Gear Swap = Better Gas Milage?

Actually using the cross multiplication method in the tech section a manual transmission equipped 4.0 needs 3.60 gears to perfectly match w/ a 32" tire. That means 3.56's from an auto equipped XJ's axles would be a really close match.

BTW, correcting your gearing back to near stock makes your speedo and odo more accurate.
 
3.55's and 30's, good.
3.55's and 31's, not so good.
4.11's and 31's, I'm in 5th gear at 40 if it's flat. In my experience with a manual tranny 32's and 4.11's would be a good all around gearing. When you lift and put on bigger tires, you add considerable drag due to air resistance and road friction. That's been my experience. Then again, I know more than one person who has 31" tires and a four inch lift who wishes they had 4.56's rather than 4.11's.

I'm not so concerned about crawl ratio since I have a 4-1 transfercase.

Fred
 
DutchVDub said:
Actually using the cross multiplication method in the tech section a manual transmission equipped 4.0 needs 3.60 gears to perfectly match w/ a 32" tire. That means 3.56's from an auto equipped XJ's axles would be a really close match.

BTW, correcting your gearing back to near stock makes your speedo and odo more accurate.
I run 31's on my manual and 3.56's are perfect
 
philip_g said:
I run 31's on my manual and 3.56's are perfect

I'll be running those w/ my 32's. When it comes time for my 35's I'll be swapping to some 4banger axles. Again using the cross multiplication I would need a 3.90 something to match stock w/ 35's, so 4.10's will be perfect. I'll get more low gear w/ a simple transfercase rebuild/regear. You only need the super low gears for wheeling and thats what 4lo is for, 4hi is for snow covered streets.
 
I DD my XJ and drive about 200 miles a week, 4.10s and 35's with an AX-15 suck... Its OK for flat / around town, but the minute you head up a mountain or hill, say hello to all the truckers that pass you... I'll be going to 4.56 or 4.88s on the next set of axles.

To the OP, i wouldnt go above 4.10s. You'll be reving very high on the freeway and it will ruin your milage.
 
Last edited:
swbooking said:
I DD my XJ and drive about 200 miles a week, 4.10s and 35's with an AX-15 suck... Its OK for flat / around town, but the minute you head up a mountain or hill, say hello to all the truckers that pass you... I'll be going to 4.56 or 4.88s on the next set of axles.

To the OP, i wouldnt go above 4.10s. You'll be reving very high on the freeway and it will ruin your milage.
Why don't you down shift. I have 35s and 3.55s and have no prob running up the mountain at 70 mph.
 
Cause gas is $4.00 a gallon and id like to get better then 10mpg... Yeah i used to have 33's and 3.07s and run like a bat out of hell. Plus i have a 210K RENIX, i try to be nice to it.
 
My speedo is about 15% off. So when I figured the mileage I figured with about 10%. So I wouldn't be giving the XJ more. Trick is to keep the engine in 2k rpm range. I never use over drive. Plus I have HO engine with Renix injection. Better flowing heads and running the stock HO exhaust manifold. Jeep has been pretty good to me just hit 220k this week.
 
If you run a higher RPM w/ less throttle to get up the hill you are actually burning less mileage and hurting your engine less than keeping it bogged down in a lower rpm with a lot of throttle. Low rpm and high engine load mean less oil pressure and more bearing stress. I've seen plenty of evidince for this when I rebuilt engines for the Army. Part of the reason the Army went to automatic transmissions in everything is because people don't know how to drive a manual properly.
 
Back
Top