OK Guys, Here it is. Our Pre MFI dakotas are under powered from the factory
and they are also pretty heavy too. My 89 4x4 has an empty weight of
4120lbs. I found that keeping both gas mileage and performace in the
reasonable catagory took only one thing.. The correct ammount of back pressure
in the exhaust system.
One year ago the gas mileage was down to around 12 and all i did was highway driving.
I bought a set of shitty headers from mopar and had a 2.25 in open exhaust put
on it. Thinking this would bring me to where I want to be. Well I was wrong
the performance didn't change, and my gas mileage went down again. I didn't
realize that it was really screwing up the computer and dumping loads of gas in
at all times.
The only advantage to this was to have that sound. This is the only six that
can sound like an eight. But sisnce I have TBI, it farted on the downside of a
flat rev.
It came time for emmissions testing.. and guess what.. I failed so bad that I
made the guy think his tester was broken. I put some decent flowing cat's on it
that were slightly used. And I passed with a bottle of test passer in it.
Since then I noticed that my truck has better off the line and highway acceleration.
I don't have to put my foot to the floor to get up hills at 55mph. And My mileage
went up to about 17. Talked to some people and they expalined that I probably have
the correct ammount of back pressure for the computer and it can work properly
now. That's seems right to me. It still has a good rumble and people still ask
me what size motor is in it, expecting to here somthing like 318 or 340.
I reccommend you get a new cat.. since most of our dakotas have the tendincy to use
oil faster than other cars, the cats can get plugged quicker. Also spend 45$ and get
a new O2 sensor. That will always make a difference on cars 7 yrs or older.
-- Jeff St.Amour jstamour@ccri.cc.ri.us 66 Chevelle Convt 89 Dodge Dakota
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