Ep.25 XJ Gas Mileage Reality Check | Lift, Gears and 300 lbs of Mods
Excuses Me, XJ Talk Show… It’s On! 🚙 Classic XJ Talk – Gas Mileage, Cooling Issues & Jeep Mods Join Tony on this classic episode of the XJ Talk Show (now Jeep Talk Show) as we dive deep into real-world experiences with the Jeep Cherokee XJ. We’re talking honest gas mileage numbers after a 4.5″ lift, bigger tires, added bumpers, winch, and more — plus that annoying highway heat creep problem. 🔧 What We Cover: • 3+ years of detailed MPG tracking (stock vs. modified) • Why changing to 4.56 gears made a real difference (from ~10-11 to ~12.5-13.5 MPG) • O2 sensors, fuel injectors, Performance Distributor Firewire kit results • Speedometer gear correction after bigger tires • Cooling system upgrades, thermostat lessons, and highway heat creep • Weight vs. MPG reality check (300+ lbs of bumpers/winch/spare) • Listener chat with Weldman (Kurt) testing the Firewire kit Plus plenty of XJ community talk, voicemail reminders, and some great listener promos at the end. If you’re running an XJ (or any 4.0L Jeep), this one’s full of practical lessons from the road. 📞 Leave us a voicemail! Questions or comments? Call 530-675-4102 and you might hear yourself on a future show. 👉 Visit the home of the XJ: https://xjtalk.com **Timestamps:** 00:00 Show Introduction and Topics Overview 02:39 Listener Call-In and Sponsorship Details 03:36 Invitation for Broad Discussion and Show Focus 04:48 MPG Tracking, Lift Kit Effects, and Speedometer Calibration 07:48 Speedometer Gear Replacement and Calibration 10:35 Forum Advice on Sensors, Differentials, and Transmission Slippage 12:45 Initial MPG Measurements and Variability 14:01 O₂ Sensor Swap and Impact on Fuel Economy 16:01 Fuel Economy Variability and Hyper‑Miling Theory 17:41 Driving Strategies and Speed‑Related Fuel Consumption 18:47 Choosing Driving Speed and Gear Ratio Analogy 21:04 Engine RPMs at Different Highway Speeds 23:41 Effects of Differential Gear Change on RPM, Heat and MPG 26:54 Impact of Added Weight and Airflow on Fuel Economy 30:14 Performance Distributor Installation Results 31:58 Distributor Kit Failure and Spark Plug Gap Review 33:56 Listener Fuel Readings and Kit Installation Timing 34:41 Explanation of Performance Distributor Kit Components 35:49 Spark Enhancement Claims and Gear Ratio Effects 36:28 Gear Ratio Questions and O₂ Sensor Debate 37:13 O₂ Sensor Influence on MPG and Repeated Swaps 38:29 Long‑Term MPG Trends and Differential Gear Impact 40:41 Exploring 4.10 Gears and Larger Tire Options 45:03 33‑Inch Tire Experience and MPG Rant 46:15 Chat Recap: Axle Limits and 35‑Inch Tire Recommendation 47:51 Dana 60 Strengths and Road‑Warrior Enthusiasm 49:37 Comparing Jeeps to Other 4×4 Vehicles 50:19 Lift Kits, Tire Upgrades, and Cooling System Challenges 52:30 Target RPM Reduction with 35‑Inch Tires 53:46 Thermostat Settings and Engine Temperature Management 54:59 Cold Weather Comfort and Thermostat Effects 55:43 Thermostat Clarification and Listener Appreciation 56:19 Show Wrap‑Up and Invitation for Feedback 57:22 xjtalk.com Community Promotion and Sign‑Up Call Drop your XJ MPG numbers, mods, or cooling tips in the comments! What’s worked (or not worked) for you? #JeepCherokee #XJ #JeepTalkShow #XJTalk #GasMileage #JeepMods #4.0L #OffroadJeep “` Visit our website: https://jeeptalkshow.com/ Watch/Listen on Spotify https://jeeptalkshow.com/spotify Join our Discord Server: https://jeeptalkshow.com/discord Subscribe to our newsletter: https://jeeptalkshow.com/newsletter Help Support the show via Patreon: https://jeeptalkshow.com/patreon
Episode Transcript
[00:00:00:06 – 00:00:03:23]
Excuse me, talk show. It’s on. No.
[00:00:28:13 – 00:00:29:23]
No. No.
[00:00:37:00 – 00:00:46:18]
Well, good evening. It’s Wednesday night, 8pm Central Time, and that means it’s time for another XJTalk.com show. Full name being Jeep Cherokee XJTalk.com.
[00:00:47:23 – 00:00:51:26]
I kind of want to make it clear that we’re here to talk about Jeep Cherokees.
[00:00:53:00 – 00:00:55:17]
Just the Cherokee and better known as XJ.
[00:00:57:18 – 00:01:07:25]
That’s why the website name is XJTalk. As we talk about them. Tonight we’re going to be talking about a couple of, well I think important things.
[00:01:08:25 – 00:01:38:27]
Gas mileage on your XJ. And the overall core design of the cooling system, which I believe is going to be a repeat a bit from a previous show. But summertime is upon us. So I think maybe some of the issues that I have found in gothoo on my personal Jeep XJ might be of benefit to you. So we’ll get right to that after we finish up playing this music.
[00:02:43:10 – 00:02:56:10]
I want
[00:02:56:10 – 00:03:07:26]
to remind you guys that we love getting calls in on our voicemail or our feedback line. So, you know, give us a call, leave your comment, leave a message, we’ll probably play it on the air. Here’s that number.
[00:03:07:26 – 00:03:22:16]
Do you have questions or comments that you would like played on the air? We’ve set up voicemail just for that purpose. All you have to do is call 530-675-4102. Just leave your name, your location,
[00:03:22:16 – 00:03:26:26]
and your question or comment. Chances are good it’ll get played on the air.
[00:03:26:26 – 00:03:35:27]
That number again is 530-675-4102. We look forward to hearing from you today.
[00:03:35:27 – 00:03:44:16]
Also too, if you’ve got something to talk about, it doesn’t necessarily have to be about Jeeps. Jeep related is good. You don’t want
[00:03:44:16 – 00:04:05:15]
Jeep talk show. But we’re interested in other things. It may be something that indirectly pertains to Jeeps. It may be a bitter oil product that you’ve had direct experience with. And maybe it’s not even with a Jeep Cherokee. The
[00:04:05:15 – 00:04:18:03]
TJ Wranglers have a very common heritage with the XJs. At least the ones that were made during the same time period and have the 4.0 liter engine.
[00:04:18:03 – 00:04:33:25]
So you may have some experiences with engines or drivetrains or the other parts of the drivetrain that might benefit all of us. So feel free to get in contact with me via the XJTalk website and be a guest.
[00:04:33:25 – 00:04:43:21]
So as I said in the opening, we’re going to be talking about some of the issues that I’ve gone through with my XJ.
[00:04:45:01 – 00:04:50:02]
Maybe in the hopes of helping you out a bit, I have recently
[00:04:50:02 – 00:04:55:17]
updated the amount of
[00:04:55:17 – 00:04:56:10]
mile per gallon
[00:04:56:10 – 00:05:04:17]
measurements that I’ve been taking since I believe it was July of 2009.
[00:05:04:17 – 00:05:06:01]
2009, 2011.
[00:05:07:25 – 00:05:13:16]
be 2008, 2008, 2009. Because I’m coming right up on three years worth of
[00:05:13:16 – 00:05:14:14]
MPG data.
