Gen 2.5 - 7 K mile trip experience

[freewayross]

Hello all,

This forum has been of great help in all my DIY's. Wanted to Share my recent long trip experience on the Montero. It's a Gen 2.5 with 110k on the clock now. All stock except for the 33x10x15 BFG's.

Trip Info

Baltimore, MD --> Leehigh Acres, FL --> Brownsville, TX --> Guadalajara, Mexico

Guadalajara, Mexico --> Brownsville, TX --> Leehigh Acres, FL --> Logansport, IN --> Baltimore, MD

It was just me and 2 dogs with bunch of luggage and wife on the way back!

The Good
- Consistently got over 18 MPG with 89 octane gas, keeping rev's under 3k.
- No Hiccups at all
- Rides very smooth considering it's on 33's and older truck with body on frame!
- Goes anywhere, no worries of breaking or scratching stuff.

The Bad
- Does not have enough torque
- Rev's stay high at highway cruising, I prefer the revs to be under 2.5k else i feel like I'm straining the engine :snorkel:
- Struggles to keep the speed up on mountain passes (going uphill), doesn't down shift quick or fast enough unless you slam on Accelerator.

The Scary
- On interstate while cruising and negotiating curves.... the cockpit tilts a lot, and it's scary as if it's going to flip. Any one else experience this? What can I do to fix? I have new oem Shocks infront.

Over all a lot of car/truck for the money and has already paid for itself with the miles I've put on it.

 

[jeep-N-montero]

The great thing about the Monty is that the "bad" things about it are a far cry from what many people experience on a 15+ year old vehicle, a simple re-gear gets rid of those nuisances.

 

[Toasty]

x2

and you can make sure your sway bars are fully bushed and bolted, or switch to KYB shocks as they are far stiffer than OEM KYBs. If this is your first SUV disregard my statement and just accept the body roll, a lot of us run no swaybars and would drive your truck like a sports car.

 

[JohnnyBfromPeoria]

Don't be meek about letting that engine rev; downshift when necessary/kick it out of overdrive via switch. Redline is around 6K RPM and they love it.

The 33" tires are causing the transmission to hunt gears since it's like putting taller (numerically smaller) gears in the differentials. My 95 on 35" tires is annoying this way and it needs 4.88 gears instead of the stock 4.625's. In the meantime I just downshift and let it rev.

John B.

 

[BEG]

The Gen 2.5 came with numerically lower gears than the Gen 2 for better fuel economy and you've got plus size tires on it so it's got the odds stacked up against it in the torque department. However, these engines don't mind revving so don't worry about straining the engine with high RPMs. Eventually, you'll want to switch to 4.63 or, better yet, 4.90 gears and the engine will be back in its sweet spot.

 

[mapper]

I used the overdrive switch a lot on my 2.5 when carrying loads over mountain passes. If you disengage OD, you'll notice that the Torque converter will lockup at a lower speed, which can be really useful for longer grades. That said, even with 31s I felt the truck could use a bit more torque. Downshifting and revving up the engine feels wrong, but Johnny is correct, you really feel the power come on when the revs kick up. The Vortec 4.3 in my Astro kills it in the power department...I kept thinking the montero with that motor would be a sweet setup. But you'd pay for that power at the pump.

As to the downshifting, I may be wrong, but I think the "kickdown" is actuated in some way by one of the cables on the throttle body, I seem to recall reading somewhere that it could be adjusted. I always intended to do this but never got around to investigating further. Cables definitely stretch some with age. Mine also always felt a bit too reluctant to kickdown, (freeway on-ramps, for example) tightening that up some would have been really helpful.

Edit: Replace your rear shocks too. Even if they don't "seem" worn on a bounce test, the age and miles will take their toll. Worn rears, with fresh fronts would feel very unsettled. I know as I once had a rear shock fail on my VW, very scary to have one bad rear shock.
Also, check some inflation tables to be sure you are running the right air pressure for those 33s. It gets a little confusing because the LT tires are designed for much heavier trucks. If not that, ball joints etc. My volvo recently had a fairly worn ball joint that started to cause all kinds of drama on a freeway sweeper when it reached that critical loading point and the camber would "shift". My Montero always felt "top heavy" to me, but it never leaned over through the sweepers, always felt almost too stiff...like it would hold upright until you went waaaay too fast, then lord knows what.