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Rebuilding a Renix 4.0 with a focus on Gas Mileage, oh yeah, with 35" tires

BrettM

NAXJA Forum User
Location
michifornia
So the time will come in the next year to rebuild my '88 4.0 with about 230k miles. I have 33s for the street and 35s for the trail because I notice a significant difference in power and gas mileage. I would like to run the 35s all the time. Oh, and I have 4.88 gears.

Now some would say that "if you want to run 35" tires you better not care about MPG". I understand the reasoning here, but I'm set on 35s, and I'm set on rebuilding the motor, so why not save myself some money on gas (being $2.20 per gallon). I should also mention that even with the tired old 4.0, I've never had much desire for more power, so I have no problem focusing more on MPG than extra HP.

I understand there are MANY things that influence MPG, but I would like to focus here on engine internals.

My thoughts:
I have no problem keeping it to 65 or 70 on the freeway, which puts my RPMs at 2300-2500. A little lower on the gears would probably be nice, but I'm sticking with 4.88s. So would an "RV cam" be a good choice?

Is the stock (242) displacement best, or could I possibly get better freeway mileage with a mild stroker?

what about injectors? those seem obvious as far as MPG. what's the stock injectors rating? would any of the Ford ones (19s?) be a better choice?

Beyond that, I'm not sure what else could benifit me. Throw some ideas at me please! Of course if it's something that will benefit me 1 mpg, but costs $1000 more, I'm not interested.


thanks
brett
 
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Stick to a stock Renix 4.0 (a stroker will give you slightly worse gas mileage), use Ford 19lb injectors, and go for the Crane 750501 cam to give you plenty of low/medium rpm torque. I think you'll be very happy with the result, especially if you hardly ever go above 3000rpm.
 
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