If you do any hard core rock climbing it could get kind of expensive when you crush that stainless exhaust, couldn't it?  

I don't believe in NS Canada I'll be doing any rock krawling!! LOL mostly exploreing back woods/fire roads etc. My ZJ see's alot of street dailly driveing.

That's why next summer I'm only going with a 2" lift.

nothin' wrong with that at least you're getting out there!!  

What about just swapping gears? That would be a big improvement, do you think? My gears aer stock right now.(whatever that is)  

I understand that if you are putting larger tires on your ZJ then taller gears would make a difference however, take this with agrain of salt until you hear from someone with more experience.  I have the stock gears in mine still and until I change them out then I would nit like to give recommendations.   

Ya I heard what your saying. I won't be swaping gears for awhile, I'll want to add a header, k&n cold air intake and a cat back exhaust first.  

I have a pacesetter header on my 98 TJ 4.0L and i HATE it! My DC manifold cracked HMM imagine that so i put on the header figuring i wouldn't have to worry about cracks. I torqued it down correctly idled the jeep (to give the headers a heat cycle retorqed them but it has warped anyways (i did use red thread lock too) so my jeep always sounds like it has a little exhaust leak. If you go with a header do not be cheap that is what i did and it f'd me.

When i get around to it i am going to put a stock manifold back on. I also have a throttle body spacer w/ open element K&N it definitely breathes better but i really don't notice huge gains.

Honestly if you want more grunt lets say you're runnin' 31s and have 3.73 gears step up to 3.92s or 4.10s you won't get crappy mileage but you'll have more power in get this, every single rpm range. Its more $$ but when your budget allows and you want to go bigger at least you'll already have the gears.

my $.02

Well sorry to hear about your header! Did you contact the company? Maybe they'll replace it? I was thinking about a BANKS. It's not cheap and they have a great rep.

I donot  know how much power loss I'm looking at yet untill I get the lift and larger tires. Hey whats the average cost of getting someone to install new gears? I'm guessing around 6 to 800 for the gears and install?

Well i think you can get gear sets for alot cheaper than that. I looked at 4.56s for mine but i decided i can live w/ the 3.73s. i think complete for me carrier bearings etc was $400 something. I would install them although that is something i would possibly take to a shop just for warranty purposes.

If DC doesn't build the Gladiator in 07' I think I'm gonna go nuts on my TJ. i refuse to buy a rubi. I'm gonna get a pre bent cage to weld in prerunner front bumper-rear w/ tire carrier too. O.R. rock rails and 4.10/4.56s locker front limited rear and poison spider flat tube fenders painted hammer black. I can't ditch it for a Ranger.  I think if anything I'll get a 2wd ranger and lift it prerunner style just an el cheapo truck.

If thats okay with my wife....boowaaaaa yeah right!!!

DC: SAVE ME SOME TIME; BUILD THE GLADIATOR!!!!! 

I was thinking for both axles and labor  

oh i'd say you are pretty close w/ $800 bucks.  chack around maybe you might be able to get someone to do it for 200 bucks or nothing. Join a club. Might get members to help ya know.  

I used to do a lot of head work for old MOPAR muscle cars and I have found that you can get a lot of extra horses and still look stock by gasket matching your heads to your exhaust manifold.  It is a lot more work but, you save a lot of money and you don't have to worry about the constant retorqueing(?) and other headaches that headers can cause. Free horsepower is GOOD, eh?   

I see you can buy allum head and intake now for the 4.0. If I only had the money LOL  

I have a 4.0L and love the reliability and a lot a peeps on here want more POWER from their 2.5 or more POWER from their 4.0. I mean other than putting on a turbo, super charger or stroking it i don't see really any worth while thing you can do to these motors to make them have "mopar" pardon the pun. It seems like we're trying to put sprinkles on turds. LOL 

I have a header, tb spacer, and a flowmaster with a turndown on mine and it's still, well, slow, and i still wish i had more torque.  I just hope soon we have 3.7s in them instead of the 4.0s. (and 2.8crd option hehe)

I here what you are saying but, horsepower isn't what we need.  More torque is where it's at.  I am lucky in that  I don't have to use mine as a daily driver and I live in a relatively small city withlots of good off road terrain nearby.