my 87 4runner 22re/auto 4.30 gears w/ 33's is only getting about 12mpg. it runs fine but is weak on the interstate. whats up? does anyone else have these issues?

 

here is a pic of it, its completely coated in durabak, red on the outside, black on the inside and on the top.

what kind of mileage do you get? what about you guys with engine swaps? name your engine and tranny, what kind of power you have. and what your mpg is.

 

well, yes, with those gears and tires, nothing is wrong. its the engine, if i were you id get new gears. engine swaps are expensive and hard.


Its also auto, so for gears get 5.29s

 

I get 21.5 mpg on a 22r. '87 pickup with 31x10.5 mud rovers.

You're getting high wind resistance, running over-sized tires on a heavier rig with an automatic transmission. Not sure how you could improve mpg other than lower gears.

 

12 mpg is still really bad for a 4 banger though

ÅÅÅÅ, thats what people get driving around big old chevys with 350s under the hood

your 22re should do much much much better than that

 

not really if i drive aggressive, or hard, i can get 15 with my 22re, so i imagine 33s, and an auto, he is flooring it just to get it moving.

 

When I had my 86 22RE 5 speed with stock gears, 31's and a LCE header...I was getting about 20 in the city and as much as 25 on long trips. I now have an 88 with the 3.0 (which I LOVE ) 5speed and 32's and my best milage is around 20.

 

yeah 12mpg with a no power 4cyl sucks, my jeep gets 12mpg if I take it slow and it has a 350. and thats not flooring the 4cyl, thats just normal driving.

 

my jeep



Thats why I was wondering about the mpg others with swaps were getting, I'd rather have alot of power and still get somwhat decent milage.

 

um...yeah....I have the exact identical engine tranny tire size tranny in the same rig, I get 6-8 mpg and cant use the overdrive, it shudders in od, because the engine cant push that much weight. On flat ground it loses power and have to shift to second to re-gain speed, then back in third, and that is with a newer great running engine, that was before the tranny brain died. I was gonna re-gear to 5.29's, but that thousand bucks for gears, and 200 for tranny brain are going into a 3.4 swap with a newer auto. Gears gears gears, they are your only friend you have left.......or a 3.4.

I figure with those gears and a real engine, should be fine, my pickup with 4.56 gears and same size tires moves real good, burns out without trying, pulls hills.........gotta love it.

 

i get 10-12mpg city and 12-14 on freeway. but i am running a lifted 4runenr with 4.56 and 35s, even wiht the 3.0 and 5speed.

 

Hey Tofer, join the club! I think I may even do a little better than you. Some 5.29s and 33x10.50 ATs shuld fix me up though, I hope.

Lamm

 

You did remmeber to compensate for the larger tires in your mileage estimate didn't you?

I think the stock tire is a 28" and you have 33's which are about 15% bigger and cover about 17% more distance with each revolution which throws off the mileage with the stock speedo about the same.

Still sucks at 14, but at least that's not as embarrassing as 12.

 

Yea, I wondered about that. I got a different speedo gear for my jeep, is it the same on the 4runner? I guess I need to find a chart or formula on the speedo for the 4runner.

 

When I switched from stock tires to 32s the odometer error was only 6% off.

Lamm

 

My 32's put my speedo exactly 10% off from what I've been able to tell over the years. At 55 indicated I'm radar at around 60-61...

I used this calculator for those numbers I posted, so who knows if they're actually right.

http://www.1010tires.com/TireSizeCalculator.asp

I figured it wouldn't be long before someone questioned my numbers... This is a tough crowd.

 

I used a GPS over about 2000 miles to get my 6% error figure.

Lamm

 

I would second the 5.29's or even 5.71's. Every Toyota I have ever driven has loved to rev--and it doesn't kill your mileage to rev it out. (light on the throttle but let it rev)
Your main problem though is the automatic transmission. The older autos are horribly inefficient.
If it is just transportation, tune it up, swap to 100% synthetic fluids, and change the gears to way lower (numerically higher) ratio.
If it is a keeper, either swap to a 22re with the manual transmission or a 3.4 if you can afford it. Either way you go, you will need to do the gears. May as well throw a locker in the rear too.

 

Here's a nice site with gearing calculators and tire size calculators too. Worthy of a bookmark.

http://www.izook.com/gearcalc.htm

 

I think your handle is appropriate. I had a bone stock 22RE 4runner, on "stock" (non-31s) wheels and tires. It'd get a touch over 21mpg on the highway, but that's it... 17-20 in town.

I think 12mpg is a little low also. My junk would get 15-16 towing a trailer. I'd start by checking my wheel bearings and making sure my 02 sensor was in good shape.

All 22R's are weak on the highway.. even without 33s!