secrent
+1y
My 89' B2200 w/5sp, 165k, is now getting 23-24 mpg town, 26-27 highway. I did a weber conversion, ripped out all emmissions, no cats, and installed headers. I also drive for economy so guess that helps. I did all this work, because my truck was running horribly, stalling at idle, stumbling at all speeds. Couldn't find the problem, so decided to start with the carb, replaced it and it ran better, but still stalling at idle, and slight stumble. Punched out the rear cat next, which made it run a bit better. Took off the exhaust manifold to check the can cat, and sure enough, it had broken into pieces and had falled down into the bottom of the can and was plugging the exhaust pipe. Back pressure was causing all my problems and the engine running lean due to exhaust back pressure. Put headers on it rather than pay for new cats. Wish I would have figured out the problem before changing everything. But, it does run a hell of a lot better with a weber and headers!! Before I got the exhaust pipe made and connected to the muffler, I had to drive 300mi. roundtrip to Portland, Oregon for an important meeting, I had to go, so drove the whole trip with the headers uncorked. Noisy as hell and had to baby the throttle in town once I got off the freeway. But anyway, made it without getting pulled over by a cop, and I checked my mileage just for that trip, and got 30 mpg with the headers open. So much for the restriction of a mufflered system.