Currently Marauderless

[buickconvert]

Hey All,

After driving a Grand Marquis rental car last weekend, and then a bunch of subsequent research into the Marauder, I've decided a Marauder is in my future. I have a 1987 Buick Grand National that I plan to sell once I pay it off (2.5 years), and buy a Marauder with the $$. I'm going to save up, however, so I can do all the mods on the Marauder as soon as I buy it. Here's my tentative list::D

STS remote turbo kit (makes 400/450 WHP/WTQ on an 05 Mustang GT)
4.10 gears
Gear Vendors Overdrive/Underdrive (make the 4.10's act like 3.19's for cruise)
User programmable chip flasher (still looking for this, any input appreciated)

I'm hoping for mid-low 12's on pump premium, and with ECM cruise tweaking plus the OD, I'm gonna try to make 20/30 mpg.

Any input on what to look for when buying a MM?

[RR|Suki]

Just buy mine and avoid all that hastle ;) Get alot more power too :D

[Breadfan]

Good luck on the STS kit, I believe they declined to make a Marauder kit thusfar due to the number of kits they plan to develop for much more popular vehicles...

[Zack]

Hey All,

4.10 gears
Gear Vendors Overdrive/Underdrive (make the 4.10's act like 3.19's for cruise)



You will need an F-150 trans to start with, then you will need to modify the transmission tunnel to get it to fit.

Oh you have a LOT to learn, cruise around the forums for a while.

And you should probably reconsider a STS kit. Ever see the crossmember on a Marauder?

[buickconvert]

You will need an F-150 trans to start with, then you will need to modify the transmission tunnel to get it to fit.

Oh you have a LOT to learn, cruise around the forums for a while.

And you should probably reconsider a STS kit. Ever see the crossmember on a Marauder?

I wasn't aware of that. Just sent Gear Venders an email, we'll see what they have to say. They *do* list the 4R70 in the "2WD Muscle Car/Hotrod" section, but I'm pretty much a newbie when it comes to Fomoco, so I have no idea how different the 4R70 and 4R70W are, aside from the ratios.

As far as STS, they sell a universal kit, so that's not a problem, but the crossmember might be. I looked at some underside pictures I found on Ebay of a Crown Vic PI and it didn't look like the crossmember should be a problem:confused:

[SergntMac]

Like Zack said...Hang with us a while, do some reading?

[buickconvert]

Like Zack said...Hang with us a while, do some reading?

For sure. Been doing a bunch of reading already. :beer:

[BigCars4Ever]

There may be a flaw in your milage plan. My N/A stock motor with 4.10's gets 20mpg. The Gear Vendor claims a 20% increase in milage with gears in the 4's ans 10-15% with high 3's. At best that puts you at 24mpg. Lets say by some fluke you get better than advertised gains. So maybey 26mpg. How many miles dou you have to drive to see a return on your investment?

Lets say gas is $3.50/g and you get 20mpg and drive 15k miles/yr.
Thats $2625/yr on fuel.
Now up that to 26mpg and the fuel cost drops to $2019/yr.
A savings of $605. If the kit bolted right in (which I doubt) and only cost thier estimated $2700 it would take over 4 years to break even.

Spend that same $2700 on a beater Toyota with a 4cyl and a 5 spd and keep the milage off the Marauder if it's fuel economy your worried about.

[Zack]

You are better off getting a turbo 400 with a gear vendors.
ModularPowerHouse does a lot of these on Mustangs.

[RoyLPita]

Welcome aboard. Feel free to PM me with the VIN of a MM that you might be interested in. I'll run it through Ford's OASIS database.

[buickconvert]

There may be a flaw in your milage plan. My N/A stock motor with 4.10's gets 20mpg. The Gear Vendor claims a 20% increase in milage with gears in the 4's ans 10-15% with high 3's. At best that puts you at 24mpg. Lets say by some fluke you get better than advertised gains. So maybey 26mpg. How many miles dou you have to drive to see a return on your investment?

