[BFix] Gearing for Best Mileage

Fri May 2 22:48:00 MST 2008

didn't you put in a 3" body lift too? you've effectively put up a nice big wall to push air with, so your milage will suffer regardless, not to mention the larger tire footprint, less efficient tread  pattern, energy sucking taller sidewalls... FWIW all of my ranger based vehicles with a variety of power plants returned average 15mpg. the BEST hwy mileage came from the 5.0L though, with the worst from the 2.3 turbo. overall driving average made no difference, nor did 3.73/4.10 gears, 31/33" offroad tires.  Most important is your driving style/type, closely followed by rolling/wind resistance. same tests in the EB with tires/gearing brought the same conclusion.  
  For your exploder I would suggest 4.56 gears. I run 4.10/33's in my exploder, and its great, but its a 5spd. 33x10.50 and 3.73 on my old ranger was a great set up with dual cases and 5spd, but sucked without the dual low when off road. my B2 has 4.88/33's and its not a great highway setup. split the difference with your auto, and you'll be in good shape. do it soon though, before the trans sh!ts its guts from the extra load. I don't think there is a weaker auto out there.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Quinn Dusenberry 
  To: 'EBE' 
  Sent: Friday, May 02, 2008 5:31 PM
  Subject: [BFix] Gearing for Best Mileage

  This brings me to a topic I wanted to discuss. It's about my Explorer, but it applies to Broncos too. My "new" 97 Explorer came from the factory with 3.73 gears, 235/75 tires (29" tall). Since I converted to 33" tires, a common gear table (http://www.4lo.com/calc/geartable.htm) says that I should go to 4.27 gears (or so) to maintain factory gearing which is 2809 at 65 mph. Taking the OD into account, the rpm's should drop to 2106 (0.75 OD ratio).

  So here is my question. When the factory wants to go from power to mileage, they tend to use lower numerical gear ratios. In the case of EB's, they went from 4.10's to 3.50's for about the same tire size in the early 70's when the gas crisis hit. So on the one hand, it seems to me like my mileage should improve some by throwing on larger tires which effectively lowers the gear ratio. But as you point out, it seems that I probably have dropped out of the optimum range for my engine. My question is what gear ratio should I run for peak mpg? The new factory ratio of 4.27, keep it at the existing 3.73's or could I go with something even deeper, like 4.56's or 4.88's?

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  From: bfix-bounces at broncofix.com [mailto:bfix-bounces at broncofix.com] On Behalf Of ts
  Sent: Friday, May 02, 2008 11:02 AM
  To: EBE
  Subject: Re: [BFix] replacing 170 with a 200? 4.0??

  Yes and no. It does matter how hard that engine is working. The harder that you work an engine the shorter it's life will be, but also the less likely that it is operating at it's best rpm (unless on a governor).

  Say it takes 35HP to move down the road at 65 mph. A 40 HP engine is going to be basically WOT for the duration, where a 100 hp engine will be running with higher manifold vacuum and at a leaner mixture than the 40 HP could stand.

  Effective total gearing is huge. For best efficiency the engine needs to be operated at it's best Brake Specific Fuel Consumption rpm (BSFC, least fuel for most power produced), which happens to be the same rpm where peak torque occurs. 

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