What sort of milage should I expect out of an 83 Dodge truck lwb with a /6 and 4 speed OD trans?

It depends very much on what type of driving you do, how heavy your foot is, what the rear end ratio is, etc.

If I was getting 20 I'd be very happy. Actually, I would think that 16-17 would be a pretty darn good number for that truck...

There are a number of D100 owners on the board, someone will chime in with real life numbers.

-Mac

I just got done tuning up my brother's 83 Dodge ram van. Its a shorty with a rebuilt 225 and a original condition 73 727 auto trans. The rear axle has 3.2 gears and it is runing 215 75 R15 tires.

The van has a Super Six with a factory cam and 2 1/2 inch exhaust. no lean burn ignition. I put themotor together for him using all stock mopar parts, the only slightly custom bit was the recurved distributor. It has a 9R governer, one "medium" and one "short-heavy" spring and an 8.5 vacuum can adjusted to come on at 10 inches of vacuum.

Net result? 18.5 MPG freeway, don't know about around town. Not too bad for a 3300 pound van pushed around by a 225. MPG would be better if he took out the two rows of bench seats and ran a 904 or 999 instead of the 727 tranny.

Probably the most valuable tool you could get would be a vacuum guage and drive with a mind towards maximizing vacuum.

I would guess that truck with an overdrive could get just over 20 MPG highway with the right tuning. I recommend going to a two barrel carb and getting at least a 2 1/4 exhaust line. Spend some time fine tuning your distributor advance curve (and dump the lean burn if you have it)

My old 82 D150 Longbed would average 20-22 mpg on a good highway run. It was a 225 with the four speed overdrive and a 3:55 rear. I converted it from lean burn to standard electronic ignition. The ignition conversion made a big difference in the drivability of the truck.
Todd

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1968 Valiant V200-a Work in Progress

Hey everyone I was getting 20.4 with a 1bbl and then 17.8 with a super six but my dis. gear broke and now I can only manage 14.6 mpg out of a 74 2 door scamp. If this example of diferent carb's help the 1bbl was a holley 1945 and the first bbd carter I coundnt keep the bowls from over flowing on the carb and the second bbd was from some part store I cant remember.