It seems hard to believe that van takes more power to move than a full size pickup. Especially one iwth a load on it.

My old 78 D150 had 3.55 gears, bigger tires, Isky cam, offy 4bbl intake and an old Carter AFB on it, and I routinely got 20+ on trips. Now, if you kept those secondaries open, that's a different story.

It was a "super six" before the AFB, and with that setup, it was easy to get 24-25 mpg. My brother used my truck a number of times to haul junk about 250 miles away, and he always filled it up when he brought it back saying he got 25 mpg, even though it had cinder blocks, lumber, etc, in the back. Now, stock... it was a 18-22 mpg truck.

Now, mind you...I recurved the dist, replaced the BBD with one off a 318, which was re-jetted and very much "tinkered". I used non-resistor plugs, changed to a high output coil and solid conductor wires. I once tried Bosch Platinums in it, and what a WASTE that was. Milage dropped a bunch and it started running really bad.

Champions ran best.

Still, with a manual trans, I figure that van's good for 23 mpg, at least.

I bet it could top 20 MPG if I swapped in a four speed OD manual. It has a 727 auto which isn't the best for maximum mileage...

About 3 months ago my buddy who owns a towing company had an '82 Van with the A-833OD in his yard... nobody bought it, so they junked it without telling me...
Next time I'll keep an eye out for a setup for you, Reed.

-D.Idiot