Hello all. First post here. So i have a 94 swb 2.3 5spd with 272,000 on it. I bought it about 5 months ago just to run back and forth to work. I am a transmission builder "I see i might be answering a lot of posts here". So the first thing i did to the truck is fix the ac. It had a pressure switch leak and works well now. "Live in fl so i need the ac"
Without the ac off the truck was slow but ok. I drive 45 miles stop and go and from stop light if i am really on it i can keep up with traffic.
With ac on it was sad. Even jamming gears at 4500rpm most of the traffic was ahead of me.
So i did a good tune up. Plugs, wires, couple bottles of fuel injection cleaners and a bottle of seafoam through the vacuum. This helped some but to all my friends i call the truck "The turd"
So i started reading how to get some more power out of it. Most of my reading was here which is why i joined.
I did 2 things that made a big difference. First being i put an electric fan in it. I got a 20" fan from a 2000 grand marquee and had to do a lot of cutting to make it fit but it does and works like a champ. I even kept the 2 speed set up by running 2 relays and a 3 position switch. Between wiring, cutting and mounting it took me about 4 hours to do it.
Then i removed the baffle from the intake tub.
Now i am not going to say the truck is quick but its much much better.
Its been said that a drive fan will take 5/10 hp and when you only have 100 to start with 10 is a lot.
I notice gains all across the rpm range. Now i did drive it before i pulled the baffle out and it was much better but the power would drop at about 4500 rpm. With the baffle removed it continues to pull past 5000.
The best way i can explain it is i now have the same power with the ac on that i had with it off before and with the ac off i can leave the traffic from a light.
I know there is not much we can do outside of turbo to get any real power but these 2 cheap mods make it much better. The fan was a junk yard 40$ had the 2 relays and wire. Switch and connecters 15$ smile on my face priceless!!

 

Good info, thanks