94 ranger running gear in 71 toyota mpg estimation
 

Well some douche bags stole the batteries out of my 71 toyota electric truck project, and since I don't have the moolah to replace them right now, I am thinking of changing plans in the short term.

I have a 94 ranger with a crappy body and a nice running gear with a mechanical fan delete, manual brakes, no a/c 2.3 4cyl and 5 speed I can get just over 30 mpg mixed city and highway, and I can break 40mpg at 45mph.

The Toyota is from one of there smaller years, a real mini truck, with about 60% of the frontal area of the ranger and weighing in at almost 1000lbs less. And a sweet body, much better shape than the ford.

What kind of mileage numbers can I expect from a re power if I have same axle ratio and that much less weight/frontal area?

Thanks in advance keepers of the physics knowledge. :turtle:

I'd guess 10-15% with the same rear axle ratio, more if you went to a taller ratio.

Please do it, then report back. A lot of us would like to know the results of a swap like that.

the other option would be a geo metro 3cyl connected to a suzuki samurai rear wheel drive 5 speed. still on the fence a bit about this one.

The metro motor would probably be best, but being a ranger owner I'd love to see how more efficient the same drivetrain in a smaller lighter truck could be. Also, I'd like more info on the manual brakes. I didn't know it was an option and if so, I can feel a swap coming on lol

He means hydraulic non-assisted (or non-powered) front brakes.
Manual brakes implies mechanical, just not done anymore.

Those 4cyl non-ps, non-pb Rangers are a dram to work on aren't they?

Steve

They sure are, and with a suicide knob on the steering wheel the lack of power steering doesn't bother me.

So I will be meeting up with my pops tomorrow, I have a good running beater ranger, and he has a good running beater metro, I will see if he will swap me, so I can do the metro swap into the nice 71 toyota body.

I'm really torn with which one to do. The ford is a more long lived engine, I would not have to source a different tranny, since it is already a 5 speed rear wheel drive, the geo I would have to find a samurai tranny to swap it from front wheel drive to rear wheel drive. it would pretty much be motor mounts, driveshaft, crossmember, and clutch pedal would be all the fabricating.

The toyota weighs 450lbs more than a stock geo metro. But that is with an iron motor and an iron tranny, big iron radiator. If I swap to the metro/samurai drivetrain, I think that will get me pretty close to the geo metro base weight. As long as I watch my gear ratios, I should have plenty of power. I wouldn't have a freebie gauge for the metro motor, but I have a scangauge I could probably swap someone on here for an mpquino.

That is really great mpg for the 2.3 Ford in a somewhat heavy Ranger body. My '94 Ranger had the engine trans as yours and best I ever got was 26-27 highway.

Can't wait to see pics of your project!

Don't forget you can plug numbers into our aero/rolling drag calculator to estimate power requirements & MPG:

Aerodynamic & rolling resistance, power & MPG calculator - EcoModder.com

And I'm sure you've seen other Metro/Suzuki 1.0 swaps in other vehicles, eg:

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ata-18667.html

PS: that truly sucks that someone would steal your batteries.

I don't know why degenerates have a fascination with batteries because this seems to be a fairly common occurrence. I had a simular problem, the starting batteries I pulled from my suburban were stolen after they were replaced with LiFePO4 batteries.
I was saving them for friends who needed batteries but were short on cash, or else I could have creigs listed and sold them the day I pulled them.

Lock up or at least hide your batteries under cover.

Yeah I know what manual brakes are, thanks. I've just never heard of a ranger without power brakes and I'd want to swap a manual master into mine.