[00:05:14:14 – 00:05:22:07]
And I started recording that data primarily because gasoline prices were spiking
[00:05:22:07 – 00:05:23:21]
pretty bad.
[00:05:23:21 – 00:05:27:09]
And I had just put the lift kit,
[00:05:27:09 – 00:05:30:21]
the 4.5 inch Shruff Country lift kit on my Jeep.
[00:05:30:21 – 00:05:34:28]
And I had put the
[00:05:34:28 – 00:05:41:07]
larger tires, 32 by 11.5 inches by 15
[00:05:41:07 – 00:05:44:01]
and the alloy wheels, the 10 by 15 alloy wheels.
[00:05:44:01 – 00:05:50:17]
And I was noticing what seemed to be a gas mileage problem.
[00:05:51:28 – 00:05:58:22]
I had not noticed, and of course I understood that perhaps it wasn’t so much that I was having the problem
[00:05:58:22 – 00:06:01:16]
as I was noticing how much gas was costing.
[00:06:01:16 – 00:06:19:07]
Because if something is cheap enough, it’s below your radar and you really don’t pay that much attention to it. Well I think the combination of the price rising and the gas mileage going down were two critical things that made me care, frankly.
[00:06:19:07 – 00:06:25:21]
So I started measuring that information and you know, if I had,
[00:06:25:21 – 00:06:28:06]
when you lift a vehicle,
[00:06:28:06 – 00:06:32:17]
you understand pretty much going in, especially if you ever have done it in the past,
[00:06:32:17 – 00:06:50:08]
you understand going in, you’re not going to get as good a gas mileage simply because you’re changing the aerodynamics of the vehicle and I think more importantly, you’re putting more between your vehicle and the road in the form of a larger tire.
[00:06:50:08 – 00:06:53:19]
And let me just
[00:06:53:19 – 00:07:06:05]
answer this question before it comes up. Yes, the speedometer was corrected. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, when you change the diameter size of the tire from stock to
[00:07:06:05 – 00:07:09:13]
a larger tire or wheels-hire combination,
[00:07:09:13 – 00:07:13:13]
that basically means that the tire is going to roll
[00:07:13:13 – 00:07:22:25]
further to get back to the same point on the tire. So your speedometer will show slower than what you’re actually going.
[00:07:22:25 – 00:07:31:02]
So you actually have to correct that. Now some vehicles, I think you can correct it through the computer, the onboard computer or the ECM
[00:07:31:02 – 00:07:35:19]
and some have mechanical means
[00:07:35:19 – 00:07:48:10]
and there may be those and the XJ may be a included in this that you can correct either through the ECM or by changing a gear. And the only way I know how to do it is by changing the gear.
[00:07:48:10 – 00:08:00:17]
And I just went on the internet, you guys have heard of the internet I’m sure, and looked up the size tire that I have, the gear ratio that I have in the front and rear differentials
[00:08:00:17 – 00:08:28:05]
and picked the number of tooth gear that I needed to get it back to the stock setting. So I spent about $25 I think and I got the $32 or $35 or whatever tooth gear it was and it literally takes about 7 minutes to take the one bolt holding the other one in, the bracket off and
[00:08:28:05 – 00:08:31:20]
put the new gear in and put it back in through the rear. The transfer case
[00:08:31:20 – 00:08:34:20]
and put the bolt back in and go on down the road.
[00:08:34:20 – 00:08:43:01]
I really wanted that because the first vehicle that I lifted was a 1983 Chevrolet pickup
[00:08:43:01 – 00:08:50:00]
and there may have been something just as easy to correct that speedometer, if so I wasn’t aware of it.
[00:08:50:27 – 00:09:03:00]
And I drove that truck for quite a while with the speedometer being off and it’s a bit of a scary feeling whenever you’re driving around and especially if there’s any police,
[00:09:03:00 – 00:09:05:27]
you’re concerned about getting a speeding ticket,
[00:09:05:27 – 00:09:10:20]
especially since I was in my mid to late 20s when I did that.
[00:09:10:20 – 00:09:49:07]
So eventually looking in a magazine I found where there was a company that would basically add this little piece of, it was a gear for all intents and purposes, a reduction gear set and that was back in the days of the mechanical speedometer so you actually had a cable that would come up from the transmission or transfer case all the way to the back of the speedometer in your dash and that cable would turn and the speedometer needle would turn and measure your speed. So basically I got this little reduction gear thing, I would assume it was reduction, maybe not, maybe it was an increase.
[00:09:50:20 – 00:10:05:10]
But it basically, through the use of a couple of gears, it corrected it and you actually would have to go out and measure time over a fixed distance.
[00:10:05:10 – 00:10:19:28]
And the further the distance, the more accurate it was. So anyway, it was a lot easier to do on the Jeep and it’s just a gear and the gear is on many companies online carry those gears
[00:10:19:28 – 00:10:25:04]
and actually I got mine from the dealership, local Jeep dealership
[00:10:25:04 – 00:10:35:16]
and it was about the same price online or just going down to the dealership so I just did that. So anyway, I did correct the speedometer. So
[00:10:35:16 – 00:10:50:00]
one of the things that I found out, I was on naxja.org website asking questions and trying to gather help from some of the members and visitors there.
[00:10:50:00 – 00:11:01:28]
Tell them that hey my gas mileage sucks and they’re basically saying welcome to the club and I said yeah I understand. But interestingly there was several other people and of course it’s the internet, nobody cares, lies.
[00:11:03:23 – 00:11:16:14]
But there was several other people that were saying that hey I’ve got 32 inch tires or I’ve got 33 inch tires and blah blah blah and this bumper and this spare tire and et cetera et cetera and I get 600 miles of the gallon.
[00:11:16:14 – 00:11:26:05]
And there was enough of them that were saying, and of course I’m being facetious, they were saying 16 to 18 miles per gallon
[00:11:26:05 – 00:11:34:14]
with this heavy equipment added to their vehicles with speedometers corrected.
[00:11:34:14 – 00:11:36:22]
So highway mileage of course.
[00:11:36:22 – 00:12:09:06]
And I thought to myself well, the vehicle is supposed to be rated for 20 miles per gallon highway and I think we all know that those estimates are never met. I guess in some rare tail wind, jet stream, tornadic activity near your jeep during the measuring of gas mileage you might get that but who knows. But there are people that do get over 20 miles per gallon. Generally speaking they have standard transmissions
[00:12:09:06 – 00:12:12:22]
and of course the nice thing about the standard transmission is you control
[00:12:12:22 – 00:12:22:00]
how much RPM, how much power that you put to the transmission and more importantly I believe how much slippage occurs
[00:12:22:00 – 00:12:27:27]
because there’s a lot of slipping going on inside an automatic transmission and I think they do that partially
[00:12:27:27 – 00:12:35:24]
to make the ride easier to make it feel smoother because we all know that the jeep cherries are luxury vehicles.
[00:12:35:24 – 00:12:44:23]
But anyway you do have more control over how much slippage goes on between the engine and getting the power to the rear wheels.
[00:12:44:23 – 00:12:48:07]
So I measured, I started measuring the MPG
[00:12:48:07 – 00:12:52:19]
for my jeep and I was getting around 10 miles to the gallon
[00:12:52:19 – 00:12:55:25]
and I thought that was really, really bad.
[00:12:55:25 – 00:13:05:09]
There was a lot of different things thrown out there from NAXJ members about O2 sensors being bad.
[00:13:06:13 – 00:13:16:16]
You need to change the differential gears because it’s taking more power to get the jeep going. What was another thing that I remember?
[00:13:16:16 – 00:13:17:22]
And
[00:13:17:22 – 00:13:22:03]
over those last three years I’ve tried a number of things.
