Congrats on the VX!
My '95 had some of those same issues: cleaned the IACV and adjusted the idle so far & it runs pretty well. I'm sure that a tuneup/fuel filter would help, but with about 50/50 city/highway mix of driving I'm averaging 44 after almost 15K miles.
I'd bet a valve adjustment as well as new PCV/EGR valves would help as well. But at 279K & decent mpg I'm not complaining.
But I'd say the biggest improvement came from driving more conservatively
and going back to the stock tire size.
I'm looking forward to hearing about other improvements in your VX.
