Increased Performance

I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts or experience with doing things that increased or improved performance on their LR4? I'm hoping to do a full overhaul of the vehicle in the near future. Preventative maintenance to avoid catastrophic failure is a necessary evil. It doesn't move the needle forward, just keeps it from falling back. I feel like it sort of maintains the status quo for a longer period of time, which is a lot better than the alternative, I'll admit. But what really excites me is the prospect of doing things with the vehicle that can make it perform even better. For instance, I bought the LR4 about a year ago and it came with orange poly bushings that are kind of stiff. I've been told that the original OEM oil-filled bushings give a much smoother ride. That's the kind of thing I'm interested in. Spark plugs? Fuel injectors? A certain brand of brakes and rotors? Is there anything I can do to make the truck better rather than just keeping it from getting worse? Would love to hear your thoughts.

If you're leaving pavement I'd buy AT tires if you don't have any already.

OEM control arm bushings are superior to the poly bushings. You will have a smoother and less harsh ride. As far as brakes, you could swap out pads/rotors that don't dust as much compared to the OEM brakes, but I'm happy with the braking performance so I'm not changing mine.

BG 44K fuel system cleaner probably wouldn't hurt, seems to get recommended here a lot. Other than more serious off road mods (18" wheels, rock sliders, hidden winch, more skid plates and storage) there really isn't much else to do in my opinion besides upkeep.

I just switched from the poly bushings to the OEM ones and it is a very noticeable improvement in ride quality.

LR used premium components when building this vehicle. Even todays engines are significantly better (efficient lighter, more HP /displacement, torque…) than engines of just 20 years ago. The air suspension is quite robust. Consider how old most these vehicles are, the environment in which they are used, …

I expect to have the vehicle start and run equally at -40 and 35…. That took a lot of care and maintenance just to accomplish that 30 years ago.

So, when I hear “performance”, we need to quantify that.
Change the engine? You’re not going to squeeze much more out of this one.
Improve the braking? Maybe. But most of that aftermarket crap citing better performance is just crap. Be prepared to spend much more than oem.
Change the suspension? Possibly. But for what purpose? Off road setup is very different from onroad setup. Again much more expensive than oem.
And what many ignore is as one tinkers with “improvement”, you run the risk of reduced dependability. If done wrong you may end up with a very delicate vehicle that looks good in pics, but can’t do what it was designed for.

I see kids putting very large rims with spacers on, usually the wrong tires for the environment, a loud crappy exhaust, oiled air filters and lowering or raising the vehicle. All they accomplished is degrading the performance, lol.

Of course, many don’t know how to drive anyways. So they wouldn’t know good or bad performance if it slapped them in the face.

Thanks for starting this thread…. Be prepared to spend more than a new G550 AMG…. which btw, does not outperform this vehicle once you get OFF the road. And are constantly in the shop. Besides, I think is more a ”look at me drive down the boulevard” vehicle than what I do with most of my vehicles. I DRIVE them.

for the suspension bushings i really like the meyle HD LCAs. Rubber bushings that ride almost as nice as oem but should outlast them. Previous owner's shop fitted green stuff pads...they stop and perform well but make a lot of dust. I am happy with the 5.0 v8 performance as is.

@itsaguything thanks for your detailed response. "It is what it is." That's good to know. Sets the bar for my expectations. Helps me to know what to shoot for in my planned maintenance overhaul. And, no, I'm not into needlessly throwing money away.

Understand, I wasn't suggesting a transformative level of improved performance. I was more suggesting little tweaks that could tighten things up and dial them in. But unless there is something wrong (corroded spark plugs, for instance) that is reducing performance significantly there's nothing to be strongly gained by replacing parts.

BigBriDogGuy said:

I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts or experience with doing things that increased or improved performance on their LR4? I'm hoping to do a full overhaul of the vehicle in the near future. Preventative maintenance to avoid catastrophic failure is a necessary evil. It doesn't move the needle forward, just keeps it from falling back. I feel like it sort of maintains the status quo for a longer period of time, which is a lot better than the alternative, I'll admit. But what really excites me is the prospect of doing things with the vehicle that can make it perform even better. For instance, I bought the LR4 about a year ago and it came with orange poly bushings that are kind of stiff. I've been told that the original OEM oil-filled bushings give a much smoother ride. That's the kind of thing I'm interested in. Spark plugs? Fuel injectors? A certain brand of brakes and rotors? Is there anything I can do to make the truck better rather than just keeping it from getting worse? Would love to hear your thoughts.

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Forget which one you have, but if you have the V8, you're pretty much stuck. If you have the V6, the pulley and tune from Velocity AP will make a significant difference in terms of acceleration. Other than that, I'd just keep it well maintained. IE new bushings / control arms if they're starting to go. You can get drilled / slotted rotors but I doubt that will result in a measurable difference in performance.

The performance aftermarket is non-existent for the LR4. The V8 is great and I don't really need more performance out of it, but I'd like to have it. A lopey cam, headers and an X pipe w/different end muffler is what I wanted to get for it but none of that stuff exists. You might be able to get someone to make a custom Big Brake Kit. AP Racing offers the best monoblock calipers out there, but expensive.

On another note, an aging LR4 can benefit from a transmission service with a Sonnax Zip Kit. I plan on doing mine eventually.

My take away: A brand new tube of toothpaste may last longer than a half-squeezed tube of toothpaste, but it's not going to do a better job of cleaning your teeth.