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OK Now your pulling my legs...both of them.
What I am working on is based on some fairly good ideas and personal testing.
With all of my personal cars and trucks I have noted they all are NOT Enco boxes, the list is: 2000 Mercury Grans marques w/4.2 V8, 02 Ford Explorer w.4.0 V6, 03 Crown Vic p71, 4.6.
All three have show reasonable good MPG their best at under 2000RPMs and above 1500RPMs. The 2000 could get 27/30MPG every time, the Explorer can do 25/27, and the Crown Vic 25/27.
The 64,000 Dollar question is will they do that at higher speeds??
I am very aware of the fine line between the correct torque range and lugging an engine. These are my starting point for testing.
This is the best I can do and plan with the vans current stock 3.42 rear end gears. There is the possibility that my engine may make great torque at 1000RPMs, but I am not counting on it. The ideal is to gear everything at the engines torque peak, under or over by much and she will start drinking.
SO you cannot gear a stock engine with a torque peak of 2800/3000 to pull at 1500RPMs and get good MPG. So I am building an engine that peak at 2000 RPM and gear close to that.
Once it is built I will do as careful testing at all available speeds, RPMs with all the gears I have to test. THEN as I have a howling rear end will then rebuild it with what will seem to be the best gear ratio, with a range of 2.73 to 4.11 I can choose a gear that may be ideal.
So I start with a best build I can do, a 383, 9.5 compression, everything built for MPG, ceramic coated heads and pistons, telfon coated pistons skirts, gapless rings, Rhoads Roller lifters giving me a variable cam, a cam selected to allow a torque peak at 2000 or less, but thanks to the lifters will then turn into a power engine at 2500 to its max RPMS of 5000RPMs, fed by a 1987 Chevy TPI intake system.
Then to add to all of that I have a chip for the PCM to engage Lean Burn Mode which in the 80s Camaros allow them to go from 20/25 TO 30/35MPG.
To that I will be adding water injection, and extra EGR.
As the 03 Ford Explorer (untested so far) is rated to product great torque at 1500RPMs I believe it also can pull the SUV and under 2000RPMs at much higher highway speeds give a second Over Drive.
And all the other enhancements for the van also.
Rich
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