Worst time to join the site
 

Let's see here, all the cars I've owned in the past, I've strived to squeeze more mileage out of them. Can match or slightly beat EPA ratings in darn near anything. Drove my boss's Expedition (rated 14/18) while towing a 6500lb trailer and averaged 19.2mpg over 1100 miles. It's fun.

But then our ever-growing family decided to rear its cute little head and require us to purchase something with 8 or 9 seatbelts. We searched for over a month and couldn't find anything we could buy for cash. Then a $900 1984 Suburban showed up online and seemed to be in good shape. About the time we thought we'd keep looking for a minivan or a station wagon, my Celebrity died. We thought, let's look harder. Then my wife's Lumina started acting up and we thought, forget it, let's get the Suburban.

So here we are, and I'm keeping track of my gas mileage in this monster. First tank was an even 10mpg. I thought, this is going to be BAD. Second tank 9.45mpg. Third tank 9.75mpg, fourth 9.54mpg. So I kept driving gentler and gentler in an effort to make it better. Fifth tank 8.3mpg. This is SICK!!!

So I changed the oil and filter, the air filter, rerouted some of the vacuum lines, replaced the PCV valve, its grommet, the breather filter, its housing, hose, elbow, and grommet, and tried again. 9mpg even.

I gave up on trying to get better mileage and drove it like I stole it for the next week. That 40 gallon fill-up lasted longer than the others. 11.6mpg!!!

So I'm going to tune the engine, set the idle/mixture screws, lower the idle speed, set the timing, hook up the vacum advance, see if there's a lockup converter that should be engaging (it's a 3/4 ton 8600lb GVWR truck, I don't think it has lockup), and air up the tires to max (44/51 seems high but max on these load range E tires is 80psi all around...I'll have to go to a truck stop to find a compressor that'll do it).

Wish me luck, if I can't crack 15mpg in this thing by summertime, I'm giving up and finding a diesel 'Burb to replace it.

mmm, diesel. maybe do plugs/wires/rotor/cap, and see if that helps. idle adjustment sounds like a plan. Welcome!

What a Challenge!
 

Sounds like you have a challenge on your hands.

So is the '84 a 350 V-8? With that age, I'd be concerned of any rubber components and sensors. The carb may have some issues too. I'm sure you know the drill -- check and diagnose.

Best of luck!

RH77

Dude, you need a miracle not luck
 

you need a miracle or a different car I sagest you go find two little crappy beaters. Example, a tercel you can find them cheap just by one with a salvage title. If the work was done at a dealership you know what your getting and it will serve its purpose.

95 corolla, Do you suggest he weld them together? He needs a giant to transport his family. You're right though, a suburban probably does not have much potential, every little bit helps i guess. :o

occupant -

Welcome to the site!

I always imagine drilling holes in a heavy car until it looks like swiss cheese. But, somehow, I doubt that would be the safe thing to do.

Are there ways to shed weight (i.e. uneeded seats)? Does the 'burb have cylinder deactivation?

Sorry to hear about your woes. Sub 20 MPG would drive me INSANE!!!!!!!!!

CarloSW2

As long as you keep it utilized, you could be ahead of the game as far as saving gas goes.

1. If you average 8 people in the vehicle then it is much like an 80mpg car carring one person. If not schlepping the family, then schlep a bunch of your coworkers, for a little mula of course :)

2. you can probably plan your trips a bit more efficiently, i.e. stock up more at the store, and save a few trips in the process.

3. You now have a financial motivation to walk with the fam to places within a couple miles of your house that you would have driven to previously.


Welcome to gassavers :)

Just think of all the energy(and pollution) he's saving by not buying a new suburban :)

good point!

Go TBI
 

84' Burban huh? You should try replacing your oxygen sensor and or catalytic converter. Hmm seems like a good project that with some well deserved maintenace will hopefully prove to be a good investment. Oh ya and like the title says, convert to TBI. Best of luck to ya :thumbup:

Ditch the carb and go FI. Driving like you stole it will help clean out any built up carbon in the heads helping the beast breathe better. Whats the mileage on the engine?

