Worth changing gears to imporve Fuel Economy?

[2000mustang fan]

Originally Posted by Tony Raine

alright, since the trolls have been banned, lets continue..........

if you have the mechanical skills to do it yourself, a stick shift swap may be beneficial. but only if you can sell the automatic to recoup the loss (as far as i know, an automatic cost more than a standard).


back to tire swapping, my switch from 29" tires to 31" tires is the equivalent of swapping from my 3.73 gears to 3.49 while keeping stock tires. i've run this tire size for around 2 years and have had no transmission problems (related to tire size).

i think rear tire swapping would be a good way to "test" to see if your car can handle "taller gearing" before making the jump to actual taller gears. (since tires are a wear item and are replaced, but gears usually aren't.

The tranny swap is looking to be my best bet. I can probably sell off the automatic somewhere because it is in excellent condition with only 66,000miles on it so it should still be worth about a grand or two considering a new automatic trans costs about $5k.

[whokilledthejams]

Originally Posted by Tony Raine

never heard it referred to that way, but yeah, thats about right.

is the 2000 still on the fox platform, though? i thought they strayed away from it around '95.

Ford Fox platform - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The '04 Mustang was the last derivative of the Fox platform, though it was somewhat modified after '94. You can, as far as I know, still swap much of the drivetrain of an '04 Mustang into, say, a '78 Fairmont with relatively little drama.

I remember hearing that leading up to the release of the current ('05+) Mustang that it was the first complete redesign in over 25 years, so that makes sense.

[lovemysan]

The Sn95 94-98 has a narrower rear end by 3" but otherwise is similar to the 99-04 rear end. This refers to the 8.8".

[reformed]

Originally Posted by whokilledthejams

Ford Fox platform - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The '04 Mustang was the last derivative of the Fox platform, though it was somewhat modified after '94. You can, as far as I know, still swap much of the drivetrain of an '04 Mustang into, say, a '78 Fairmont with relatively little drama.

I remember hearing that leading up to the release of the current ('05+) Mustang that it was the first complete redesign in over 25 years, so that makes sense.

Haha, even though it still might be considered a fox platform, they aren't that easy to swap parts like that from year to year. 79-93. 94-95. 96-98. 99-04. Are where you get the different designs, each with their little tweaks that make swaps to different styles, not impossible, but sometimes difficult and not cost effective. I've built a few mustangs in my day (All Foxes), and I've been involved with a transplant of an 03 4.6 Cobra powerplant into a 89 mustang and believe me, there was drama! When swapping parts and trying to stay cost effective in a mustang, its better to stick with your style mustang for most parts, or at least make sure to cross reference first. They did change the axle length also from 93 (foxbody) to the 94 (sn-95) year and I'm not sure if it stayed the same after that or not.. other than the 79-93 model years, my knowledge of mustangs drops off quite a bit.