Crossroads..mod or upgrade?

Pskhaat

2005 Expedition Trophy Champion
Where are you located?

Just personally, I think you'll find 4.88s too low with 33" tires. 4.56 would be ideal but the price/value comes into question for regear. What prevents you from running 31s or even 235/85r16s (32s albeit with some thinner wheels) for instance and still with the 4.10s?

Next, how many miles on the 3F-E? For a nominal price, consider sending out your injectors for a rebuild, you may be impressed. You may also wish to re-examine your EGR system (please feel free to PM me on notes on this).

OME suspension has always been night & day difference for me. I would advise a 850/863 (light) or 850/864 (if you carry lots of stuff) set of springs with OME shocks. I think OME did a fine job of matching the right springs to these 80s.
 
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OneTime

Adventurer
Where are you located?

Just personally, I think you'll find 4.88s too low with 33" tires. 4.56 would be ideal but the price/value comes into question for regear. What prevents you from running 31s or even 235/85r16s (32s albeit with some thinner wheels) for instance and still with the 4.10s?

Next, how many miles on the 3F-E? For a nominal price, consider sending out your injectors for a rebuild, you may be impressed. You may also wish to re-examine your EGR system (please feel free to PM me on notes on this).

OME suspension has always been night & day difference for me. I would advise a 850/863 (light) or 850/864 (if you carry lots of stuff) set of springs with OME shocks. I think OME did a fine job of matching the right springs to these 80s.

Thank you so much for that info. Your suggestion of going with 235/85R16s would kill two birds with one stone. Actually three birds. It would get rid of the chessy chrome rims, and fat 33x12.5 tires and save a over a grand in re-gearing.

I have 200,000 on the clock.

How would these work? http://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/pts/1159075751.html Are they taller and thinner than the 235/85?
 
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Pskhaat

2005 Expedition Trophy Champion
Those rims would work, but the tires will be much smaller than stock. 70 series vs 85 series: the higher the relatively thinner. Stock tire was 275/70r16.
 

alia176

Explorer
If you ask the Mud crowd about gears they all say 4.88. I know nothing about gearing, but I wonder if 4.88 is too much for highway speeds. If I regear if I would lean towards 4.56. There is a current Mud thread that says 4.56 is a waste of time. I always have to filter the Mud info for more of a wheeling crowd and the FZJ80.

I have 315s and 4.56 and I love it. When I did the 4.56 conversion, I lived at sea level and this ratio was great. Now that I live and play at 5,000'+ elevation it's not as peppy as a 4.88 but it suits me fine. My hwy travel speeds is usually around 75 so this gearing works really well for that. When I pull a camper, that's when I really feel the gearing (or lack of) on the hills.

I think gearing and elevation go hand in hand. I wouldn't run 4.88s and 33" though!

Cheers.
 

DBS311

Adventurer
I have 315s and 4.56 and I love it. When I did the 4.56 conversion, I lived at sea level and this ratio was great. Now that I live and play at 5,000'+ elevation it's not as peppy as a 4.88 but it suits me fine. My hwy travel speeds is usually around 75 so this gearing works really well for that. When I pull a camper, that's when I really feel the gearing (or lack of) on the hills.

I think gearing and elevation go hand in hand. I wouldn't run 4.88s and 33" though!

Cheers.


You might reconsider if you were running a 3FE. :)
 

OneTime

Adventurer
You might reconsider if you were running a 3FE. :)


Gas is now over 2.00 a gallon her in AZ. So Im thinking he 80 will go back to part time use when I get out of school in the fall. Right now I think the plans will be to first. Go with a more efficient tire like a 33x10.5 AT or a 16" rim similar tire. (Per Jon Held on Mud) I still need to do some PM like; clean my ERG, adjust the valves, and clean the injectors. I need to look into changing the prefliter in my gas tank. Maybe someone can chime in on the benifits of changing the filter. Then I think the lift will come. Then if I'm still not happy I'll go with the gears.
 

Hltoppr

El Gringo Spectacular!
I ran OME 850/863 springs with heavy shocks on my 92 80 series, and really liked it. I kept the stock gearing with 31x10.5R15s. While in the states, and in Flagstaff, my DD mileage was 10-12mpg. In Mexico, fully loaded, I'd routinely see 15mpg, given the lower speeds.

The OME springs gave me enough flex I never felt the need for larger tires.

-H-
 

OneTime

Adventurer
Am I correct to assume that the 3FE needs to be geared different than the FZJ80 to compensate for the lack of horse power? In a case where maybe you would run 4.56 with 33"s with the FZJ80 you might want to run 4.88 with the 3FE?
 

Pskhaat

2005 Expedition Trophy Champion
The engines are quite different, but I think in general you just simply can't go wrong by keeping to stock ratios, going from a 31 -> 33" tire (Hltopper, do you remember what the body plate of the FJ80s said for stock tire size?):

4.10*33/31 = ~4.36

...thus I think 4.56s should be perfectly adequate and even shorter by almost 5%. One more thing I'll throw out there is the auto tranny is a really inefficient energy sink up against the 3F-E, they really come alive in back of a H42 or H55f manual tranny. That's a LOT of work involved with that, but if I had an FJ80 that would be one of the first mods I would be looking at doing.
 

Pskhaat

2005 Expedition Trophy Champion
my DD mileage was 10-12mpg. In Mexico, fully loaded, I'd routinely see 15mpg, given the lower speeds.

Also E10 fuel that we run here in most States. Case in point, driving through Louisiana recently I got 18mpg (!) in my way-past-GVWR FZJ80 75mph+ because they had 93 octane E0 fuel :)

Cruiser engines HATE ethanol.
 

OneTime

Adventurer
Aren't you talking about 4 to 5 grand to drop in a manual tranny?

Side note. I went mt biking with a buddy today and we took his Xterra. I was surprised at how much smaller it felt, had about the small amount of power (1st gen) and didnt do much better on with MPG.
 

Pskhaat

2005 Expedition Trophy Champion
Honestly, I don't have a price as I've never done it, but I would be surprised it it went up that high for dropping in a late-model 4spd tranny especially. A couple grand and then some for sure, no doubt.
 

DBS311

Adventurer
Why drop in a 4 speed manual?

Over here in FJ62 land, there are quite a few that have put the H55f behind the 3FE. You can still order the tranny brand new for ~1800 bucks. The guys that do the work themselves usually end up spending $3k on the conversion. Most will find a 60 that is being parted out and score the pedal assembly and associated equipment.

You can get the tranny and bellhousing here in the states, but will have to source the pedal assembly for the 80 series from somewhere else. If the 80 is anything like the 60/62 series, there will be a nice spot on the firewall waiting for the factory pedal assembly. I wouldn't know what to do about the t-case...........maybe just replace it with the non-vacuum operated split case from the 60 (but that could cause driveline issues). I'm sure if you spoke with GSCruiserparts out of Canada, they would know of the best solution for your needs (regarding a manual conversion).
 

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