Thread: Power Up or Gear Down

Really a 3.5 will never have much more torque, which is what you want for driveability. Short of fitting a 3.9, 4.0 or 4.6 which is going to cost A LOT, the best option is to gear down, so that you restore the original gearing. This will still cost a pretty penny, I think about 2 grand.

You haven't specified whether it is a 4speed, 5 speed or auto. The CHEAPEST may be lower high range gears at about $600 DIY if a 5 speed LT230 or ZF with LT230. BUT then your low range would be pretty high.

There is a guy trying to sell a 4.4 P76 on Outer Limits, but he is still hung up on how much he spent on it. If you could get it for under 2 grand that might be an answer.

Regards Philip A

thanks, its a '89 with 3.5, ZF auto and BW transfer case. Its only done 170000km so any major engine mods/rebuilds are out of the question at the moment.

toyota small six blower - $400 max - heaps around

make your own brackets / manifold adapters cheap but time consuming

should give you an easy 5 - 8 pounds boost. money and time well spent imo

Yeah, its really simple!

Unfortunately you would be asking questions that the poor old 14CU flapper could not answer. A unichip is $1400 and is the minimum you would need to trim the fuel and retard on boost.
Realistically you would need an aftermarket ECU . Now we will have many posts of "buy a Megasquirt" only $300." Are you really handy with the soldering iron and multimeter , willing to troubleshoot, and do not need your car on the road for long periods?
Look you will need $2000 whatever you do. Trust me. I have fitted injection to a 77 Rangie, I have modified a 14CUX 3.9 engine, I have added a Thor manifold to a 14CUX. It costs money. One Dyno session for fuel trimming will cost $300 plus.
Regards Philip A

oops - thought he had an older su carb 3.5. just looked at the sig line 89 rangie. - yep not too easy without expensive ecu crap. but would lowish boost bother the flapper system?

Rule of thumb is that most systems have about 10-15% headroom.
Anything over and the flapper would max out.

Also AFAIK the 3.5 injectors do not have much headroom, unlike 3.9 which has bigger injectors than a 308. (22lb vs 18.5Lb)

So not much point in all that work for boost to give less than 15%.
BUT its not a bad idea for my 3.9 though.
not many people know how to fuel trim an old flapper these days.
Regards Philip A

Do what i do with the Defender after fitting the 33's.....

Put up with it... its cheap.....

and i lack the grunt a V8 has....