IF you are going to convert it to something make it electric although a lighter car would be better electric motors have tons of torque that can handle the weight and also have lots of room for batteries. EVERYONE SHOULD SEE
WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR

8-9 Passengers
 

The thing is, he needs the capacity for 8-9 passengers and not dump a load of cash on it.

I'd recommend maybe an late 80's/early 90's Ford E-250 (non-turbo Diesel Econoline Van). If 4x4 is needed, the Quigley company converts these into off-roaders. Not sure if you can get it as cheap as the 'Burb.

Also, like other members mentioned, only drive it when you need to haul that many people. It would actually pay you to get a small, fuel-efficient car to haul 1-2 people if it's just you commuting, etc. If 4-wheel drive is needed, the Subaru Justy comes to mind...

RH77

More likely it needs to get warmed up more to get it moving freely so by driving it hard it gets better mileage. Maybe a lube change in the drive train - them differentials usually have some heavy duty oil in them and some slippery and thinner stuff should help a lot. Also big engines burn fuel to go slow while not producing much output so pushing it harder burns more fuel and also gets you there using a higher percentage of the total burned towards doing useful work. Bet that thing can coast a long way too!

My experiences with the suburbs (two of 'em, a 76 Chev and a 78 GMC) had me in a similar sub-10 mpg area. This is back in the early 80's when I was still minimum wage at the restaurant. I found that Arco Graphite oil was able to raise that to an average of 11 mpg, about 15% fuel economy. I bought all of that black oil I could find, but it was all used within a year or two. I haven't seen it since.
btw, the trucks were purchased so I'd 'be safer' after totaling my Dodge Colt. I'm glad I got wise to that bigger is safer fallacy.

I'll try to answer as many questions and comments as I can...

budomove: Thanks. This is the kind of site I would have been a member of years ago if I knew it existed! A diesel Suburban sounds great, and I found one locally for $1000 the WEEK after we bought the gas one. Sad, isn't it?!! The plugs are like new. Wires tested ok. Cap/Rotor is HEI and look good to me. But I can smell the exhaust and the vacuum advance has a golf tee in it, so I think timing and carburetor settings will do the most.

rh77: Yes, it is a 350, 4-bolt, Goodwrench 190hp replacement crate motor, fresh carb, new exhaust, no computer controls. It has a cat, but no O2 sensor. It's 8600lbs GVWR, didn't come with a cat new. When the original owner moved from Missouri to Colorado, he was FORCED to make it pass emissions, so the new exhaust was put on and it passed. Passed here in November but it runs really rich now, I wonder if he slipped the nspector some extra cash to pass it. All I know is legally, it only needs to pass one more time December 1st 2007, then as of January 1st 2009, it's 25 years old and no more e-checks in Texas. I'll cheat a little and get 13 months out of each inspection by waiting until the 1st day of the next month to take it in.

95_corolla: I don't think so. The original plan was to keep the Celebrity and Lumina and drive two vehicles everywhere. But consider this...the Celebrity was averaging 22mpg and the Lumina about 18mpg. So combine 20mpg and 20mpg and that's 10mpg. We're getting that with the Moose. So it's about the same. Now if we were talking about two 30mpg cars that would be a combined 15mpg but if I tune this Suburban good enough, we're there, too. Keep in mind that I'm NOT putting my baby, my toddler, my school age children, my pre-teen and teenage daughters, nor my wife in something small. So 15mpg is what we'd get in a variety of large vehicles that seat eight, such as any gas powered SUV, an Astro/Safari van, a full-size van (with the exception of a PSD Econoline), or a used school bus. The only vehicles that could do better are the PSD Econoline vans, diesel Suburbans and Excursions, and maybe a Toyota Sienna (but not by much)

cfg83: We need all the seats. Bench up front for me and my wife, bench in the middle for the teenage girl and the two youngest in car seats, bench in the rear for the school age pair and the preteen. The Moose doesn't have an O2 sensor, nor cylinder deactivation. That's the newer 5.3L Suburbans and Tahoes and such. This is a 23-year old truck. The only vehicles this old with that kind of system are the 80-81 Cadillacs with the 6.0 liter V8 (*also 82 and 83 for commercial chassis/limo/livery models).

