[Frank Lee]

And you have still failed to tell me why staying stock on those components yields better/just as good fuel econ. I agree that the e-pump is more of a racing mod and tbh I'm leaning toward it the least our of all the other mods I mentioned. However, eliminating the parasitic drag of that pulley and enabling a smaller/lighter belt has to have some benefit, so the objection must be that the improvement is not worth the expense, or that it will take such an absurdly long amount of time to pay for itself that it isn't really worth considering

Accessory deletes should help some. They are more effective at higher rpms than lower. You don't get past 45 mph. They won't help you as much. They don't work wonders even for those that do go faster. The manual steering thing should help a wee bit if the stock system is shot anyway. The a/c thing may/may not even show up on the gas log but as long as you don't need it, it doesn't hurt to try bypassing it. My take on electric water pumps is they are a racing thing, and racing things like that are not continuous duty. I don't think you can rely on an electric water pump year in and year out, but on top of that, I don't think it will save fuel on this rig. New plugs and wires will only help if the old ones are not working right. <20 mpg in this day and age is criminal.

Again, can you tell me why the stock temp thermostat is preferable for fuel econ?

From #11: If you do the things I mentioned, the temps will end up right where you want them to be.

As noted one of your biggest problems is cold starts and all that time before it's warmed up. The hardcore here use block heaters all year. Perhaps you could try that. I use one in the winter but haven't done it for summer. I have already repeatedly mentioned ways to improve warm-up times and increase heat retention between cold starts. I suppose you could try a hotter stat, NOT a colder one, but then you don't want overheating either.