[00:13:23:02 – 00:13:30:08]
I’ve replaced the fuel injectors from the stock one-holed injector
[00:13:30:08 – 00:13:34:25]
to a Ford Mustang, I think it was a 2009
[00:13:34:25 – 00:13:55:17]
Ford Mustang injector with, gosh, there was like six or seven holes in that injector. So the idea there giving you a better spray pattern to mix the air and the fuel and if you get a better pattern, a more diffused pattern, then you should get a better burn.
[00:13:55:17 – 00:14:05:04]
And I thought hey maybe the injectors are giving me a problem. Anyway I can get a little ahead of myself. The first thing that I tried were the O2 sensors
[00:14:05:04 – 00:14:17:08]
and I replaced the two O2 sensors with Bosch, saying that correctly or not. Bosch O2 sensors and they were about $70 a piece.
[00:14:17:08 – 00:14:34:13]
On the 1998 Jeep Cherokee like I have, it is, there’s only two O2 sensors. One is up close to the exhaust manifold and one is further away closer to the catalytic converter.
[00:14:34:13 – 00:14:47:12]
And my understanding is that the one closest to the exhaust manifold is the one that is basically telling the computer or giving the computer the information it needs to adjust the air-fuel mixture.
[00:14:47:12 – 00:14:55:09]
And of course that’s critically important not only in the running of your Jeep but the efficiency of running of the Jeep,
[00:14:55:09 – 00:14:56:18]
running of the engine.
[00:14:56:18 – 00:15:35:09]
And then the downstream, the one closest to the exhaust sensor would be upstream. The one closer to the catalytic converter would be the downstream O2 sensor. And my understanding is that the downstream O2 sensor measures how well the mixture is being burned. Basically I think how well the catalytic converter is taking care of it. I believe that’s right. I believe that’s on the back end of the catalytic converter. In other words, it’s measuring the mixture after the catalytic converter has done its job trying to scrub up the hydrocarbons out of there.
[00:15:35:09 – 00:15:40:23]
At any rate, the front one I was more concerned with and
[00:15:40:23 – 00:15:53:06]
made no difference. Nothing that I could tell. And I am able to tell, I have heard this before and I’ve seen this directly. You have to collect a lot
[00:15:53:06 – 00:15:54:08]
of data
[00:15:54:08 – 00:15:58:20]
to be able to see what’s going on
[00:15:58:20 – 00:16:00:29]
for your miles per gallon, what your gas mileage is.
[00:16:00:29 – 00:16:02:26]
Because it can vary
[00:16:02:26 – 00:16:04:08]
pretty widely
[00:16:04:08 – 00:16:05:22]
over time.
[00:16:05:22 – 00:16:09:04]
And, oh I’m sorry, not over time, over a short period of time.
[00:16:09:04 – 00:16:18:04]
And I cannot relate that. In three years of data, I cannot relate that to the way I was driving.
[00:16:18:04 – 00:16:30:04]
I don’t know why. It goes, I’ve seen it as low as 11 and a half. I guess I’ve seen it down as close to 10, almost 11 miles per gallon.
[00:16:30:04 – 00:16:36:28]
And I’ve seen it as high as, gosh, what was it, 13.6, 13.7 miles per gallon.
[00:16:36:28 – 00:16:39:27]
And I mean, we’re talking from week to week.
[00:16:39:27 – 00:16:47:27]
And actually, you get a nice sawtooth pattern on the graph. It goes up, it goes down. It goes up, it goes down.
[00:16:47:27 – 00:16:54:24]
And you might get a period in there where two or three weeks will be fairly
[00:16:54:24 – 00:17:02:14]
the same, I mean, within a half, less than a mile per gallon.
[00:17:02:14 – 00:17:13:19]
But it varies widely. And it’s really strange. I don’t understand that. Especially after the ECM has learned your driving habits.
[00:17:13:19 – 00:17:16:00]
The other thing I didn’t understand very much was,
[00:17:16:00 – 00:17:36:22]
I can drive like the hypermilers drive. And of course, I’m exaggerating. The hypermiler is basically like, they’re usually people driving Honda’s. And they plan their courses from wherever they go on work, whatever, where they don’t have to stop as much, where they don’t have to go very fast.
[00:17:36:22 – 00:17:38:06]
And they can accelerate
[00:17:38:06 – 00:17:53:18]
gradually over a long distance. So they have to plan the most optimum route. They have to plan a route where they, at least here in Texas, don’t get shot for driving so slow, or accelerating so slow. But
[00:17:53:18 – 00:18:16:02]
even trying to drive very carefully and slow to accelerate and so and so forth, I was not seeing a change in gas mileage. Now, it may have shown up if I had done that over a long period of time, but I probably would have killed myself. I probably would have just gone insane and killed myself trying to drive that
[00:18:16:02 – 00:18:23:05]
carefully over a long period of time. I mean, that’s one of the fun things about driving the Jeep anyway is taking off and going.
[00:18:23:05 – 00:18:26:23]
Driving altogether, I guess, is just fun to accelerate,
[00:18:28:05 – 00:18:31:04]
take the corners sharp, et cetera, even in a Jeep.
[00:18:31:04 – 00:18:53:12]
So anyway, it basically, I know that it takes more gas to move the Jeep faster, but it just seems like idle or 70 miles an hour, it’s using about the same amount of gas. So it’s your choice. You’re going to be going slow or you can be going fast or faster.
[00:18:53:12 – 00:18:54:21]
At any rate, the
[00:18:54:21 – 00:19:00:26]
next thing I tried that I recall is replacing the differential gears.
[00:19:00:26 – 00:19:03:10]
The stock differential gears
[00:19:03:10 – 00:19:05:10]
are 3.55.
[00:19:05:10 – 00:19:24:20]
And again, going through NAXJA.org, the members and guests there were suggesting, I mean, and doing my own research, they were suggesting 410 or 450, I’m sorry, 4.10 or 4.56
[00:19:24:20 – 00:19:27:12]
gears for the differentials.
[00:19:27:12 – 00:19:40:00]
So basically what that means is that it’s going to allow the engine to turn the front and rear axles faster.
[00:19:40:00 – 00:19:42:02]
They will turn more revolutions
[00:19:42:02 – 00:19:45:15]
what the differential gears that were there,
[00:19:46:19 – 00:19:54:28]
what they would turn, the wheels. So you have various ways that you can adjust how much the wheels turn.
[00:19:54:28 – 00:20:02:27]
Certainly if you increase the tire size, that means the tire is not going to turn as many revolutions over a distance.
[00:20:02:27 – 00:20:11:10]
So by changing out the differential gears to a higher numeric gear or a lower gear ratio,
[00:20:11:10 – 00:20:27:07]
now you’re going to be, the tire is actually going, the tire is still going to go over the same distance, but the engine is going to turn more times for that same amount of wheel rotation.
[00:20:27:07 – 00:20:43:05]
Basically what it does is it means that it’s going to be easier for the engine to get the mass of the Jeep moving forward or even reverse. It’s going to be easier for the engine to get it going because there’s going to be less resistance.
[00:20:44:15 – 00:21:06:10]
Let’s see, is resistance, would that be correct? I guess to a degree that that’s true because it would be like using a lever and you can use a short lever to move something and you have to use more force to get that moving or you can use a lever and then it doesn’t require as much force. So I believe that’s a good analogy.
[00:21:06:10 – 00:21:09:06]
May not, may not be, but anyway, that’s what you got.
[00:21:09:06 – 00:21:20:16]
So replace the, I went with 410 was what I was considering and there was so many people that said, you know, it’s a lot of effort. It’s a lot of expense
[00:21:20:16 – 00:21:23:04]
to change out the gears.