white90crxhf: Exactly. Why buy a $36,000 new truck ($28,000 after rebates and discounts) and spend probably double that on full coverage insurance and interest, when a $900 truck does the same amount of work, gets the same mileage, and has no extra computerized stuff to break down? Even if it only lasts a few more months, it's saved us thousands in payments, interest, and collision/comprehensive coverage.

civicduty_: I don't think it would be very cost effective to convert a $900 truck to a TBI unit. The block and heads will take it, sure, but then I have to add a computer and a different dizzy and Lord knows what else to make it run right. By the time I add all that stuff, amortize the gas cost difference (what, 2-3mpg at most?), it would take YEARS to see the savings. Now if I pick up a 1988-1991 Suburban with the 350 TBI motor for parts (since I do need things like a tailgate, some interior pieces, etc), I might swap the fuelie parts over as an experiment. But this particular crate engine was designed for a carburetor, and I think that would be best to keep in there for awhile.

Red: no idea how many miles. Shows 24500 on the odometer, guarantee you that's 224 but it COULD be 124. Engine is date coded 1998, but who knows when it was installed, could have set for years in a dealer's parts department, could have been put in the day it showed up. The previous owner does not speak English, and the original owner has not replyed to phone calls or two letters. I assume he doesn't care to inform me of that kind of information.

JanGeo: the truck DOES run cool. I bet a hotter thermostat would help. But the gauge could be off. I get good heat within 4-5 minutes (1.5-2 miles) from home. By the time I get to the closest gas station to the house, it's fully warmed up and very toasty (we live in the boonies).

I will also say that the carb definitely needs adjusting, and the timing isn't advancing with the vacuum advance disconnected, so fixing those two things may provide the greatest increase in mileage.

The tires are 50-60% and highway rib, so that's the best I can do there. Going to air them up to 80 all around when I get near a truck stop. The Valero near us won't put them above 45 and I'm sick of putting quarters in there trying to get them higher.

The only other thing that might be killing mileage is the tailgate won't close all the way. And it won't open. So fixing that might get rid of the annoying draft in back AND increase mileage. I'm also trying not to exceed 50mph unless I have to. Figure the transmission hits overdrive around 38-40mph and GM's are geared pretty tall so 45-50mph should give the best mileage in top gear.

Never heard of graphite oil. Don't think I'd want to use that stuff. But I am considering Fuel Power and Lube Control fluids. They're based out of Addison which isn't far from me, so I could pick up at the warehouse anytime I'm on the north side of Dallas and save the shipping costs for "hazardous" liquid materials.

I haven't added anything to this truck yet except to top off the transmission. Will keep an eye on everything and except for LC20 and FP60, I don't think I'll add anything else to the fluids. Will consider changing the gear oil in the axles, the transfer case oil (which is supposed to be Dexron/Mercon ATF), and switch to 5-30 engine oil come springtime. Also will replace the wheel bearings if needed and make sure they're well greased. Don't want any more friction if I can help it at all.

Wondering if I should remove the running boards after my wife has our last baby here in a month or so. They don't add much weight, but they do stick out a bunch. Then again, it's probably rusted through under there and would suck air through the holes...

Welcome to Gassavers.

It sounds to me like given what you are spending, when you need to haul that many people, your not going to probably do much better, cost wise. I would definitely find out what is up with the plugged vacume line for the distributor. If you have a timing light, you can hook it up and watch the timing change, as you open the throttle. Without the vacume advance, it will kill your mileage at driving speed's.

I can appreciate your desire not to fiddle with something which is working, even if it is a gas tank on wheel's. I think you could go to the throttle body injection system without to much trouble, because they basically just replaced the carb with a throttle injection unit which meters the fuel into the intake, instead of using the venturi on the carb. However, I don't think it would be worth messing with, either in terms of cost or hassle, for that vehicle, unless you were just doing it for what for's sake.


