My gut says it's not from the chains, but I do feel they need changing. Might go ahead and change the filter. Might have been a bad batch of gas also. I did finally get into the monitors and have some misfires on cyl 6. Granted it's only 51, I still feel them. Pulled the coil and checked it and the plug. Might just get a new plug for ****s and giggles. All other cyl's had 0 misfires. Had some other monitor reading that I'm still trying to decipher. If anyone knows how, I can post some pictures of them. Switching on the upstream o2's is very quick, better than the old one, and the down stream seem to be switching normal. I don't remember the trim numbers, but I'll get them later and post them up. Still kind of keeping that the cats might be on their way out in the back of my head, and I know the injectors are due for a cleaning, just don't have anyone around here that does that anymore since Street and Performance closed up.

 

 

OK, so I did a oil change. Went back to Quaker State conventional 5/30. On previous oil changed I used a syn 5/30. Tried syn once before and the truck really didn't like it, but thought I'd give it another shot. Noticed a instant improvement in how the engine sounded (after the little fiasco with the filter gasket, Wed wasn't my day). The wife also commented on how much better it sounded and she doesn't know crap about cars. Also put the factory air box snorkel back on and got rid of the alum tube I tried. Went to Ft Smith yesterday for roofing supplies. 152 miles round trip. It purred like a kitten and really liked 62-67mph. Right about the 1700-2000 rpm mark. Topped off before we came home at the 81 mile mark. 4.5 gal. 18mpg. HUGE increase. Again, the wife commented on how good it sounded. Came home with about 500lbs of stuff plus our stuffed buts from Outback, and preliminary estimates put the return at just under 16. That puts estimated round trip at 16.88. So much better than the 10.5 it was getting. I also haven't used the parking brake in a while. Thinking it might be sticking now and then. Need to check it out, but I can live with 16-18 mpg on a stock truck with no bed cover, two lane road, lots of little towns, and some traffic. Still need to do some things with 230k on the clock, but I'm happy.