[00:21:23:04 – 00:21:34:04]
And actually, if you have to ask, I was told this, if you have to ask, should I change the differential gears myself? You shouldn’t. You shouldn’t change them yourself.
[00:21:34:04 – 00:21:55:08]
So I actually had a mechanic change up my differentials and I had to make a big decision since it was going to be rather expensive, not only for the, the, the opinion and the ring of the gear and the associated rebuild kits, but also to the, the charge, the mechanic was going to charge me.
[00:21:55:08 – 00:21:59:10]
So several people said you should go one
[00:21:59:10 – 00:22:00:14]
gear set
[00:22:01:18 – 00:22:10:02]
higher or lower, depending on if you’re looking at the, the gear number or the, the ratio,
[00:22:10:02 – 00:22:15:03]
you should get one more than what you want to go because it will, you’ll be happier in the long run.
[00:22:15:03 – 00:22:21:24]
So I, I went back and forth, back and forth thinking about it. And I just went ahead and decided that would go with the 456 gears.
[00:22:21:24 – 00:22:40:07]
And I want to tell you, it’s great. And also too, I had always planned on a larger diameter tire and I knew that as the tire size goes up, you need numerically higher gears to get the same results. So
[00:22:40:07 – 00:22:44:28]
I think maybe I was toying around with the idea of going with some 35 inch tires
[00:22:44:28 – 00:22:53:12]
at that time and 35 inch tires with the 456 gears would be really close to stock gearing.
[00:22:53:12 – 00:23:00:15]
It would be very close as to how the engine, how many RPMs the engine would turn
[00:23:00:15 – 00:23:15:08]
and how much force it would have to give the put out to, to push the Jeep along. Now, of course, that, that varies because of the weight of the tires and other things I’ve added to the Jeep, items that have changed the airflow and also to added additional weight.
[00:23:15:08 – 00:23:17:21]
So
[00:23:17:21 – 00:23:34:20]
I’m sorry, I was just looking here at the chat room and Weldman says, “Tony, what’s your RPM at 60 miles per hour?” I don’t have it in front of me, but I believe it would be 2500 RPM. I know for a fact that at 80 miles an hour, it’s 3000
[00:23:34:20 – 00:23:39:26]
and I believe it’s 70, it is 2800.
[00:23:41:13 – 00:23:41:27]
So,
[00:23:41:27 – 00:23:55:18]
yeah, it’s pretty high. And just like they told me on that, that NAXJ website, the 4.0 can turn 3000 RPM all day long and it surely can.
[00:23:55:18 – 00:24:02:06]
It has no problem doing that whatsoever. Although I did get heat creep, which was the cooling system
[00:24:02:06 – 00:24:10:13]
gradually heating up. And I believe it’s because of that additional RPM that the engine is turning.
[00:24:10:13 – 00:24:15:22]
And I’m sure it has to do with airflow and additional weight and so on and so forth and aerodynamics.
[00:24:15:22 – 00:24:21:16]
So anyway, I changed out the 355 gears with 456 gears
[00:24:21:16 – 00:24:42:08]
and continue to measure my fuel consumption versus mileage gained over that fuel usage from week to week. And I say week to week, it’s whenever I filled up and generally speaking, I can go a week to whatever job I’m working at on a tank of gas.
[00:24:42:08 – 00:24:46:25]
And I have the 20 gallon tank on the Jeep Cherokee.
[00:24:46:25 – 00:24:58:07]
And that effectively is about, I think 18.6 gallons is the most I’ve ever been able to get in a tank. And that’s with the
[00:24:58:07 – 00:25:08:19]
power dropping off. In other words, the injectors weren’t putting out as much fuel as what they needed to be because the tank was almost empty.
[00:25:08:19 – 00:25:23:15]
So I read something about that. I think it’s, you have to measure up the tube and it doesn’t have all the fuel that’s in there and so on and so forth. I don’t know. They may even have it set that way because they don’t want the fuel pump to, the fuel pumps in the tank.
[00:25:23:15 – 00:25:46:03]
So I think they do that. They may do that because they don’t want the fuel pump to not be in some fuel because they actually use the fuel to cool the fuel pump. And I have, I think I also read some places you’re not supposed to run a tank more than three quarters empty that you needed to have at least a quarter tank of fuel in there. Otherwise you could
[00:25:46:03 – 00:26:02:08]
overheat the fuel pump. But I’ve been doing it for the longest time. I mean, I’ve had this Jeep since 1998 and it’s still going. Of course, the fuel pump could also be the culprit in a mile per gallon issue.
[00:26:02:08 – 00:26:10:04]
But anyway, I went with the 456 gears, continued to measure the gas and I noticed a significant jump
[00:26:10:04 – 00:26:11:15]
almost immediately.
[00:26:11:15 – 00:26:29:05]
And it went looking at the graph over just that very short period of time from around July to the end of the year, my miles per gallon increased by around two miles to two and a half miles per gallon.
[00:26:29:05 – 00:26:33:29]
Now that may not seem like that big a deal, but if you’re getting around 10
[00:26:33:29 – 00:26:36:28]
and now you’re getting up close to 13
[00:26:36:28 – 00:26:38:15]
miles per gallon,
[00:26:38:15 – 00:26:41:19]
that makes you feel good that the
[00:26:41:19 – 00:26:48:05]
$1,500 that you spent to have this done by
[00:26:48:05 – 00:26:54:16]
the gears and have them installed. And not to mention the time that I spent there at the mechanics place watching and helping.
[00:26:54:16 – 00:26:58:07]
It makes you feel good that you got a little bang for your buck.
[00:26:58:07 – 00:27:09:18]
Now I haven’t gone through the how much fuel could I have bought and how much fuel did I save? And I probably don’t want to know.
[00:27:09:18 – 00:27:21:00]
And that’s really it. I mean, that’s it. That’s the only thing that I have seen a change in three years of collecting mile per gallon data that made any significant improvement.
[00:27:21:00 – 00:27:32:09]
Now what I will add is over that same time period, I’ve added a bumper that a front front winch bumper that probably weighs 90 to 100 pounds.
[00:27:32:09 – 00:27:43:18]
I’ve added a super winch, a 9,000 pound pulling rated pulling super winch that I know is 70 or 80 pounds.
[00:27:43:18 – 00:27:51:09]
On top of that I’ve added, and I think I just throw this in because at least from the
[00:27:51:09 – 00:28:04:12]
wind resistance, I’ve added four KC daylighter, six inch daylighter off-road lights to that bumper, which weighs a little bit.
[00:28:04:12 – 00:28:19:16]
A couple of D-rings on that bumper, so I got all that weight. And even prior to that custom front bumper that I have on there, I added a custom rear bumper and it probably weighs,
[00:28:21:09 – 00:28:24:00]
it probably weighs more than what the front bumper does.
[00:28:26:07 – 00:28:42:17]
Well, it probably weighs about the same actually because the bumper itself probably weighs 90 or so pounds. There’s an additional tire carrier added to that bumper so that I can put a spare tire. And then again, and then also there’s the spare tire, which is
[00:28:42:17 – 00:28:44:23]
probably
[00:28:44:23 – 00:28:46:09]
40, 50 pounds,
[00:28:46:09 – 00:28:47:29]
maybe, maybe more.
[00:28:47:29 – 00:28:57:19]
So all’s hold, we’re probably talking about 300 pounds of weight added to the Jeep just in bumpers, winch, and spare tire.