Their are a couple of things you can do which would probably help some. First, is to put in as much of a grill block on the radiator as you can get away with. Second, if I recall correctly, that vehicle is spinning a mechanical fan for the radiator. You should be able to pull the fan blade off and just bolt the fan hub on the water pump and get it to work. Then you can put a big electric fan or two smaller electric fans in their, in place of the mechanical fan.

I know the fan for my 94 Chrsler Town & Country is a big unit and it comes with two speed's, so that if the temperature gets above about 2/3, it goes into high speed, to cool the engine.

I wonder if the transmission isn't either a 3 speed with torgue lockup or a 4 speed without torque lockup. If it has the capability for torque lockup, it would be worthwhile making sure that is working properly. If you ever did have to get the transmission rebuilt, you might want to consider going to a 4 speed with lockup. That engine should certainly not have any trouble pulling it down the highway, I would think.

On your tire pressure, I think the quarter robbers only go up to about 45 psi, which is part of why you can't go any higher. A truck stop of some kind is definitely your best bet, their.

Good luck.

Actually an old limo may not be so bad I used to love looking at old ones on ebay like mid 80ish they look sweet and are big n safe. chevy, caddie and lincolin made some of the 6 door versions I always thought they were unique and can hold 9 peeps. I wish you best of luck

Gary: Thanks! I just filled out the garage gas log thing, I have a long way to go to hit 15mpg. The electric fan sounds like a good idea. There is a clutch fan on it now which works properly but definitely is robbing power and mileage. An electric fan wan't on my list, but it will be now. The 3/4 ton Suburbans that year couldn't have a lockup converter but it shouldn't be too hard to add one, especially if I convert to TBI and have to add a computer anyway. For now, I'll just limit my top speed to 50 or so if possible. I also need a vacuum gauge. Some 70's C/K trucks could have them in the cluster, and there is an open spot in my cluster, supposed to be for a clock but I guess I could put a vacuum gauge in there, it is 2 1/16" size.

95 corolla: That's what *I* wanted. An 80's B-body 3-seat wagon or a 6-door funeral sedan or 24hr limo. 307 V8, 4-barrel, overdrive automatic.

Thanks for putting some pictures up. You could go to town with weight reduction & aero mods with that thing!

- Grille block the size of a windshield
- Removal (or downsizing) the gargantuan side mirrors
- Removal of the stepside will reduce drag and weight
- Removal of those weird prongs on the front bumper (less weight)
- Tinting the windows will drastically reduce the need for air conditioning
- Maybe lower the vehicle several inches

occupant -

Maybe these are still for sale :
MILEAGE MONITOR (vacuum gauge)
https://ideamaster.com/mm.htm

I originally saw it in this post by George Wilson :
Just bought and installed a vacuum gauge!
https://www.gassavers.org/showpost.ph...2&postcount=10

CarloSW2

If you want a vacuum gauge, just get something standard fair off ebay and hook it up. Other than that, *shrug* Carbs suck precisely because of their lack of precision, :)

Not sure how Warn does it for the full size, but the Warn hubs for jeeps are good for a rebuild once a year. Some new bearings and seals might do you good.

Not sure about the exact gen of your 700R4 but you might have a vaccum powered lock up coverter.

Does it use u-joints or CV joints? Some slop might be costing you some efficiency points

lol, i like the swiss cheese Idea. It has 2 barrel deactivation haha. You drive it easy, it uses 2 of the 4 barrels, hit the gas the other 2 open.

Speaking of carbeurators, ever consider getting a smaller one? I would imagine a stock one would flow quite a bit less air and fuel. If you don't want to go to such drastic measures, you might consider SeaFoam before your next oil change. It is just about the most amazing product for old gummed up carbeurators and motors ever created. Not to mention the cloud it produces is second to none :D

I do feel your pain though, my car started off getting a solid 9-11 mpg, YICK.

I second this man. I'll list a few key points to this great option.

1. Old limo's have a very small market, most people who want a limo are going to be getting a new to slightly used one, not some ghetto a$$ hooptie' haha. Most Limo service companies also have to update their models to stay attractive and competitive.

