Is 5th gear gutless uphill with every 4.0?

[Kona]

I have a 91 Ranger 4.0l 4X4 , 4" lift 235 75 15 Michelin Ice X 's 254, kms (150, miles )5spd K&N filter Bosch double plats Ngk wires Mobil 10w30 synthetic 3.73 LS Flowmaster 40, no cats (was the same with cats& stock muffler) . I just came up & down the Coquihalla Hwy in BC a month ago and yesterday, the wires,plugs,exhaust,syn oil and smaller tires (31X10.5 's before) were changed from the first trip. The truck will hold or gain speed up a 6-8% grade in 4th if above 2000 rpm shift, but even with a run @130 kms/phr at the base of Great Bear snowshed I am in 4th by the otherside of the snowshed ! Am I doing something wrong or are they all like this?

 

[IMenriched]

could be just a tired engine...

 

[fastford04]

well from my experiance with rangers i had an 88 2wd 2.9 5sp as amatter fact 5th gear in anything ive ever drove hasnt been a hill pullin gear! its just a gear that helpsyou get a lil better fuel mileage my dad always told me that..thats just my opnion!!

 

[Will]

Your talking a 2500 foot climb up to 5,500feet maybe and a 6-8% grade?

At 5,500 feet your engine is down by 30hp from where I am in Indiana. Just on the grade you lose 15-20 horsepower by the top because the air is getting thinner.

I think it's doing fine.

 

[almostclueless]

5th gear is an overdrive......actually producing torque DIVISION, not multiplication. Of course it's going to be gutless.

 

[Kona]

He He... I know what 5th is for I just want to know if mine is more gutless then 5th usually is. LOL, I guess I might be forgetting that the summit on that highway is 3000 feet higher then the truck is normally operated ( 1100 feet ).

 

[MAKG]

It can be with some choices of factory gear ratio. Like 3.08.

 

[AllanD]

Your talking a 2500 foot climb up to 5,500feet maybe and a 6-8% grade?

At 5,500 feet your engine is down by 30hp from where I am in Indiana. Just on the grade you lose 15-20 horsepower by the top because the air is getting thinner.

I think it's doing fine.

Actually at the 4100ft pass he's down 10% or down to 145hp,
about what a 3.0 in perfect condition can do at sea level.

5th gear is meant for highway cruising on more or less level ground, why is it that so many people think that if their truck can't climb over mountain passes in 5th that the engine is "gutless".

This is not the first time this basic question has been asked...

Hey, my brother's 4.10 geared 5sp 7.5EFI powered F-250
can't go over the rolling hills on I-25 between Douglas and
Casper, WY in 5th gear, at approximatly the same altitude
but HE isn't whining that his 460EFI engine "gutless"....

with 4.10's you'll avoid downshifting, but it might be easier to
just climb your hills in 4th....

I already had 4.10's in ym truck when I switched to a 4.0
and seriously thought (and am still thinking about 3.73's)
just to see if it gets better mileage on long highway trips.

But then again, I can change the gears myself, so what is easy for me isn't practical for others.

whatever the case I haven't found any hills at all on the interstates that I can't run up in 5th gear without even
dropping out of cruise control... but of course I have 4.10's
so with the same size tires I have about 10% more torque
at the wheels than you do with 3.73's...

AD

 

[Ozwynn]

to make the answer simple. yes, your truck is gutless in 5th gear. no, there is not much you can do about it. yes, everybody elses 4.0L ranger is gutless in 5th gear, just some are more gutless than others. My 515 hp 1650 ft/lb torque detroit diesel is gutless in Over drive too.

 

[2ranger87]

Having travelled that same highway myself more times than I can count, I don't think any vehicle can do that hill in 5th gear. It is a hell of a climb, especially after that snowshed. My 91 2.9 with 3:73's will only do that hill in 3rd at 80 km/hr (with 31's). I am in the process of building a '90 x-cab with a 4.0/m5od and 4:10 with 32's, and am interested to see how it will handle that particular hill..........I doubt it will maintain the 110 km/hr posted limit!

 

[Will]

With a turbo, the air doesn't get thinner on those hills.

It's easy to forget about the air thinning. I've done the coast-coast drive many times. I did a California-Iowa-California trip on a 4 day pass to go to my brother's wedding. Almost 4,000 miles in a weekend, two trips over the Rockies in a 4-cylinder Geo Prizm in one weekend. You feel it when you get up high, the pedal is in the carpet and the motor feels like it's sucking cotton balls.

 

[AllanD]

In my 4.0 4x4 4.10 geared Ranger I hardly noticed the difference between
home ~1100ft and Casper, WY @5000ft, but then again I only run 235's
on my truck, it DOES have Borla headers on it and it was the first week I really drove the truck after installing the 4.0 after being used to a 2.9 for ~500k miles....

So my judgement may have been skewed....

And the additional 1000ft to my brothers "ranch" in BarrNun was insignificant.
Climbing over pass into the Casper range at 8500ft, you started to notice
the elevation, but... to be honest what I noticed most was the loss of
cooling system efficiency as demonstrated by a climbing temp guage.

On a slight "quibble" with Will's statment.
On a turbocharged engine there can still be a difference, the magnitude
of the difference depending on how agressively tuned the engine is at sea level.

If you are tuned to be using "most" of the turbochager at low altitude you
can get out of the efficiency island when you try to run much boost at
elevation, so while there will be less of a performance loss, there will be some.

OTOH if your turbo is capable (flow volume) of making 20psi at sea level
(regardless if the engine detonates at that pressure or not)
and it's tuned to run 12-14psi without detonation you are unlikely
to notice a loss of performance at any elevation in north america
where you can find a paved road,

infact while the engine will be making the same power at elevation
it'll be fighting less wind drag in the thinner air and may actually
see an increase in performance!

Yes, it takes the same energy to increase your gravitational potential energy
(climb a grade) but you've reduced the wind drag by an ammount proportional to
the power loss.

BTW, I've driven a Geo Prizm, they are pretty wheezy at low altitude
Hell, I thought the '98 Escort my brother bought my mom was an improvement
over the geo...

Then again, I'm more used to an older Saab 900 Turbo...
I really need to get my Saab back together and drive to see
my brother... that car should be a real hoot at altitude.

AD

 

[Kona]

If I had wanted to push 4th over 3000 rpm I could have held over 110 kph, as it was I held 100 kph in 4th @2800 rpm.

 

[MAKG]

There is NOTHING ON GOD'S GREEN EARTH to prevent you from "pushing" your engine over 3000 RPM. Even my big stupid 1972 250 inline 6 is very happy there (this is the one that idles at 400 RPM and makes good torque at 800 RPM), and that's even what one does routinely to get this thing to 70 MPH on the highway.

I wish I understood why anyone thought that was a problem.

Run your 4.0L right up to the redline if you want. It won't brake ANYTHING even if you do it for hours.

 

[High Desert Ranger]

I had an 84 Turbo Coupe Thunderbird.
It would come up the Cajon Pass in 5th gear at 80mph.