[00:28:57:19 – 00:28:58:23]
And
[00:28:58:23 – 00:29:09:05]
I guess really that’s about it for the weight adding because it already had skid plates at various places. I did take the front skid plate off, which I’m going to put back on
[00:29:09:05 – 00:29:14:24]
just to see if I can help the heat creep problem, but
[00:29:14:24 – 00:29:35:00]
to promote airflow through the radiator instead of maybe under the Jeep. But anyway, so that’s one thing that I found very interesting. You hear a lot on the forums that adding this additional weight to your Jeep is going to really hurt your gas mileage.
[00:29:35:00 – 00:29:37:27]
At least in my case, not true.
[00:29:37:27 – 00:29:40:07]
Absolutely not true.
[00:29:40:07 – 00:29:54:27]
Now it is always possible that the various things that I’ve been trying to improve my gas mileage have been, are not visible over a very time in the measurement of my gas mileage.
[00:29:54:27 – 00:30:03:13]
And those improvements actually are offsetting the negative things that I’ve done to the Jeep as far as gas mileage goes.
[00:30:03:13 – 00:30:06:25]
And those negative things would be the addition of all that weight
[00:30:06:25 – 00:30:13:16]
and the change in airflow around the general brick shape of the Jeep.
[00:30:13:16 – 00:30:15:11]
So
[00:30:15:11 – 00:30:33:24]
I don’t know. All I can tell you is that I have not seen a difference in gas mileage. I am still getting the, most of the time it’s around 12.7, 12.8 to 13.3.
[00:30:33:24 – 00:30:55:09]
With opportunities to go to 13.6 and I do a little dance and a little smiley face as I’m accelerating wildly going to work. I usually fill up, get gas on the way to work. And actually that’s what I’ve read that that’s the best time to get fuel is in the morning. Because the
[00:30:55:09 – 00:30:56:29]
fuel
[00:30:56:29 – 00:31:05:10]
the atoms are closer packed together and you get more fuel in your vehicle than you do if it’s
[00:31:06:13 – 00:31:13:13]
hot. Actually in the early morning hours after the fuel has had time to cool down is probably the best time.
[00:31:13:13 – 00:31:18:28]
If you have a refrigeration unit that you can put over the top of the storage tank that would help you even more.
[00:31:18:28 – 00:31:22:14]
So anyway,
[00:31:22:14 – 00:31:26:16]
that’s kind of my bottom line. I have not improved my fuel economy
[00:31:26:16 – 00:31:33:18]
by better driving. I have not improved it by
[00:31:33:18 – 00:31:34:11]
really any means
[00:31:34:11 – 00:31:52:04]
that I can see. The data does not bear out that oh and I also installed a performance distributor firewire 4.0 kit in the hopes that it would give me a better spark and give me better combustion of the air fuel mixture
[00:31:52:04 – 00:31:59:22]
and basically you know give me more bang for the fuel buck. And that did not occur.
[00:31:59:22 – 00:32:04:22]
That did not occur on my vehicle now. We recently gave away
[00:32:04:22 – 00:32:10:26]
a performance distributor firewire kit about a $200 value 170 at least
[00:32:10:26 – 00:32:20:05]
to a xjtalk.com member and show listener. He’s in the chat room tonight. Weldman. I like to call him Weldman.
[00:32:20:05 – 00:32:24:08]
And he recently installed it on his Jeep.
[00:32:25:18 – 00:32:33:19]
Kurt what year is he says GRRR he doesn’t like Weldman. What year is your Jeep, Kurt?
[00:32:33:19 – 00:32:41:19]
I think I’m saying your name wrong. Weldman’s Jeep is a 1995. So it’s three years older
[00:32:41:19 – 00:32:51:11]
than my Jeep and he was able to install his firewire kit and gap his plugs 0.054
[00:32:51:11 – 00:33:11:14]
that if I recall his post correctly. And he says he has received an increase in throttle response and I think he’s very hopeful. Kurt is also getting pretty bad gas mileage. I think he’s getting around 140 miles per tank of gas.
[00:33:11:14 – 00:33:22:22]
And Kurt is that a 20 gallon tank or is it the what’s the other one they have a 16 15 gallon I think.
[00:33:22:22 – 00:33:24:06]
So it’s a 20 gallon. Okay.
[00:33:24:06 – 00:33:32:25]
See I’m getting around anywhere from 215 to 230 miles out of a tank of gas
[00:33:32:25 – 00:33:35:11]
my vehicle.
[00:33:35:11 – 00:33:41:22]
So that’s almost 100 miles to a tank more than what you’re getting. Now
[00:33:41:22 – 00:33:44:09]
I’ve pretty much always been getting that though.
[00:33:44:09 – 00:33:57:28]
And that changed with the firewire kit. Now I didn’t gap my spark plugs. I think well you read the article that I wrote up on that most recently Kurt. I guess I had forgotten. I think that it is
[00:33:57:28 – 00:34:09:04]
oh Kurt says he’s at 142 as of today. How much gas do you have left? I mean what does it say on the fuel meter?
[00:34:09:04 – 00:34:11:02]
Just waiting for him to type in his response.
[00:34:11:02 – 00:34:12:05]
Oh wow.
[00:34:12:05 – 00:34:14:17]
Well actually
[00:34:14:17 – 00:34:25:15]
if I was sorry he Kurt Weldman responded with just over half a tank. So did you fill up right after you put the firewire kit on or had you already used some gas?
[00:34:25:15 – 00:34:31:00]
No. You said no on Sunday. So I guess I don’t understand.
[00:34:31:00 – 00:34:34:18]
You filled up on Sunday and then you
[00:34:34:18 – 00:34:36:00]
installed the kit
[00:34:36:00 – 00:34:47:19]
or you installed the kit and then filled up on Sunday. I can’t remember. Did you put the kit in on Saturday? Oh you installed it yesterday. Okay so oh and the other thing I had posted up did you reset the ECM?
[00:34:47:19 – 00:34:52:00]
Because you know you need to reset your ECM so it can relearn everything.
[00:34:52:00 – 00:35:01:26]
Yeah because and I think that’s a I think that was a correct statement that I made on that post. I mean you made a significant change to the ignition system
[00:35:01:26 – 00:35:19:13]
and those of you that aren’t familiar the performance distributor kit is a higher voltage coil and this isn’t unusual. This has been doing they’ve been doing stuff like this. People have been coming up with higher voltage coils and plug wires that are faster to move that
[00:35:19:13 – 00:35:33:21]
energy from the coil to the plug and hotter burning plugs and etc etc. That stuff has been going on for years. It’s not some new pseudoscience thing. It does work. They use it in racing.
[00:35:33:21 – 00:35:42:03]
So anyway the performance distributor kit basically is a higher voltage coil some high temperature plug wires. The plug wires are really nice
[00:35:42:03 – 00:35:45:06]
and
[00:35:45:06 – 00:36:02:29]
it allows you to run a greater spark and a bigger gap on your spark plug. Again giving a better larger spark to make hopefully to ignite the air fuel mixture more completely giving you more oomph for the buck.
[00:36:02:29 – 00:36:14:02]
So Kurt has installed one, installed a kit on his his Jeep and I know he’s hopeful and I certainly am too that he’s going to see a
[00:36:14:02 – 00:36:20:14]
a mile per gallon in performance. He says he already feels a seat of the pants change more power.
[00:36:20:14 – 00:36:27:08]
Kurt what you have the 355 gears uh a weldment this I mean Kurt just says huge it’s a huge change.
[00:36:28:26 – 00:36:31:29]
You have 355 gears in your axles right and what size tires?
[00:36:31:29 – 00:36:35:15]
Boy I love that complete silence when I stop talking.
