So I have been lurking around the site a few days since I bought my truck on friday and decided it was time to introduce myself and ask for some advice. I really don't do a whole lot with it right now, but hopefully l be soon. Mostly a lot of country driving and a decent amount of highway driving.

1997 XL Ext Cab
4.6L V8 4WD
Manual Transmission
Offroad Package
3.08 Gear Ratio





Also came with two sets of tires, the ones in the photos are the 33 inch Dunlop mud rovers on 16 inch steel wheels, and the others are 265/70/17 a pair of them are almost new Brigestone Dueler AT Revos and the other two are Kelly AT, one about half and the other worn out.

Which brings me to my first question, would it be best to match up the set with two new Revos as I have to buy at least one new tire anyways? I know they are very highly rated and haven't found anyone saying anything too bad about them so far. It would probably be a bad idea to get some cheap pair to put on there with them right? Oh and is my speedo gonna be off more than a few MPH? Think the stock wheels were 235/70/16

Then I have a few other questions, I'm personally not all that interested in how it sounds or lifting it up or any other size tires than it has right now, I just wanna tweak as much performance as I can out of it far as horsepower, what I can tow with it and mileage.

Now I know most things require a tuner to get the full effects of it, but don't really have everything in my budget at once. Trying to figure out what to do when for best changes without having to keep getting new tunes for it. So I was thinking about getting a Gryphon tuner at some point cus I like the whole dash mount thing, but don't think I want to do that until I know what other mods I do to it or definitely am going to do.

Now what I figure on doing at some point is electronic fans, muffler, cai and tuner, but what order would be best to do them in, oh and I am not really all that great with vehicles, I can change the oil and figure out where things are and all but am looking to do as much as I can myself so I can learn it, and to keep labor costs down. I think from what I have read on here probably the previous mentioned order would be a good one to go in but what does everyone think?

What kind of muffler would be recommended when as I said before i ain't interested in making it sound super load or anything, just want the performance, and don't want to have a super load cabin either. I was also thinking about wanting to keep the exhaust forward of the rear wheels it came with the offroad kit, is that going to change the performance of the exhaust or anything? And how important are the welds? I have access to a welder but i would be a beginner at best would that hurt the performance as well? Or would it be best to just get it all done at a shop?

And then the other question is about gear ratio I know that with the bigger wheels its going to change the performance a bit, and as mentioned before it has the 3.08 in right now, but are the effects of changing up the gear ratio going to make a huge difference for me? The previous owner said with the street tires on he got 17mpg highway and I dont really want to sacrifice that good of mileage for a very small amount of performace, and its an expensive thing to do. Is it really worth it for the size tires i have?

I know thats a lot to cover, but been reading all kinds of stuff for days and its been building up.

Thanks for any advice.

 

welcome to the forum!

the best thing for your performance would be to get rid of those 3.08 gears and get some 4.10 gears or some 3.73 gears for your truck.

those tall 3.08 gears are KILLING your performance.

i cant even believe your truck came with those gears with the off road package.

 

I know I thought it was a little strange too but the sticker in the door has 18 under the axle thing and not the 19 i was expecting to see. 3.55 is what i was expecting, but doesn't seem to be, guess it wasn't much of an offroad package the stock wheels were kinda small for offroad as well. I even crawled around under there to take a look see if I could find any evidence of a change in gear ratio but looks like I am out of luck on that.......Only problem is there is no way i am skilled enough to change them myself and I definitely cant afford to pay someone to right now. That project is going to have to wait till after my first deployment probably.

Think the first thing I am going to do is electrical fans for now.

 

i did CAI then exhaust now im doing the programmer

 

as for the tires, i'd just get another pair of revos. i've had them on every truck i've owned and they are currently on my 97. and the stock size that came on mine was 265/70/17.

 

Don't plan on towing much with that truck - the 5 speed manual is a light duty trans and the towing limit is extremely low. You might as well just keep the 3.08's and enjoy halfway decent gas mileage. If you do gears, you have to do both axles, and this is going to cost you well over $1000.

 

Yeah, forgot about seeing what the transmission could do, I know it can handle more than it currently can at least cus there is the 3.55 option, but your right prolly best to just keep the 3.08 and the mileage with it. That would be the last thing for me to do to the truck anyways and a long way down the line. By that point might be better to just buy a new truck anyways.