

+1 on the K&N Air Filters.

I just ordered a K&N Filter:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000AP8EQW/ref=ox_ya_os_product

...and a recharge kit:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00029WYEY/ref=ox_ya_os_product

And I noticed that, at the recommended pressure (34psi +/- 0.5), my tires are wearing more on edges than in the center:

Driver Front Pax Front

outer center center inner inner center center outer

5.8/32 6.4/32 6.4/32 5.4/32 5.1/32 5.8/32 5.8/32 5.4/32

Driver Rear Pax Rear (Replaced under warranty 5 mo's ago)

outer center center inner inner center center outer

5.8/32 6.4/32 6.4/32 5.4/32 9.0/32 9.3/32 9.3/32 9.0/32

I'm going to run them at 36psi.

I just rotated them in X pattern. Next time I will start rotating them in a forward cross pattern.

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jkeaton

jkeaton

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Waste of money. Throttle body spacers do absolutley nothing on fuel injected engines. The principle of them is to allow more space for the air and fuel to mix. But since there is no fuel in the throttle body they are pointless.

If they actually worked the car manufacturers would install them in the factory. Remember, car makers spend millions of dollars to engineer and test cars for power and fuel economy. If these things worked they would install them.

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B4ZINGA

B4ZINGA

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That's correct. On my 300M it is known that a TB spacer is pointless. A lower-intake-manifold spacer, however, has produced a dyno-proven 30 ft-lb torque improvement across the range. Your best bet is to see what other vehicles equipped with the Pentastar V6 are managing with regard to performance parts. The Avenger would be the closest cousin in engine layout and engine bay design.

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xcaliber81

xcaliber81

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Posted

Greetings....I drive the 2.4 litre......I try to float the "fuel economy" meter with an easy foot....when it's all highway, a/c off, and driving 55-60 mph....I get 32 mpg (US)...

I get that going 120 kph mostly and ac on.

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