B2200 Power/Fuel Economy

I gotta grandpa fresh '88 B2200 with 215,000 miles. My last one was an '87 B2000 that seems to me was quicker with less work. I know I might be jaded as every vehicle since my B2000 has been significantly faster.
On this one, I've installed the 32/36 Weber, Pacesetter header with 2 1/4" exhaust and single chambered muffler, electric fan, no cats, and removed A/C belt. It doesn't smoke or leak, the plugs look great, but no matter how easy I drive it I can't seem to get to 20 mpg and it really feels gutless. I haven't done a compression test on it, but it can't be that bad or it would smoke/use oil/blow out of the oil fill cap and none of this is the case.
I'm just curious if this is fairly normal or what y'all have done to better this. I know it will never be "fast" with an N/A 2.2, but I want better mileage, and a little more power would be awesome.
Thanks in advance, -B

I bet you'd get better mileage with a stock sized exhaust set up. Those pacesetters are way too big for these small engines. Back pressure is important on these small engines, probably have more pep as well.

I would've been cool with 2" from the header back, but for some reason the exhaust guy wanted to get creative and shrunk 2.25" tubing to slide into the header. Its run pretty well as die-bent exhaust goes. I'm sure it has almost no back pressure. Anyone else have any ideas?

mines a 2.2 i've put in new pistons,rings,weber,header,cam,2.25 exhaust pipe with 2.25 cherry bomb turbo muffler, 8mm ngk wires, plugs,coil... and i'm not even pushin 20 mpg. i've got alot more power than stock believe me. but the mpg kinda sucks.

Ok, so, apparently back in the day I was a little harder on my trucks. I say this because I have been slowly running it a little harder (at first I'd never turn it past 4000RPM for fear of grenading ths fragile little motor). I have ran it up as far as about 4800 RPM at WOT and it feels a bit better (doubt I'll ever turn it past 5000), but I'm still getting fairly poor mileage. I can literally watch the needle drop if I put my foot in it for a few gears, lol. I'm thinking a fuel pressure regulator and re-jet is in order. So, what regulator and jets are you guys running? I know the factory pump is good for like 3.5 to 4.5psi but mechanical pumps don't have consistent flow. Sorry for the novel, but I'm lazy and don't wanna do a ton of tuning on my beater; I have a dually for a project. <a class="postlink" href="p88246" target="_blank">p88246</a><!-- m -->

I have the same setup you do, except still running factory exhaust manifold, muffler, piping. I get 19-21mpg depending on how I drive. I usually shift around 3k. 3500-4k if I'm really trying to get in front of traffic. lol

Thanks for the response, BagdB. Normal driving I shift at about 3500, too. Just not thrilled with the fact my dually gets WAY better mileage on the highway and only a mpg or two less in the city. The price difference in fuels pretty much keeps me in the Mazda around town and the dually for everything else.

Well when I had my 92 B2200 FI I had a cool air intake, stock header to 2&quot; exhaust a high flow cat to a magnaflow dump off right in front of the rear axle, no engine internal upgrades just had royal purple motor oil and e3 sparkplugs and upgraded plug wires. And I could take both of my friends that had a 94 escort gt and a 98 Honda non-vtec.

I currently have a '93 B2200 FI and the only upgrade I have done is a Ram Air Intake (Removed the air box for a cone filter). The truck has an auto trans and I drive mostly freeways. I am averaging 22mpg. The exhaust is stock (plus a few holes in the muffler!) and the wheels and tires are stock as well.

When I baby the throttle and stay under 60mph on the freeway, ignore the A/C, I can get the thing to average 24mpg. Like most of you, I am trying to pull the most outta this thing (especially with gas at $4.50 in CA).

Dam man I moved to MN from CA a year ago glad I did. holy shit 4.50 its 3.70 here and people are freakin out lol.