On Sun, 21 Aug 2005, Barry Oliver wrote:
>
> Since I took this new job and have had to use this POS ferd minivan as a
> company car, I havent been driving the Dak much. I have been looking
> for things I can do to improve it a bit and I came up with this list:
well at least that means less wear & tear and less fuel. I love being on
the road - it might keep me away from timely email replies to my dearest
of lists, but it's saving me commuting fuel dollars with every day I don't
have to drive my own junk to work in the morning =)
>
> Tires - the current 325/60r15's have held up wonderfully, I have 45K on
> them and still 9/32 of tread - far from worn out, but I am antsy. I
> keep thinking Mike's old rims would look awful good on my truck - maybe
> with some streetish tires for better gas mileage - then I could put Mud
> tires on my stock rims.. this could get expensive...
>
well you should make an offer again before I swap the 32s on those
rims onto the steel rims that the Iroks are on for fun times in smoke
land... I'm thinking if I don't end up landing the diesel Ford I'm trying
to buy before I up my commute distance I'll swap those Yokos on so I can
up the fuel economy a bit.
> Transmission shift kit - I would probably try to follow in Josh's
> footsteps here, I know he put alot of research into his setup and
> installer, and was really happy with the results.
>
I did no research at all and bought a kit Josh didn't use. I also still
haven't used it... TransGo kit, the same thing I have in my Dakota. I'm
really happy with it and was going to put the "spare" I bought from him
into my RamCharger, but that hasn't happened and might not.... I think I
paide hime $80 or $100 for it, with some little bottles of magic juice in
the box too. Is that worth anything to anyone? It'll probably just keep
sitting if not. I'm really happy with that kit in my truck. It makes the
crappy gears not kill my transmission - stays nice and cool (40s on 4.10s
are like stock tires with 3:1 gears in the axles).
> General tune up - The plugs are 15k old, and stock. The plug wires and
> distributor are stock and 45k old. I have a drop in K&N that prolly
> needs cleaned [I cant remember the last time - YIkes!] My O2 sensors
> are 105k old and stock. I have started noticing rotten eggs from my
> tailpipe - maybe a high flow cat in my future? Maybe I can improve my
> mileage a bit...
15k on plugs isn't bad, the rest of the stuff would probably net you some
butt dyno improvements and .5 to 1 mpg if they're as bad as they could be.
>
> Detail - again Josh is my inspiration here. Being white, my truck
> likely wouldn't show much improvement after a buncha wax and buffin, but
> it seems like a cool thing to do. To my knowledge, my truck has never
> been detailed - even when I bought it, they didn't detail it before I
> picked it up. I doubt the paint has ever seen wax. I also have a few
> dings here and there that might warrant a touch-up.
>
> What else?
>
solid axle swap.....?
=)
-- MikeM
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