[00:36:35:15 – 00:36:38:17]
So he’s got 30 inch tires.
[00:36:38:17 – 00:36:43:23]
So he’s all about um if I remember right that’s about three inches or an inch and a half
[00:36:43:23 – 00:36:44:25]
um
[00:36:44:25 – 00:36:49:24]
on either side of the tire bigger than a stock tire because I think the stock tires are 27 inch.
[00:36:49:24 – 00:36:52:22]
Yeah 2.5. Okay so
[00:36:52:22 – 00:37:01:10]
well that’s good uh you know it’s amazing it’s just amazing that you are getting that bad of gas mileage on 30 inch tires.
[00:37:01:10 – 00:37:13:18]
Man anyway uh I don’t want to go I have a question I’d like to ask you and probably redundant questions that you’ve been asked like changing O2 sensors and so on and so forth.
[00:37:13:18 – 00:37:58:22]
I mean I firmly believe that a bad O2 sensor is could give you bad gas mileage. I mean if it’s if it’s not giving the the most accurate data to the ECM uh the ECM is not going to be able to determine what the the proper air fuel mixture is going to be and so on and so forth. Yeah that’s the other thing that was my question Weldman says no codes question mark and um that was that was what I always thought if it’s not throwing a code if the check engine light’s not coming on on your dash then the O2 sensor must be okay and they said not so that the O2 sensor can be giving erroneous information but it’s still within the the acceptable limits for the computer to say okay you know I’ll deal with that
[00:37:58:22 – 00:38:03:26]
and I know if that means that it has the ability to adjust um
[00:38:03:26 – 00:38:06:16]
um
[00:38:06:16 – 00:38:07:16]
well enough to to
[00:38:07:16 – 00:38:26:03]
not to significantly impact the mile per gallon that you get or if it just means it doesn’t matter it could be that it just it just doesn’t matter it’s just not that critical and it could be the latter and that might be why when I changed the O2 sensors and I’ve changed the O2 sensors several times
[00:38:26:03 – 00:38:29:01]
um that that’s why it didn’t make a difference.
[00:38:29:01 – 00:38:31:13]
Now I will add looking at the data
[00:38:31:13 – 00:38:46:06]
over the last um well in 2010 I did see a on average a decline in my miles per gallon by maybe two tenths of a of a mile per gallon.
[00:38:46:06 – 00:38:48:15]
It probably is closer to a tenth
[00:38:48:15 – 00:38:57:23]
and like I said earlier I think that you have to measure long period of time to really get a sense of what your your fuel mileage is
[00:38:57:23 – 00:39:03:09]
because it is it varies drastically. One of the things that I have noticed though
[00:39:03:09 – 00:39:08:13]
is if you look at how many miles you are able to go on a tank of gas
[00:39:08:13 – 00:39:11:03]
that seems to be um
[00:39:11:03 – 00:39:18:15]
and it’s probably it’s probably the difference in the decimal point numbers as opposed to the mile numbers
[00:39:18:15 – 00:39:20:07]
but it just
[00:39:20:07 – 00:39:23:21]
not really thinking about it I guess you know
[00:39:23:21 – 00:39:37:21]
that always screws things up when you think about it. Um I’ve noticed that anyway the number of miles on a tank of gas is pretty much always the same. I know it’s going to be 200 miles at least
[00:39:37:21 – 00:39:42:28]
and it probably is going to be 230 if I really want to push it. I mean I’ve seen it 235
[00:39:42:28 – 00:39:47:24]
and I guess I just get a little nervous and and and when I get to around
[00:39:47:24 – 00:39:51:15]
210, 212
[00:39:51:15 – 00:39:52:10]
uh it shows empty
[00:39:52:10 – 00:40:05:10]
and you know I don’t carry a fuel can on my Jeep so if it if it stops running then I’m walking or I’m trying to coast into a gasoline station.
[00:40:05:10 – 00:40:09:10]
So there’s just so much that you know how there’s so much you want to chance it.
[00:40:09:10 – 00:40:18:12]
So anyway uh bottom line is over three years or almost three years here in two months it’ll be three years of collecting mile per gallon data.
[00:40:18:12 – 00:40:22:12]
I have seen no significant change
[00:40:22:12 – 00:40:26:04]
in my uh mile miles per gallon either
[00:40:26:04 – 00:40:28:13]
to the positive or to
[00:40:28:13 – 00:40:35:22]
with the exception of changing the front and rear differential gears going from
[00:40:35:22 – 00:40:40:27]
um 355 stock to 456 not stock.
[00:40:40:27 – 00:40:52:08]
It would be I would be very interested in knowing um what it would be like to be on 410 gears. Now what I’m going to be doing here in the next uh few months um maybe a month or so
[00:40:52:08 – 00:40:53:15]
just depends
[00:40:53:15 – 00:41:08:21]
is changing the tires. I’m going to be going from the 32 11 and a half by 15 to the the new um KM2. I have the KM1s mud terrains on my vehicle now
[00:41:08:21 – 00:41:25:04]
which I’m sure doesn’t help the gas mileage because of those those big lugs. But I’m going to be going to the KM2 because they don’t make KM1s anymore otherwise I’d just be getting into the shit of those. But I’m going to be going to the 33 by 12 and a half by 15 tires.
[00:41:25:04 – 00:41:26:14]
Now the KM2
[00:41:26:14 – 00:41:34:15]
at least in my layman’s opinion is not uh even though they’re mud terrain they they are not as aggressive
[00:41:34:15 – 00:41:36:28]
as the KM’s.
[00:41:36:28 – 00:41:55:07]
The the lugs are closer together and they they look to me to be more of a all terrain tire. Now they do still have all terrain uh uh BFG all terrain tires and they’re not as aggressive as this tread pattern. So
[00:41:55:07 – 00:42:01:26]
I’ve heard that the the KM2s are quieter. I’ve heard that the KM2s um um
[00:42:01:26 – 00:42:12:21]
I’ve heard they work well so you know maybe I’m hoping it’s just it’s just computers uh able to get the the same response from a better tread pattern.
[00:42:12:21 – 00:42:20:07]
And I suspect that it may balance out the since I’m going wider an inch wider on the tire
[00:42:20:07 – 00:42:32:25]
it’s going to be more contact between my vehicle and the road which is going to mean more friction which should mean a drop in I mean logic says that it should be a drop in miles per gallon.
[00:42:32:25 – 00:42:42:18]
And I will be changing out the the gear in the um the speedometer gear in the transfer case to so that it will measure the
[00:42:44:15 – 00:42:46:17]
measure the distance and therefore the speed correctly.
[00:42:46:17 – 00:42:49:27]
And so my mile per gallon should still be accurate
[00:42:49:27 – 00:42:59:02]
and and I’m not going to drive it without changing out that gear. I’ll get the uh before I get the tires and I’ll have it ready and I’ll swap it out or I’ll do it shortly thereafter.
[00:42:59:02 – 00:43:07:27]
So it would be a very small statistical bump on the uh the mile per gallon radar even if I change it out a day or so later.
[00:43:07:27 – 00:43:25:02]
So I will be sure and correct that but it’s very interesting to see that nothing has made a change and I’m also interested to see if it’s going to make any any real change with the larger tire. Now I was thinking about going to a 35-inch tire and um for two reasons
[00:43:25:02 – 00:43:28:23]
I like the uh you know to me the bigger the tire the better it looks.
[00:43:29:20 – 00:43:30:25]
And also too
[00:43:30:25 – 00:43:54:03]
with the 35-inch tire I would be closer to um the right ratio uh with the 456 gears I’d be very very close to stock gearing. In other words I would be very close to the same gearing I was having um with the the stock tire and the 355 gears in the uh in the axles.
