[jtbwatson]

I had a K&N cone filter attached to an eBay cold air intake for the longest while and I switched back to the factory air box. I cut some holes in the front and fender side of the air box (some guys on s10forum recommended it). I also put Royal Purple motor oil with a Royal Purple filter.

I noticed moderately increased gains and was happy, although I wanted more.

Yesterday I took off the old differential cover and drained the oil. Cleaned it up really well with brake cleaner and spun the gears and made them shiny again. Shot it with some compressed air (just the stuff in the can) to get all the extra gunk out of there. Put a new differential cover on, filled her up with Royal Purple 75w-90 and spun it around to get it worked in. Went on a drive around the area (about 5 miles). Noticed no oil leaking, bolts were still on, and everything checked out. I also swapped in an AC Delco fuel filter (old one was Fram).

Tried to get the spark plug wires undone (going to replace the distributor cap, rotor, wires, and plugs) but I was running out of daylight.

Check my fuel log. My FE has been terrible. I got the scangauge reading 18.9 MPG for this tank (half of that is before the differential oil) and I took it on the highways around Houston last night for 100 miles and - get ready - 24.9 MPG!!! And that's BEFORE I've done the ignition tune up! My old highway mileage was ~17 if I was lucky! And, on top of that, the vehicle just feels so much more smooth. I guess I was used to a grinding feel as I was letting the car slow down because now as it coasts it feels like I'm sliding on butter.

This website is the best thing that I've found in a long time and I've seriously learned so much from you guys. You're saving me money and that means I can actually get to use what little I make for something OTHER than gasoline!

I'll update the fuel log when I need to. So far I'm 222 miles in and Scangauge says I have 4.5 gallons left. My old tanks would get me 225 on a good day.