2. 99.9% of the time they are taken care of exquisetly from the time they are purchased till they are sold. This is mostly due to the fact a new limo is a rather large investment, and they have to be able to get their occupants from A-B with no reliability problems. Maintanence is the best way to keep it like new.

3. They're usually driven very nicely with mostly highway miles. I guarantee you've never seen a limo power sliding around town haha, mostly because the occupants would NOT like this at all.

4. Most importantly, If you get an older town car, I wouldn't be the only one with one on this site :-)

5. The misc. cool factor, what kid doesnt' want to get chauferred to school in a limo? Most limo's are the top of the line luxury models when new as well, so you get a real nice ride with the sweet options. Entry/Exit is easier than climbing over seats and such (never figured out why suv's and van's don't adopt 6 doors like some Limo's. Big trunks to throw your stuff in. Climate control systems designed for maximum comfort of ALL occupants, where as the SUV is mostly desinged for the first 2 or 4, the ones in back are usually cold (atleast in EVERY suv/van i've ever ridden in)

Ebay is full of Old Limo's noone wants, I'd imagine there are even more if you really look for them.

Ok, got one more consideration.

I used to have a 81 Plymouth Reliant, with a Mitsubishi 2.4L in it. On that car I leaned the idle mixture down to a point where the engine was not running smoothly, at all and would buck and snort, at a stop light. However, my mileage went from 22-23 mpg to 27 mpg.

I don't think this did any wonders for it's smog compliance, so this is a user beware. I readjusted the idle mixture before I had it smogged, and it passed fine. I couldn't see that it caused any other mechanical issues, for the motor, carburater or so forth. What it did apparently do, was to keep fuel from being dumped down the drain, keeping the idle path working full time, when the engine was just driving us down the road.

I don't know if their is any way to do anything on that carburater, but I believe my 87 carburater has a vacume bypass, that allows the idle circuit to not pull any fuel when the engine is above a certain rpm. The other thing which could be done, but I don't know if anyone does, is make a vacume bypass circuit for the regular jet's, so that the circuit can have a release that allows the fuel to be cut off, entirely, when your coasting, in gear.

Anyway, don't know if any of these are something you can or want to do, just thought I'd throw them out their, in case.

*Edited*

when I drove my 66 suburban home from san diego to phoenix, I got 19 mpg cruising at around 75 mph. It does not have an overdrive or lock up converter and was revving at over 3000 rpms because of the 3.73 gears. I believe this must be close to where peak torque was so the engine was very efficient. My 68 firebird also pulls similar mpg numbers. I havent even started trying for efficiency in those, they are just tuned up.

I found your post in the garage so questions I had previously posted did not need to be answered as they were answered there. So far I know its a 4 wheel drive 84 sub with a 700 R4, 4 barrel carb and a clutch fan.

One of the problems is that its a 4 wheel drive. Do you need 4 wheel drive? You could lose a lot of weight and gain mileage if you converted to 2 wheel drive but that may not be an option. 4WD causes a sure drop in mileage but even still I think there is potential for a LOT better mileage. If you are driving mostly around town then there might not be much to be gained in mileage because thats a lot of weight to get up to speed repeatedly. but highway mileage can be improved significantly
Here are some questions I still have

What is the gear ratio in the rear end?
What carburetor is on it?
What intake manifold and exhaust manifold/header?
What is the exhaust configuration?(single, dual, dual with crossover etc)
What do the spark plugs look like?

^^ true buuut, I wouldnt completely discount a couple things. There is the added weight that must be dragged along, accelerated everytime you stop, then there is the rotational mass, the transfer case, driveshafts, front gears they are maybe more of a penalty because that weight has to be spun rather than just pushed along. This drags a lot on the engine, It may not make much difference on a flat open highway at constant speed, but as soon as there are hills or changing speeds it starts making a difference.