[00:43:54:03 – 00:44:05:25]
The problem with putting the 35-inch tires on these axles the Dana 30 up front and the Crosser 8.25 and back is it puts a lot of stress a lot of torque
[00:44:05:25 – 00:44:11:29]
on those axles and on all the parts. It also puts more stress on the um
[00:44:11:29 – 00:44:15:27]
the steering box and even how it mounts to the to the unibody.
[00:44:15:27 – 00:44:27:03]
So there’s a lot of things that you really need to do to beef up your uh your Jeep to run 35s or 36s or 37s or or whatever.
[00:44:27:03 – 00:44:43:01]
But people have found they can pretty well get away with running 33-inch tires uh morning noon and night and the engineering of the Jeep Cherokee is sufficient enough to to to do that. Now
[00:44:43:01 – 00:44:46:17]
that’s substantial I mean that’s I think that’s a good four
[00:44:46:17 – 00:44:57:10]
what is that uh three four five that’s that’s five inches wider or taller I should say diameter tires than the stock tires.
[00:44:57:10 – 00:45:01:19]
So you know that’s giving you another two and a half inches of ground clearance basically.
[00:45:01:19 – 00:45:06:10]
So that’s significant it really is a 33 inches really is a big tire and
[00:45:07:20 – 00:45:24:18]
I wouldn’t think that just a half inch uh bigger on either side of the the the 32 that I have would would make physically look like that big of a difference but uh I I was went off road with a XJ Talk member and friend uh about a year or so ago
[00:45:24:18 – 00:45:32:17]
and he had just gotten a set of uh KM2 33-inch tires and when I saw them I thought they were 35s.
[00:45:32:17 – 00:45:35:17]
They were just huge and they just looked so much bigger than mine
[00:45:35:17 – 00:45:38:21]
and they were just a an inch taller
[00:45:38:21 – 00:45:40:28]
and an inch wider. So
[00:45:40:28 – 00:46:04:18]
um I would like to see what what it would do and who knows I might be able to run across somebody on the site that has some 35-inch tires that I can just swap out and and drive them uh for a week and see what it would be like from the standpoint of gas mileage and that heat creep problem that I was talking about.
[00:46:04:18 – 00:46:13:21]
So I don’t know I’ve talked a lot about about the mile per gallon a lot more than what I thought I was going to and actually I thought we were going to have a short show today but I guess I got on a rant.
[00:46:13:21 – 00:46:19:11]
Let’s see uh jipple back over here to the the chat room and catch up.
[00:46:19:11 – 00:46:31:26]
So let’s see I think Weldman was asking me a question. “Tony do you have a six inch on that red thing?” I would assume that you’re referring to the the the lift it’s a four and a half inch lift.
[00:46:31:26 – 00:46:33:08]
So
[00:46:33:08 – 00:46:36:15]
yeah 27 inch tire I think is the stock size.
[00:46:36:15 – 00:46:46:24]
I’m just seeing VW Fool says they are uh let’s say beefy as hell though they are ran with 456 and 33s you get the same mpg.
[00:46:46:24 – 00:46:53:20]
I’m trying to read here uh VW what do you mean uh the same mpg is what?
[00:46:53:20 – 00:46:58:17]
The 456 is with the 33s you get the same mpg a mile per gallon is is running what?
[00:46:58:17 – 00:47:01:16]
Oh okay well that’s interesting he says uh
[00:47:01:16 – 00:47:07:02]
uh versus uh 355 gears and uh 225 or sorry 235
[00:47:08:06 – 00:47:10:19]
I think that’s a metric measurement of the of the tire.
[00:47:10:19 – 00:47:19:26]
Oh with Dana 60s as stock axles yeah but the Dana 60s and I guess I’m going on going against the thing I’ve already said the Dana 60s are really heavy
[00:47:19:26 – 00:47:24:21]
and boy you know just by their nature you have to put a bigger tire on them because
[00:47:24:21 – 00:47:28:12]
if you run data 60s with small tires
[00:47:29:15 – 00:47:37:19]
you know you’re you’re defeating the whole purpose of lifting lifting the vehicle to start with because you want to get that pumpkin that differential
[00:47:37:19 – 00:47:56:00]
uh higher off the ground and the Dana 60s are just huge uh pumpkins and uh they’re going to be close closer to the ground so I think you need a 35 inch tire minimum on a Dana 60 of course that’s the nice thing about the Dana 60. I think you can run um
[00:47:56:00 – 00:48:12:06]
pretty much anything up to a monster truck tire it’s going to take it. 54 inch tires I don’t think are a problem for Dana 60s and that would just be you know incredible it would be a lot of fun to have
[00:48:12:06 – 00:48:25:27]
a vehicle with a big lift and big tires and some uh some badass axles it’s certainly not going to be a trail vehicle or climbing vehicle like what the the Jeep Cherokee is
[00:48:25:27 – 00:48:51:28]
so I don’t know if you guys I think many of you realize that maybe some that aren’t into the off-road thing just you just see the lifted vehicles on the street. When you see a truck that’s lifted a good foot two foot in the air and has these massive tires on them it is very impressive very cool to look but for all intensive purposes those are road warriors
[00:48:51:28 – 00:49:03:00]
you aren’t going to see those off-road and if you do see them off-road it’s going to be mud and even at that one of the vehicles get when the vehicles are really heavy
[00:49:03:00 – 00:49:12:24]
like the the big Ford 350s and stuff they get so heavy that you it’s not a good idea to run them through the mud because they’re going to get stuck
[00:49:12:24 – 00:49:14:28]
no matter what size tire you have on there
[00:49:14:28 – 00:49:28:02]
and now you’ve got a nice 70-80 thousand dollar vehicle stuck in the mud and it’s so damn heavy and it’s and and with the addition of the the the friction of the mud you got something that you can’t
[00:49:28:02 – 00:49:31:01]
you can’t put enough stuff on it to pull it out
[00:49:31:01 – 00:50:09:18]
so you know there really are just road warriors and they’re a lot of fun. If I get an opportunity to get another four-wheel drive pickup I will but it is different from the Jeep. The Jeep is a very fun vehicle to take off-road to drive on the street off the street and it’s like it’s kind of like having a goat that doesn’t eat the eat the cans. It will pretty much go anywhere any little spot you want to go and of course I’ve been looking at these Suzuki Samurai’s talk about small and and going places. There you’re talking about something that’s
[00:50:11:08 – 00:50:13:01]
maybe half the size of a Jeep
[00:50:13:01 – 00:50:18:26]
one of the Wranglers. Wow those things are pretty amazing I can see how fun to drive those things around.
[00:50:18:26 – 00:50:27:15]
You get the you get a good lift out of it and get some some good sized tires plus the they’re very short and narrow and
[00:50:27:15 – 00:50:31:04]
seem to be able to go go lots of places as well.
[00:50:31:04 – 00:50:41:15]
So yep I’m not going to be able to get to the to the Jeep cooling. Suffice it to say I’ve changed everything on my cooling system
[00:50:41:15 – 00:50:44:04]
with the exception of the heater core
[00:50:44:04 – 00:50:55:02]
which isn’t directly the cooling system but the coolant does pass through it so I’ve changed all that and
[00:50:55:02 – 00:50:56:14]
upgraded all of it.
