4.0 power

[kkburr73]

Hi everyone. Im new and I just bought a 2002 ford Explorer XLT.. It has the 4.0 in it and im wondering about the reliablility of it when adding about 4-6 inch lift with 31-33 inch tires.. Ive always had trucks. lifted trucks. and jeeps.. the jeep I had I eneded up putting a chevy 350 conversion in it cuz the 4 cyl motor couldnt handle the tires. I dont plant to do any serious off roading but maybe some trails hear and there. so if anyone has knowledge they wanna share with me. I would love to hear what you have to say..

thanks

 

[Paraphoe]

I'm running 5'' of lift and 33s with the 4.0 and 3.73 gears. It can be a bit sluggish off the line, but as long as you understand you don't drive a race car, you're fine. And if you don't like it, you can re-gear the axles to get a ratio closer to stock again. Welcome aboard and good luck.

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum! The 4.0L has a decent amount of power. You could get a custom tune to add a little more power along with recalibrating the shift pattern of the transmission.

 

[Ronin8002]

My 2004 is lifted about 5.5" (3" body, 2.5" suspension) now wearing 265/75/16 (31.6") tires and is running with the stock motor and stock 3.55 axle gearing. The engine has plenty of power to move the truck still but there was definitely a loss in accelleration when I installed the tires.

You can expect that the drivetrain will handle the tire size increase fine. I am in the process of regearing to a 4.10 axle gear ratio to get my accelleration back to better than stock performance.

Lots of folks have also been running 285/75/16 (32.8") tires or slightly larger with both 3.55 and 3.73 ratios on the 4.0 and have had no problems either, just the loss of accelleration as I mentioned above.

 

[1Aauto]

Welcome to the site.

 

[kkburr73]

Thanks for the input guys.. Makes me feel better about lifting it up. How bad did it kill ur gas milage going to the bigger tires. not that Im looking for a gas saver but im curious. I will prb start out with a new computer and change my shift pionts. Think im going to go with the 3 inch body and 2.5 inch suspension..

 

[Ronin8002]

It will shift fine with the stock settings. Remember that these transmissions change the way they shift based on the way you drive...so if you need more pedal to get up to speed, the trans learns to shift accordingly to let you do that.

Still, it would be good to get an XCal tuner from Henson performance so you can correct your speedometer and get a performance boost too.

I lost about 2 MPG with the tire size change. I expect I'll get some of that back with the regearing.

For the suspension lift a lot of people use 2.25" front and 1.75" rear, that levels it out and gets you about 3.4" overall. I went with 1.75" front and 1.5" rear to be a bit easier on the suspension/alignment and I was happy with it as I got 2.5" of lift from it. That plus the body lift I am sitting at 40" from the ground to the top of the fenderwells.