If you have a quadrajet carburetor, you can get decent mileage if they are tuned correctly, but they are more difficult to tune than other carburetors. I personally prefer the old carter, or current edelbrock carburetors(same thing). They are easy to tune and its easy to change idle, cruising, or WOT(wide open throttle) fueling characteristics. My firebird is lean to the point where under constant cruising it surges just slightly. I should point out that too lean a mixture will cause problems passing emissions just as too rich will so be careful to keep it in the middle.
Opening the exhaust will help, an X type crossover aides in scavenging and helps evacuate the cylinders of spent gasses, a smaller set of headers should help with low end torque and exhaust flow over the Log style manifolds if thats what you have. If you have the cast iron manifold, I doubt you will see too much difference in anything with an aftermarket aluminum one, but there is weight to be saved there if you can pick one up cheap.
Some attention to front aerodynamics would help a bunch Im sure as there is a lot of frontal area and obstructions under the truck. Then if you want to continue that, a full belly pan should make a huge difference on a vehicle that high, with an undercarriage that messy and huge.
I dont know how your gearing is but I believe you want to gear it such that your engine is reving at peak torque rpms where you will cruise most.
I dont know if you are against lowering a 4WD vehicle, seems a little wrong, but if you arent a lot can be seen here in terms of drag reduction.
smaller mirrors, losing the running boards, blocking part of the grill, an air dam, removal of the side handles on the b and c pillars, and possibly a rear cusp spoiler will all help with drag reduction too. After all these things you will for sure be getting 15 mpg, maybe more.
Heres a pic of my burban in case you care. It gets 14-19 mpg with a 302 ci small block chevy, th350 automatic transmission and 3.73 rear gears. It has 2002 chevy Z71 17" aluminum 6 lug wheels on it. This is before I started the restoration, it will be near perfect when Im done.
https://memimage.cardomain.net/member...589_4_full.jpg

He has Warn hubs which lock out everything from the stub shafts on in

To do a 2WD conversion he'll either need a new tranny, or a new tail housing along with a longer rear drive shaft. For true 2WD he would have to replace the front axle with one from a 2WD truck. Could be more $$ and work then gain. Replacing his wheel bearings with modern lower friction versions would probably be a better bang for the buck.

For Jeeps atleast. The wheel bearings used in YJs and XJs were crap, swapping over to the TJ style would net a small improvement.

True, but he would still be lugging around a now useless transfer case and front diff.......

Or.. leave the front hooked up to the engine and hook the rear driveshaft up to a motor/generator and a bunch of batteries (and add some controls) for a regen braking/plugin thingie?

He might not have to worry about a slip yoke

https://www.high-impact.net/transmiss...case_NP205.htm

He could have a fixed yoke already on the rear output. Which leaves a perfectly good engine driven output shaft for something, though a useless rear diff which is probably heavier than the front

no motor/regen via the rear diff and part of the rear driveshaft?

Yeah, I'm just thinking about the weight of the iron axle assembly (14 bolt or Dana ?)

skewbe,
Power or hook up what? He is massing around 2-3 tons...... The outputs could power his alternator or something

I dunno, maybe tuck a vw engine behind the transfer case with a compressor cam installed, add an air tank and a lever in the cockpit (forward=go, backwards=brake/recharge the airtank/reverse if you hold it too long)

Of course this will hurt hiway mileage, which I see is where this vehicle will be, so yah reduce weight/rolling friction/drag sounds like a good plan.

It could be the carb. My '79 F250 dried up the bowl from sitting and was gagging pretty bad. So I yanked off the carb and cleaned it up, especially the gunk on the main jets. Went from 8 mpg to 11. The 8 was when I bought it and it was running fine. I didn't buy anything except a can of carb cleaner. It's got a fixed fan, a C6 tranny, 351M motor (factory 8.5:1 compression), 3.71 rear, etc.

Of course, that's still horrific, but the Civic uses more gas overall. The big trucks all sucked from '75 to '89, Fords worse than Chevys. I haven't heard anything good about the diesels from that period either.

I now have a LONG list of things to do.

