frickenbored

well since I got my 88 K5 back on the road I noticed that it eats through fuel as if it was a jet airplane. I'm thinking about 9-10 mpg (which is actually better than what i expected) So since that truck is draining my wallet I'm looking at ways to up the mileage in my 99 Jimmy. I would really love to just buy a manual s10 or caviler with the 2.2L but I really just don't havt the money to spend on another car right now. Yes you can get them for a couple grand but thats for a high mileage vehicle and I don't want that.

Anyway the jimmy is a 4wd, 4.3L, 3.42 gears, 4l60e, 4dr. Right now It has a K&N cone style air filter, mobil 1 every oil change, magna flow hi flow cat, flowmaster 44 muffler (or a cutout right before the muffler) so it can breathe and exhale pretty freely. Its currently at 16-17 mpg, I'm looking for 20 at least.

This is what I was thinking about, I haven't gotten the 120,000 mile intake leak yet but I have 124,000 miles so its gotta be around the corner. I was thinking I would just buy a gasket kit now and get It all over with so I could do the other stuff I wanna do like:

replace all the upper engine gaskets
throughly clean the throttle body and upper and lower intakes
clean any carbon build up from the injectors
replace the distributor rotor and cap
replace the plugs and wires
clean any sludge from under the valve covers
replace the ignition coil with a performance coil
ditch the clutch fan and get an electric fan
flush the raidator
clean or replace the EGR
replace the pcv valve
replace the fuel filter
clean any visible sludge from the balance shaft, lifters, pushrods, or anywhere under the lower intake

Plus I wanted to paint the valve covers maybe chevy orange and maybe even dress up the engine a little bit, gotta make it look nice. Other than this stuff does anyone have any suggestions? The fuel pump was replaced about 6 months ago, I switched back to normal street tires, I've eased up on my driving habits, I never use A/C. I'm thinking all this and running some fuel system cleaner through it should bump me up to around 20mpg. If I could have my way I would just pull this motor and rebuild the entire thing but thats a crap load of money and Its my daily driver so I don't have the time to do that.