Lets say gas is $3.50/g and you get 20mpg and drive 15k miles/yr.
Thats $2625/yr on fuel.
Now up that to 26mpg and the fuel cost drops to $2019/yr.
A savings of $605. If the kit bolted right in (which I doubt) and only cost thier estimated $2700 it would take over 4 years to break even.

Spend that same $2700 on a beater Toyota with a 4cyl and a 5 spd and keep the milage off the Marauder if it's fuel economy your worried about.

For my mpg goals, I was using the factory 23 mpg rating. 4.10's w/OD will be a little better than 3.55's with just the 4R70W. So count that's maybe 10%. Many STS customers, however, are finding 10% better fuel economy after a system install. This makes sense if the system is recovering unused exhaust energy to reduce pumping losses during cruise conditions. 1.1*1.1 = 1.21 or roughly 28 mpg. But there's one more thing: modern cars are not optimized for fuel economy, but rather for minimum emissions. If I was able to program my own re-flash, I could adjust things like converter LO in each gear, injector shut-off during decceleration, and most importantly, AF ratio. The Stoich ratio of 14.7:1 is not chosen to optimize fuel efficiency, but because at that ratio the catalytic converters and other emissions systems are able to function effectively. With careful tuning and keeping an eye on EGT, I think it'd be doable to run the engine lean-of-stioch during cruise.

Is this penny wise and pound foolish? Yeah, but I wouldn't be doing it to save money on fuel, but rather because I love taking on an engineering challenge.
As to the Toyota, that's pretty much exactly what I drive now:lol:

[buickconvert]

You are better off getting a turbo 400 with a gear vendors.
ModularPowerHouse does a lot of these on Mustangs.

That'd kinda defeat the purpose, since the OD ratio on a 4R70W is .70, and the GV unit is .78. That'd give me the equivalent freeway RPM of 4.56 gears with the stock tranny. However, the GV and 4R70W yields a .546 double overdrive, which would drop those 4.10 gears to 3.20 gear RPM on the freeway.

[TAF]

That'd kinda defeat the purpose, since the OD ratio on a 4R70W is .70, and the GV unit is .78. That'd give me the equivalent freeway RPM of 4.56 gears with the stock tranny. However, the GV and 4R70W yields a .546 double overdrive, which would drop those 4.10 gears to 3.20 gear RPM on the freeway.

.............................. .........

http://naiv.us/io/files/macros/What/wtf.jpg

http://home.swiftdsl.com.au/~raza/wtf.jpg

http://asmodeus.asenovgrad.net/humor/WTF.jpg

[buickconvert]

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

I love that bunny!

Here's maybe a better explanation:

The stock final drive ratio is tranny ratio*rear gear ratio.
Stock Marauder = .7*3.55 = 2.485
Marauder with 4.10's = .7*4.10 = 2.87
Marauder with TH400 and GV w/4.10's = 1*.78*4.10 = 3.198
Marauder with GV/stock tranny and 4.10's = .7*.78*4.10 = 2.2386

The ratio of the new final drive to the stock final drive gives you the ratio of new/old cruising RPM.

For Example:
Say stock Marauder is 1800 RPM at the speed you cruise at.
Marauder with 4.10's = 2.87/2.485 = 2080 RPM
Marauder with TH400 and GV w/4.10's = 3.198/2.485 = 2320 RPM
Marauder with GV/stock tranny and 4.10's = .7*.78*4.10 = 2.2386/2.485 = 1620 RPM

[Dennis Reinhart]

Hey All,

After driving a Grand Marquis rental car last weekend, and then a bunch of subsequent research into the Marauder, I've decided a Marauder is in my future. I have a 1987 Buick Grand National that I plan to sell once I pay it off (2.5 years), and buy a Marauder with the $$. I'm going to save up, however, so I can do all the mods on the Marauder as soon as I buy it. Here's my tentative list::D

STS remote turbo kit (makes 400/450 WHP/WTQ on an 05 Mustang GT)
4.10 gears
Gear Vendors Overdrive/Underdrive (make the 4.10's act like 3.19's for cruise)
User programmable chip flasher (still looking for this, any input appreciated)

I'm hoping for mid-low 12's on pump premium, and with ECM cruise tweaking plus the OD, I'm gonna try to make 20/30 mpg.

