So, I use to make a somewhat similar Drive, except my drive was through thr crappy terrain of Los Angeles to Edwards Air Force Base. I don;t think it's 300 miles, but it sure feels like it when I have to drive it.
Here is my suggestion (take it or leave it
) for you, since I did this with my 2000 1500.
1. Change your plugs and wires to a hotter plug and bigger spark. I know it sounds wierd, but I bought some 10.4mm wires fron Taylor and Bosch Platinum plugs from Summit and I was amazed the diffrence in the gas consumption.
2. Exhaust seems to be a major issue with these trucks, swap out the old exhaust manifolds for headers, no need to go nutz on the brand. I actually bought some off E-bay which were Stainless Steel, and I haven't been happier
. They hum so nicely under the hood. Also, if you can afford it, swap out the exhaust. I know a lot of guys who do dual exhaust, I personally don;t care for it. I went out and bought a muffler from a company out here in California called Spin Tech. This is the site
http://www.spintechmufflers.com/spin...ntechindex.asp. I had a Flowmaster till it got too damn hot and blew a hole in it. These guys guaruntee not only the construction, but the material (thats what the sales guy told me on the phone). So I redid the exhaust system in my truck, had a shop install the muffler, and bend me new pipes. She purrs real nice[sm=badbadbad.gif]!
3. Take them cats out! I know that in Nevada as well as California, it;s state mandated to have Cat's on your truck. Well. If you build up a nice Rep with the muffler guy, they can help you with a nice bolt up set up where you can remove the cats and replace them with straight pipes. Of course for this to work you have to get o2 sensor dummys. They trick the CPU to thinking that your cats are working perfectly.
I know all this stuff seems like a lot of money, but after I did all this stuff, honestly.... I think I'm getting about 15-19 mpg. Again, it just depends on how I wanna drive. When some punk in his Rice Rocket POS pulls up, I just have to smoke my tires and show that lil boy whos king! Then the mileage obviously goes way down. I have done a few other things like Cold Air intake from Airaid, but thats about it. I haven't played around with the engine (yet). But it hums well, hope you like my advice.