[00:50:56:14 – 00:50:59:15]
Yeah well the hoses are still made of rubber
[00:50:59:15 – 00:51:22:16]
and you know they’re still basic hoses they have been changed I won’t call that an upgrade but I have modified the rest of it and it does cool much better but as I was saying earlier in the program I do have this issue with heat creep going down the highway. The cooling system is not capable of keeping up with the amount of heat that’s being generated by the engine
[00:51:22:16 – 00:51:25:10]
and traditionally that means that the
[00:51:25:10 – 00:51:27:16]
traditionally that means that the
[00:51:27:16 – 00:51:37:29]
you’re not getting enough airflow through the radiator and certainly the the the custom bumper winch and off-road
[00:51:37:29 – 00:51:43:28]
flights would be would seem to be the culprit for that however and I’m not saying they’re not
[00:51:43:28 – 00:51:51:14]
not keeping the airflow from going through I’m sure they are but I was having this issue before I changed up that bumper
[00:51:51:14 – 00:51:57:05]
but I can drive off-road, crawl,
[00:51:57:05 – 00:52:21:10]
a lot of torque, a lot of horsepower usage, off-road, very low speeds and running the air conditioner which just seems kind of counterintuitive but you know I’m a fat boy I don’t want to be out there sweating making my own gravy so driving around off-road air conditioner blaring 9500 degrees air temps and had no problems with it overheating
[00:52:21:10 – 00:52:50:24]
so all the all modifications that I’ve made definitely helped but I still got to fix this heat creep issue so that I can actually drive it on the highway and of course that was one of the reasons why I was looking at doing the 35 inch tires to see if it was an RPM related issue get the rpms back down to 2200 at 70 miles I think that’s right I think 2200 RPM and 2300 is about what it was
[00:52:50:24 – 00:53:14:11]
when it was stock it’s another one of those things before you start making changes make notes of things because then you wind up having to go back and ask people what their stock vehicle does I dearly wish I had done a good gas mileage measurement on my stock Jeep especially when I first got it it just you know the fuel was a dollar something a gallon back then and it just really didn’t matter
[00:53:14:11 – 00:53:18:24]
so uh weldman’s screaming at me here in the chat room he says uh Tony Reed let’s see
[00:53:18:24 – 00:53:27:09]
um weldman says that uh I don’t know how far back I’m supposed to go Kurt but uh weldman says Tony my temps went down with the firewire kit
[00:53:27:09 – 00:53:34:02]
and 37 exclamation marks after that and uh yeah I didn’t I didn’t see that occur
[00:53:34:02 – 00:53:35:02]
um
[00:53:35:02 – 00:53:40:17]
let’s see always on four trucks and jeeps and VW water cooled cars
[00:53:40:17 – 00:53:42:24]
uh two two two two
[00:53:42:24 – 00:53:44:08]
mustangs as well
[00:53:44:08 – 00:53:46:05]
uh okay
[00:53:46:05 – 00:53:59:23]
VW fool says I can’t get my temps over 160 not that good need to change up my uh t stat to a 180 or 190 yeah everything I’ve read uh as far as miles per gallon you want to go with
[00:53:59:23 – 00:54:11:22]
the um the 100 I think the 190 is the stock at least on the the 98s the uh ho engines 190 degree thermostat is the stock and and you do want to
[00:54:11:22 – 00:54:18:25]
um and I learned the hard way a thermostat will not lower your temps it’ll just keep the
[00:54:18:25 – 00:54:28:04]
the the coolant temperature cooler longer once it once the temperature rises uh the thermostat is open and it doesn’t matter
[00:54:28:04 – 00:54:54:26]
it’s going to run at whatever it’s going to run at so uh this means it’ll open sooner and it will stay cooler um longer but if you’re if you’re going any place over any distance it’s going to rise to whatever whatever the value is whatever the balance between uh how much heat the the engine’s creating and how much uh how much you’re able to cool that coolant as it moves through the radiator and um the water jackets and so on so forth so um
[00:54:54:26 – 00:54:59:14]
I understand it now thermostat just delays the inevitable I should say
[00:54:59:14 – 00:55:08:04]
and I certainly saw that because I tried it I put 180 degree thermostat on mine and uh it basically served to help me freeze my
[00:55:08:04 – 00:55:19:23]
off uh during our winters and remember our winters aren’t very very bad here I mean we’re talking about some 38 degree days 40 degree days and man it was cold in the Jeep it was really cold in the Jeep
[00:55:19:23 – 00:55:22:27]
I know I’m a big baby I don’t know what cold is
[00:55:22:27 – 00:55:32:00]
uh but I do like the cold it it’s very pleasurable not uh breaking a sweat getting out of the Jeep and walking into the house
[00:55:32:00 – 00:55:40:07]
but uh it gets a little a little tiresome whenever you’re um driving an hour uh two or from work
[00:55:40:07 – 00:58:09:04]
to uh not have the heat in the Jeep I kind of learned that that one that 190 I keep wanting to say 195 but I believe it’s 190 degree thermostat that one made a big difference as far as keeping the Jeep nice and warm and even at that with all the modifications I made to the cooling it takes a little while longer to heat up uh to and get some uh some nice temps out of the out of the heater so guys I I did a whole hour tonight I was thinking I would be doing this for about 30 minutes um but uh I appreciate the the people that showed up in the chat room and the interaction it’s always fun I enjoy the uh I enjoy the show personally a lot more whenever we have some some folks in the uh in the chat room so thank you very much and and Kurt my apologies for not getting that uh that firewire kit to you sooner but you got it and you are having fun with it and and all it cost you was a little time to record some promos and a little bit of uh bitching and complaining about where the hell is it so and that reminds me if you would like to to call in and you know leave a promo for the show um hell that’d be great in fact I’ll play one here at the end of the music and and you can kind of see what I’m talking about uh but just call our feedback line and throw in a question maybe you’ve got something that you’d like to add to the mob or gallon uh thing that I talked about tonight you know maybe you’ve seen something different than me call in let me know I’ll share it with the audience I’ll share it with myself I’d like to know and of course you can always post on the on xjtalk.com one of the Jeep premier websites on the internet that thing that Al Gore invented so anyway the the number is 530-675-4102 530-675-4102 it’s only voicemail don’t have to worry about anybody answering call anytime of the day or night and uh you know promo question feedback whatever you like so until next week this is Tony motoroy on xjtalk.com wishing you very happy Jeep days (Music)
[00:58:16:14 – 00:58:20:15]
xjtalk.com xjtalk.com it’s where you go when you’re not off-road okay here’s a good promo
[00:58:20:15 – 00:58:28:11]
hey I just wanted to tell you about xjtalk.com it’s a great site there’s no bashing everybody’s nice and friendly great place to be
[00:58:28:11 – 00:58:29:21]
and of course my favorite
[00:58:29:21 – 00:58:33:08]
I just wanted to say xjtalk is the best
[00:58:33:08 – 00:58:34:15]
site in the
[00:58:34:15 – 00:58:37:05]
world and if you think you know a better
[00:58:37:05 – 00:58:38:15]
site f***
[00:58:38:15 – 00:58:41:10]
you by the way this is big gym 350
[00:58:41:10 – 00:58:42:07]
bye
[00:58:42:07 – 00:59:24:23]
and here actually here’s one of uh this is one of the promos that uh that won weldman that uh performance distributor kit hello this is Kurt aka weldman from Wisconsin if you’re looking to get some great information or share what you know about your xj and you need to see some pictures of other xj’s to get some great ideas or how-tos this is a place we come from all over the world so you might even make a few great friends you won’t find a better group of people to chat with and best of all we don’t judge you for your ride so stock or super modified you are always welcome here so look no further xjtalk.com the place you need to be so sign up sign in and have some fun
[00:59:24:23 – 00:59:27:25]
(Applause)
[00:59:27:25 – 00:59:27:25]