Any input on what to look for when buying a MM?

There are to Pristine fully built Marauders here in Florida one is black the other silver both are SC with less than 10K on the clock call me if I can help

[O's Fan Rich]

Guy's .... one thing you are forgetting about with the Gear Vendor's unit, you end up with 7 forward gears 1, 1high, 2,2high,3, 3 high, OD,
I'm not sure if it overdirves the overdrive since it replaces the tailshaft.

Here are two emails from them. I asked about the gear shifting method. It also contains comments about our tranny application.

The shifting of the unit is done through electronics via a simple foot switch. It is done manually, meaning that you will manually upshift your factory transmission, at the same time turning our unit on and off. this will get you an additional 4 gear splits, for a total of eight forward gears. Check out our website at www.gearvendors.com, under "Installation, Operating tips" for a good read about our "autolaunch feature". Installation in your vehicle is not a slam dunk, we need information on where the speedometer gets its vehicle speed, and how may teeth are driving that sensor. Give our New Products department a call at 1-800-999-9555 to further discuss your application.

Jeff Kubizna
Gear Vendors

And the 2nd,

Rich,

We do have a kit for the 4R70W, but wiring the speedo is different in a Ford car, than it is in a Ford truck. We do 90 percent more installs in Ford trucks, so we have a pretty good grasp on which wire to look at. Ford cars are less than 10 percent of our sales, so in some cases we need customer help in finding the correct wire. As for a different switch, the foot switch is the best for a console shifted car. We do have a small push button switch that can be installed in your vehicle, but you have to build a housing for the switch to work. We do not have anything that will fit into your console without having to modify it. Our standard foot switch (looks exactly like a 60's car highbeam dimmer switch), works very well in a vehicle that has a console shifter. Give our New Products department a call at 1-800-999-9555 for any further questions.

Jeff Kubizna
Gear Vendors

[buickconvert]

There are to Pristine fully built Marauders here in Florida one is black the other silver both are SC with less than 10K on the clock call me if I can help

Hey All,

After driving a Grand Marquis rental car last weekend, and then a bunch of subsequent research into the Marauder, I've decided a Marauder is in my future. I have a 1987 Buick Grand National that I plan to sell once I pay it off (2.5 years), and buy a Marauder with the $$. :cry: :cry: :cry:

[buickconvert]

Guy's .... one thing you are forgetting about with the Gear Vendor's unit, you end up with 7 forward gears 1, 1high, 2,2high,3, 3 high, OD,
I'm not sure if it overdirves the overdrive since it replaces the tailshaft.

Here are two emails from them. I asked about the gear shifting method. It also contains comments about our tranny application.

The shifting of the unit is done through electronics via a simple foot switch. It is done manually, meaning that you will manually upshift your factory transmission, at the same time turning our unit on and off. this will get you an additional 4 gear splits, for a total of eight forward gears. Check out our website at www.gearvendors.com (http://www.gearvendors.com), under "Installation, Operating tips" for a good read about our "autolaunch feature". Installation in your vehicle is not a slam dunk, we need information on where the speedometer gets its vehicle speed, and how may teeth are driving that sensor. Give our New Products department a call at 1-800-999-9555 to further discuss your application.

Jeff Kubizna
Gear Vendors

And the 2nd,

Rich,

We do have a kit for the 4R70W, but wiring the speedo is different in a Ford car, than it is in a Ford truck. We do 90 percent more installs in Ford trucks, so we have a pretty good grasp on which wire to look at. Ford cars are less than 10 percent of our sales, so in some cases we need customer help in finding the correct wire. As for a different switch, the foot switch is the best for a console shifted car. We do have a small push button switch that can be installed in your vehicle, but you have to build a housing for the switch to work. We do not have anything that will fit into your console without having to modify it. Our standard foot switch (looks exactly like a 60's car highbeam dimmer switch), works very well in a vehicle that has a console shifter. Give our New Products department a call at 1-800-999-9555 for any further questions.

Jeff Kubizna
Gear Vendors

You do get the double over.
http://www.gearvendors.com/hrford4s.html :D