Installed 3.27 highway gears yesterday. They pull much better than the 2.73 gears I experimented with. Haven't had time to do a milage calculation yet but I think they will do almost as well as the 2.73's. A word about the gears; they were supposed to be ford, but they weren't. They were motive gear. The motive gears appeared to be of fair quality [ excepting burrs and a small chip on the thin edge of the pinion[ which shouldn't contact anything anyway]. While trying to remove the burrs[ thin edge of the pinion again] I found out how hard the gears were! The burrs scratched a cheap file and then did the same for a good one. These were the standard grade gears; the race gears may be softer. If you beat your gears, I recommend ford. I will post milage in a few days , bob

 

why did u have 2.73s? that seems really low.

 

Almost 30 miles per gallon with the 2.73's- in an x-cab , carrying 500 pounds of tools at 80 to 90 miles per hour. I do a lot of highway driving. I got the gears , new ford gears, for $40 shipped to my door. They were great on the highway but sucked around town [ bogging ] but still got around 24 around town. I drive 30,000 miles a year and don't want to pay more for gas in a month than I pay for the truck. I figured they were worth a try. All I'm out is the labor. I'd have left them in if I had a 4.0 or a whipple.

 

Hows the acceleration with 3.27s and a 3.0??? i mean man my 3.0 accelerates slow as hell and thats with 4.10s!

 

30 mpg is dang good, nice job.

id like to hear what you get with the new gears, keep us updated.

 

I'll do that. The 3.27's seem to be doing well in the milage area, but I need to get another couple of hundred miles on them for a good average. By the way that 30 MPG was with verry little use of the a/c. For a fair comparison I may have to take a long night/morning drive. I'm in no mood to do without a/c in the afternoon when it's over 100 degrees. Thanks for the interest. bob

 

Preliminary report; with 175 miles 25% a/c running 20% town stop and go and 70 to 75 on the highway 6.2 gallons for 28.2 mpg. Sean, I suggest you get an underdrive pulley and an e-fan. Acceleration is pretty damn good with those two power releasers. I bet I could take a stock 3.0 manual x-cab w/4.10's. Our granny low is a little too low in my opinion w/4.10's for a race. You're gear bound almost instantly and don't get much use out of it. Just my $.02. bob

 

nice on the 28.2

whats your battery say about idle and the efan with underrive pullies?

 

My e-fan , which I think is identical to the old jusnes modified fans only pulls about 13.2 amps running and about 20 amps to start. I still have the stock motorcraft battery and it's doing fine. Bear in mind that a quick trip to a convenience store is ten miles for me and I don't have a built sound system or extra lights. I was playing with my controller one day and obviously set it wrong. The e-fan ran for about 1 1/2 hours before I noticed. The battery was kinda low but it started and it was charging at idle, and only charged at a slightly higher rate if I revved it up. I haven't had any charging problems. I think the e-fan and pulley are a super deal and work great together. Felt like at least 10% rwhp freed up. I got my Wysco fan new on e-bay for $45 shipped. It can all be done for about $220 fan and pulley. The gears were $100 shipped with a master kit. I did the work myself. I'm not really set up to change gears in my garage at home so it took me about 7 hours. I was whipped after installing , and removing the chunk 20 times to get the lash just right, but I think I have the best compromise for me power/ fuel milage; save a tuner. I'm a wrench geek , not a computer geek. Tuner would probably be over my head . bob

 

Sounds good.. so how much different would 3.27's be vs 3.73's (mileage and performance)? It doesnt seem like it would make as big of a difference in mileage seeing how I only get around 18-19 city/ 21 highway with my 3.73's (3.0/manual) and that's driving good too.. but you say you can get 24 and 30 highway with 3.27's? I might have to look into this.. I'd like to upgrade to a l/s as well, open differential sucks majorly lol

 

you would be suprised. the tuner is rather easy to use. plus it can yeild good numbers as well. if you want to spend the $$ id look into it

 

Bj. if you multiply 3.73 by 1.1 you get 4.10 so you are about 10% better off [ fuel wise ] than a 4.10, or possibly more , because you are running at a lower rpm that may yield better milage on the highway. 3.27 are about 25% higher than the 4.10's and allow me to drive at 70 to 75 and still get much better milage than the epa numbers. I just matched the gears to the speed I drive. I used to own a ranger 3.0 3.73 manual and saw improvement just from changing the 225 70 15's to 31's. Got the same milage on the odometer, but they pushed me farther for the same fuel. I think it was because I lowered the rpm's by the same amount % wise and ran at a more fuel efficient rpm.

 

Maybe I will Zach, but I think my tortion bars will come first. Sagging f- code, looks ugly!

 

I am going to have a set of 3.27 gears for sale by the end of summer. They are 8.8's coming out of my 97 cobra.

 

Hmmm, maybe I should get some of these 2:73's lol I go through almost $175 in gas EVERY WEEK!!!!

 

Terry, you don't say in your sig whether you are an auto or manual, or whether you have big tires. Assuming the best, I wouldn't recommend going below 3.08 ; and assuming the worst [auto big tires and no pulley / e-fan] 3.55's. I do about 80/20 driving in highways favor and once drove 32,000 miles in nine months driving to work and visiting my crazy GF. It can get expensive fast!

 

um, now when you are calculating your mileage with different gears you do the calculations out to account for the fact that the odometer is now reading incorrectly right?

 

**** i had 3.27 gear in my 2.3L with 32x10.5 mudders talk about hell i am glad i have my 3.73 now but your right i did get better gas millage back then..

 

Of course I do Jason; what would be the point of not doing the calculation? 4.10 divided by 3.27= 1.253 X odometer miles. I usually drop the thousandths because I'm pretty sure the pumps calibration won't support it. I have stock tire size now, and realize that My odometer could be a couple of percent off [ 2 or 3] either way; I don't worry about it because it doesn't invalidate the results, which is greatly improved fuel milage at the speeds I actually drive, 70 to 80 MPH. bob

 

Update ; worst milage to date! I averaged 25mpg and change [ 257 miles for 9.95 gallons ] driving around town at low speed with the a/c on all the time. I attended my grandmothers funeral and had to ferry people around. I acted as pall bearer and was heavily starched and the a/c was a necessity to keep my shirt from wilting in the humidity.

 

I have a manual trans, 255x45x18 tires.

I was only joking about dropping back in gears. I will be getting another vehicle to get better mileage and then the ranger will be going through a transformation.

 

Whatever trips your trigger Terry. Mine is just my daily driver and work truck. I don't want to drop loads of money into it; just keep it economical. I just wanted to post this stuff for other people who are wanting some economy. It was recreational for me too. I know I'm weird. I like straining agains metal with greasy hands. bob

 

I have a 3.0 manual with 31's and get 20 with my foot to the floor.

 

Michael, do you have 373's? Were your stock tires 225 70 15's? If so , you already are at around 3.27 EFFECTIVE gear ratio. And you have the pulley. What's the hold-up on the e-fan? Add that and ease up a bit and you might equal my results. I don't want to pay for the gas, and damn sure don't want to pay for the ticket I'd get if I drove it on the floor. I posted a little about that. Getting almost 30 mpg. with 2.73 gears at 85 to 90 mph. the problem was that it bogged so bad at lower rpms. bob

 

yep i have 3.73s. Im not sure about the original tire size but that sounds correct. Hold up on the efan is no job. Im 16 in high school. The effective gear ratio you came out with sound about right too. I'll probably spring for an efan this summer after I start work.