The grille blocking sounds very good. Will help warm the engine up quicker, and will keep it warmer. The temperature gauge hardly goes beyond what I would consider 160 (halfway from 100 to 220). But come Texas summers I'm sure I'd have to remove it. I'll also be going over the cooling system in a month or two and I'll see what temperature the thermostat is for. I'd be afraid to put a hotter 'stat in but if it's a 160 I'm sure a 180 would be fine since it holds 160 pretty good as is.

As soon as my wife has her strength up again, the running boards will come off. I know they may not weigh much, but they are definitely a drag on aerodynamics. The grab handles on the pillars will have to stay. Those front bumper guards will go away when I get a set of bumper bolts. I need to replace the rusted rear ones so I'll buy enough to do the front bumper, too.

If the receiver hitch is an easy removal, I'll pull it off, too. I think it has four or six bolts, shouldn't be too tough to get off the truck. Shouldn't be too heavy to carry into the garage, I have a 2-wheel dolly if needed.

They made wheel covers on the late 80s Suburbans that are pretty flat, cover the whole wheel, no dish, and they even made them with the center cutout for the front hubs. I'm looking for a set but they are hard to find. Has to be better than the small dog dish ones on there now.

As for lowering the truck, it sure would eliminate the need for the running boards, and it would give me an opportunity to replace the body to frame bushings while I'm under there.

X-pipe dual exhaust with Magnaflows would be my preferred setup for exhaust but I'm thinking cheap, and I'm thinking the exhaust on there is brand new, so I'll let it rust a bit before it comes off. No point wasting a perfectly good set of pipes.

I've been told the medium duty trucks had those factory vacuum gauges more often than the C/K trucks. So when I get a chance, I'll hit the truck junkyards and find a nice C50 or C60 or Kodiak or something, 81-84 or so, should have the same gauge panel. If nothing else, the Mileage Monitor gauge is the exact one I had in my last Delta 88. They sell them on their website and also on eBay. It's the right size to fit in the C/K panel and I could print out a factory looking gauge face and put on an orange needle to match the others. I'm pretty picky about the looks of it.

And window tint will get done the next time we drive to Waco. We have credits on MerchanTrade and there's a couple shops down there who will take them and it shouldn't take but a couple hours. We'll drop the truck off, wander around downtown Waco for awhile, grab some lunch, and go back and wait on it. The tint on there now is horrible, wrinkled, bubbling, scratched, and purpled. I'll scrape it off myself before we take it in. No defogger grid to worry about damaging.

I guess I ought to remove the gun rack, too, eh? Except it is plastic and weighs a little bit of nothing. We use it for fishing rods and such.

I took the liberty of doing the modifications for you in paint. You burb is lowered a bunch, has no more push bars on the front bumper, no more running boards, has a 2 piece aluminum grill cover, an air dam, no back bumper, no side mirror, no windshield wipers(they are under the seat just in case), and there are no stickers on the front windshield for better visibility. It now gets 20 mpg on the freeway at 65 mph(I imagine).
https://memimage.cardomain.net/member...96_80_full.jpg

I could always paint the grille on like a picture, LOL! Would be able to paint it to LOOK like the 89-91 grille I like the most. And at that point, no reason why I can't put smoothie hubcaps on it (either the stock P05 hubcaps or rat rod full moon discs). They make roll pans for the back end to smooth out where the bumper was. I'd also have to get the bodywork done on the rockers, rear wheel arches, and tailgate so it'd be smoother.

I would need to keep the stickers on the windshield, those are registration and inspection and they're good to 11/07. Have to have them or get tickets daily. And luckily, if I DON'T tint the back window, I could leave the outside mirrors off. But if I tint the back window I have to put mirrors on both sides. Maybe those little makeup-sized rat rod mirrors clipped to the vent window frame would be enough, convex to show the most area.

BEST NEWS I have is that the vacuum advance is now hooked up to manifold vacuum. It made a HUGE difference in acceleration, idle quality, and general engine smoothness. I now have to use much less throttle to maintain speeds over 30mph. I can almost coast at 45-50 on level ground and not lose speed. I made the repair halfway through a tank of gas and that tank measured out to 12.8mpg. So it is possible that I am near the 15mpg I was shooting for, and after a few more tanks, I'll know for sure.