4 cylinder reputation?

GeoJeeper · **Posted:** Thu Jan 20, 2011 5:51 pm

I'm thinking about looking for another Wrangler. I know the reputation of the 4.0, but I have no experience with Jeep's 4 cylinder. I just keep seeing so many for sale, and it will have to be my daily driver. So the idea of better gas mileage is appealing as well. What can you guys tell me about them?

I've owned a 98 XJ with the 4.0, an 87 YJ with the 4.2 and currently our 04 KJ with the 3.7. We're not going to be replacing the KJ, wife would kill me. I drive a 96 Ranger that rolled 200K and the tranny is threatening to give up the ghost. I'd love to have another Wrangler.

Thanks for any info...

Budke · **Posted:** Thu Jan 20, 2011 9:21 pm

2.5L, sucks. Hard.
Reliable motor, just WAYYYYY under powered. Expect to be pedal to the metal just to maintain 70mph.
Theres a reason they named it the 2.5L Low Output and the 4.0 is High Output.

curt7088 · **Posted:** Sat Jan 22, 2011 12:29 pm

in all actuality even the 4.0 is a little under powered, but the 2.5 is just a dog...

GeoJeeper · **Posted:** Sat Jan 22, 2011 1:57 pm

Thanks for reinforcing my gut feeling... I'll steer clear.

stanimals2 · **Joined:** Thu Jan 06, 2011 9:25 pm **Posts:** 16

The guys before are right depending on what you plan to use it for. Mine is just to play around in and I dont have to drive the highway if I dont want to, so putting around the back roads and hitting whatever mud hole I can find is more than perfect for my 2.5 and they are very reliable motors.

GeoJeeper · **Posted:** Mon Jan 24, 2011 11:35 pm

How does it do off road? I'm not looking at mud bogging. But if there's a mud hole on the trail, I don't want to have to turn around. Does it have the power to move itself with 31's? I want to be able to go trail running and snow wheeling. Also, what kind of gas mileage do you get?

daspes · **Posted:** Tue Jan 25, 2011 2:46 pm

GeoJeeper wrote:

How does it do off road? I'm not looking at mud bogging. But if there's a mud hole on the trail, I don't want to have to turn around. Does it have the power to move itself with 31's? I want to be able to go trail running and snow wheeling. Also, what kind of gas mileage do you get?

Gears, gears, gears.

The 4 cyl does have less power than the 4.0. Not a huge lack, but it is noticeble. Yes it will move out under it's own power, with larger tires, not as easily as stock, 31's isn't a huge difference, but 33's will suck, heck they suck on a 4.0 with 3.73's and a stick too. To offset any tire size increase, you MUST regear to get the power back to where you can use it.

Gas mileage isn't a huge difference either compared to the six. IIRC city was the same, highway was around +1 mpg.

Budke · **Posted:** Tue Jan 25, 2011 10:42 pm

daspes wrote:

GeoJeeper wrote:

How does it do off road? I'm not looking at mud bogging. But if there's a mud hole on the trail, I don't want to have to turn around. Does it have the power to move itself with 31's? I want to be able to go trail running and snow wheeling. Also, what kind of gas mileage do you get?

Gears, gears, gears.

The 4 cyl does have less power than the 4.0. Not a huge lack, but it is noticeble. Yes it will move out under it's own power, with larger tires, not as easily as stock, 31's isn't a huge difference, but 33's will suck, heck they suck on a 4.0 with 3.73's and a stick too. To offset any tire size increase, you MUST regear to get the power back to where you can use it.

Gas mileage isn't a huge difference either compared to the six. IIRC city was the same, highway was around +1 mpg.

x2

33's and the 4cyl I'd go 4.88 or lower(higher numerically)

bill97redtj · **Posted:** Sun Jan 30, 2011 8:53 pm

We have 33" bfg at's with 4.88's and have no problem going over 70 mph, even up hill. With 4.10's it was a diff story. Offroad it is good. We hardly use first gear in 4L, 2nd pulls plenty hard. I think all TJ's with a 4 had 4.10 gears so 31" tires should be fine.

LibertyFever · **Posted:** Tue Feb 01, 2011 9:23 am

I'll chime in here.

I must agree with everything that's already been said, the 4 popper lacks power. The idea that a 4 cyl engine uses less gas than a 6 cyl is flawed because the 4 cyl engine has to work harder. You'll have the pedal to the floor most of the time.

I have a 4 cyl YJ and I can follow the 6 cyl Jeeps however I need momentum. I now wish that I had bought a 6 cyl even if the gas mileage was a bit worse.

One thing I will say that the 4 cyl engine has going for it is the amount of free space under the hood. While working on the engine you can practically crawl inside the engine compartment.

Once you decide on which engine to chose you'll be faced with the question of which transmission to choose, manual or automatic. Myself, I vote for the manual.

Budke · **Posted:** Fri Feb 04, 2011 11:38 pm

LibertyFever wrote:

I'll chime in here.

I must agree with everything that's already been said, the 4 popper lacks power. The idea that a 4 cyl engine uses less gas than a 6 cyl is flawed because the 4 cyl engine has to work harder. You'll have the pedal to the floor most of the time.

I have a 4 cyl YJ and I can follow the 6 cyl Jeeps however I need momentum. I now wish that I had bought a 6 cyl even if the gas mileage was a bit worse.

One thing I will say that the 4 cyl engine has going for it is the amount of free space under the hood. While working on the engine you can practically crawl inside the engine compartment.

Once you decide on which engine to chose you'll be faced with the question of which transmission to choose, manual or automatic. Myself, I vote for the manual.

I can mostly crawl inside my engine bay, and I have the 6cyl. :SOMBRERO:

curt7088 · **Posted:** Mon Feb 07, 2011 11:37 am

I have crawled inside mine... and shut the hood... no it was not running and had not been started in like 4 hours to make sure i didn't burn myself lol and i'm a pretty decent sized boy about 6 ft tall and 200 lbs...

johnny_posc · **Joined:** Sun May 30, 2010 8:43 pm **Posts:** 69

I owned a 97 TJ 4 cylinder for 12 years. I miss my old lady but most everyone is right, it is under powered. Driving on the interstate was a nightmare. I battle just to keep it up to speed. I was only running 31's and a modest 2.5" lift with some other addons. Around town it was great.

I had various issues over it's life span but nothing too major. One time it mystically died at a red light, I got out and yelled at it to start again and sure enough, fired right up and didn't have another problem for a while.

By the end my gas mileage was terrible. I started calculating around 7-9 but I had ran it hard for several years. At the beginning it was good though. And if you don't do things like sink it in a creek it'll probably be fine.

Now I'm just reminiscing. Anyway, they do have to work harder to keep up but they will keep working.

4 cylinder reputation?

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