Doober said:
Looks good
My 383 pulls all the way to he upper end since I did some mild port work on the heads (mainly cleanup anr unshrouding the valves), if you plan on just keeping it mostly stock I'd suggest porting a pair of TBI heads... while you're at it may as well put a small cam and EBL in
I am in it for the fuel mileage. If I got that carried away, I would want something light enough I could have some fun with it. Stop encouraging my inner child, darn you.
I know it seems like I have a lot invested, but I don't. The Y pipe I consider a wash because it needed to be replaced, I don't consider a repair a cost in this, same with the wire looms. I traded $25 worth of stuff for the in the intake. I bought the air cleaner for $20. I have $129 in the headers. The injector pod spacer was $12.99. The intake manifold and exhaust manifolds were leaking, so once again, a repair, gasket and fluids are a wash. So basically $161.99 out of pocket. Driving a 250 mile round trip once a week, I should see my money back inside of a year. I tend to keep a good truck around 8 years. I should easily see my investment back.
I am going to convert to electric fans, and install a TBI spacer that a buddy gave me.
Given my past experience, this truck should have gotten around 18 MPG stock or 756 miles to a tank. My target goal is 24-25 MPG or 1000 miles per tank.
42 gallon tank - $3.30 a gallon - $138.60 fill up
18.3 cents per mile stock
13.8 cents per mile modified
Based on 13K a year
$2379 a year stock
$1794 a year modified
So $585 savings in a years time, if my half asleep brain did the math halfway right. $4680 savings over the possible course of ownership. Sounds like a really reasonable number to me.
Maybe I need to do the math on taking the premium only drinking 98 Grand Cherokee 5.9 limited that got 13.5 MPG away from my wife and putting her in the regular drinking 97 Towncar that gets 26 mpg. Not to mention I made enough money off buying and selling the Grand to pay cash for the Towncar.
Oh, by the way, we took it out and put about 250 miles on it this weekend. This thing really responded well. Running down the road is completely effortless. There is no struggle climbing steep inclines. 1400RPM at 55MPH and 1900 RPM at 70 MPH on the short 245/70r16s, it will have 265/75R17s on it soon. No mileage numbers as I haven't sorted out all the bugs yet, but it seems very promising.
