im trying to sell my buddy on getting a samurai so that he can wheel with me. I own a YJ and tryed to get him to by a YJ a year ago but he really wants to get better mpg. Now i found a samurai for $500 and he is looking again for a car.

My question is if he installs the needed lift and puts on 31s what gas milage can he expect. And are there any easy engine mods to get more power out of the 1.3 or is changing the gearing the best bet?

Thanks

A friend of mine gets 43 mpg on hers but it is stock, my 88 sammie with the 1.3 and 30x9.5's was getting 32 mpg, my 88 sammie with a 16 valve with 30x9.5's last week got 37.2 mpg half hwy and half dirt road doing about 40 sliding around corners trying to keep up with a dirt bike.

wow thats impressive mpg, i was happy cause my yj is getting 20

my 87 with a spring over, and 31x10.5s got about 23-27 mpg all stock.   I added a KN airfilter for added power works well, also you can get a underdrive pulley that will free up some RPM's both together work to give you little more HP... but the best mod you can do to a 1.3 one that I did a month ago is a weber carb....  its amazing the difference u get with that thing.....

John

First off, if you've found a sammi for $500 that runs, drives, and isn't rotted away...buy it for god's sake!!  As far as the MPG's go, I'm getting about 25 on back country roads in my sammi.  It's spoa'd and has a 1.6 16v (which, by the way is what I would recommend for and engine mod)  Real_Red_Wagon is boasting over 30 in his stock tintop I think.  Lets put it this way, your not going to find a better 4x4 on gas, regardless of whether you want to wheel it or not and your not going to find another 4x4 that will be anywhere near as capable on the trail for anywhere near that little of $$.  I mean, even if he doesn't want to mod it out, just buy some decent tires and he could wheel with you and at least keep up it most places. Am I wrong???

lawdog thats what im hopin

Im hoping its in decent shape and he buys it this weekend then i will have a wheeling partner, if i was to buy him a 2" body lift as a wedding/new house gift would that be enough for him to fit 30s under the samurai ( assuming the leafs arnt shot)?

I hate body lifts 

im not a fan of body lifts either, however with very limited $$ and a desire to go wheeling with some larger then stock tires i figure its the only real option. I figure 2" body lift is better then 2" shackle lift.

With the sammy, you might as well just go with a SOA if you want to stay cheap.  With some fab work you can stay under a 100 for the entire thing.

So... if your buddy doesn't want that sammy mind posting the info.