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4 cylinder mileage?

I have a 1996 2 WD, two door, so it's about as light as Cherokees get.
Around town / stop & go, maybe 20.
On vacation, loaded down with a few hundred pounds extra and keeping the speed reasonable because of the factory 4.11 gears, up to 24.

And welcome to NAXJA. Lots of great people and plenty of help if you search a bit. Well worth my membership money.

Mike
 
The 2.5 will get worse mileage than the 4.0. Since it has to use more energy to pull the weight. Especially on the highway.
it's not by much but I remember being at a Jeep dealership and they had Wranglers side by side a 4.0, and a 2.5 I was amazed to find the 4 cyl got worse...made me wonder why they even made them. The 4.0 should have been the base engine and a small V8 should have been the option.
 
Last edited:
jeepman121 said:
The 2.5 will get worse mileage than the 4.0. Since it has to use more energy to pull the weight. Especially on the highway.
Click to expand...

a false statement. There is less engine ergo there is less weight. Thus less energy is used.

What you mean is that the 4cyl needs to be run harder to produce the same results, therefore you need more throttle and use more gas than you would with a lighter/ more aerodynamic vehicle.

The truth is that there are no fuel economy reasons to purchase a 4cylinder xj over a 6 cylinder, the trade off in loss of power is tremendous, and a 6 cylinder with a standard can be made to get just as good gas mileage as the 4 cylinder.
 
goodburbon said:
a false statement. There is less engine ergo there is less weight. Thus less energy is used.

What you mean is that the 4cyl needs to be run harder to produce the same results, therefore you need more throttle and use more gas than you would with a lighter/ more aerodynamic vehicle.

The truth is that there are no fuel economy reasons to purchase a 4cylinder xj over a 6 cylinder, the trade off in loss of power is tremendous, and a 6 cylinder with a standard can be made to get just as good gas mileage as the 4 cylinder.
Click to expand...
to me, more throttle means more energy....
 
jeepman121 said:
. . . I remember being at a Jeep dealership and they had Wranglers side by side a 4.0, and a 2.5 I was amazed to find the 4 cyl got worse...
Click to expand...
The Wrangler weighs nearly 1000 pounds more than the Cherokee so the 2.5 had to work much harder to get all that weight moving.

Our two Cherokees, both are 2 doors;
1989 4.0, Auto, 4 wd, 3.55 gears, 30 in. tires, factory skids and hitch. Around town mileage, less than the 4 cyl.
Pluses, rides smooth and quiet, power windows and doors, no shifting, goes down the freeway at 2200 RPM. Trip mileage ??
1996 2.5, 5 speed manual, 2 wd (with PowerTrax Limited Slip), 29 in. AT's, factory skids and hitch (because they fit). Weight around town, a bit under 3000#. Around town mileage, close to 20.
Minuses, rides rough (heavy shocks, less weight), noisy at speed, 3000 RPM on fry. Gear whine, trans and axle, less insulation.
Pluses, "feels" more capable and much more directly connected to what I'm doing. AND the air conditioning works.
 
my DD is an '01 TJ, 2.5/AX5 bone stock except a set of 31" BFG AT's

it gets maaaayyybeee 20 mpg, on a good day......worse on the highway

If I ever buy another SWB Jeep, it definately won't be a 2.5:doh:

My MJ used to be a 2.5 and got great mileage in stock trim when I first got it 8 years and 125K miles ago. Now it sports a 4.0:D

Jeff
 
I have a 99 4dr 4x4 with 5sp 4:11 gears all stock. Around town I get 20-22 on long highway trips I get 20 if I keep it 65 or less. Faster then 65 and the mpg's drop fast.

When I first bought this XJ it got like 16mpg but then I figured out that I had a burned valve and I put a rebuilt head on it the mpg's got much better.

I had a 86' CJ7 with the 150ci 4cyl and that thing only got like 16mpg. After owning that one I swore I would never own another 4cyl jeep but I got such a great deal on the 99 XJ I could not pass it up.
 
goodburbon said:
What you mean is that the 4cyl needs to be run harder to produce the same results, therefore you need more throttle and use more gas than you would with a lighter/ more aerodynamic vehicle.
Click to expand...

In theory running the engine harder, should be more efficient. That's one of the few benefits of a hybird vehicle. You use a smaller engine running at higher throttle (ie less pumping losses) and make up the very infrequent demands for higher acceleration power with the electric motor. Basically you can size the motor closer to the average power demand instead of sizing it to meet the peak power requirements.

Personally, I'd rather have the 6-cyl which gets almost the same mileage. My 6-cyl, manual, 3.07 geared 89 MJ got 22 when I bought it used. Gets a lot worse now with the lift, gearing, tires, etc. I had a 4-cyl wrangler and it sucked. It couldn't hold speed going any significant grades.
 
winterbeater said:
Seems like gas mileage wise, at least on the freeway, the 2.5 has a serious handicap with it's 4.11 gears.
Click to expand...

4.11 gears aren't a handicap, they're matched right to that engine.

My Accord has a final drive of like 4.30. I get 30mpg.
 
jeepman121 said:
The 2.5 will get worse mileage than the 4.0. Since it has to use more energy to pull the weight. Especially on the highway.
it's not by much but I remember being at a Jeep dealership and they had Wranglers side by side a 4.0, and a 2.5 I was amazed to find the 4 cyl got worse...made me wonder why they even made them. The 4.0 should have been the base engine and a small V8 should have been the option.
Click to expand...

Gas mileage is about the same between the two engines. However, the only situation that I see that the 2.5 would use less gas than a 4.0 is in bumper to bumper traffic or sitting at a light.
 
The gov says 16 city, 17 combined, 18 highway for 98-99, with a 1 mpg gain highway for 2000---with regular gas, with E10 expect less.
 
IslanderOffRoad said:
4.11 gears aren't a handicap, they're matched right to that engine.

My Accord has a final drive of like 4.30. I get 30mpg.
Click to expand...

Put 4.30 on your Jeep and see what it gets. My Crown Vic cruises at 80 MPH at 1700 RPM's and gets 26 MPG freeway. Drop it out of overdrive and it gets 19MPG. More RPM's = higher gas consumption. Even if you put your Honda motor in to a XJ, your mileage wouldn't go up over 20MPG. And I get 18MPG out of my XJ brick going 80, even with the antique pushrod motor. You are right in that the 4.11 gears alone aren't the handicap, but that little 4 banger is overloaded to push the frontal area. At best, you will get the same gas economy on the freeway.
 
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