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From what I'm reading, .35 is very low for such a large vehicle. I'm wondering if the weight of the vehicle (nearly 2 tons) isn't partly to blame. The engine is a fairly old design (it still has a distributor and 2 valves/cyl.) and it revs fairly high in overdrive. It spins about 2400 rpms at 65 mph. But the engine size is quite small @ only 3 liters. I might have some tuning issues, and there is a dragging brake caliper, but I'm averaging 22 mpg, in mixed driving, which is close to the EPA est for highway driving. I'm thinking maybe some of those new iridium spark plugs might help. They sure did wonderful things for my friend's truck. A warm air intake would be fairly simple to pull off, but my van tends to octane knock awful easy as it is.
My wife and I only accelerate heavy when necessary, otherwise we keep the rpms under 2800 or so. I'm trying to remember if advancing or retarding the timing helps low end torque....
Either way, we live in the Ozarks, which is quite hilly. There are a few places we can put the car in neutral and coast at speed from gravity.
Before I drop the aero ideas, would a belly pan help much, or should I just shackle up the rear a bit?
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