I have a "standard" brand map sensor sitting here bought off rockauto awhile back and everybody always swears mopar or nothing mostly, although searching old threads many got the cheapest sensor possible online many years ago around 2009ish here and claimed they worked fine, I would have been very wary of a ~23$ sensor but it seemed to work out for them, many others just got the autozone map sensor... how long the sensor lasted however is a better question, I could never find much follow up, and many don't even seem to know that map could be a problem without a CEL. It's not like I got some noname rinky dink one off ebay for a few bucks, the standard one was the 2nd highest tier right behind mopar on rockauto.


now that the weather is warming up here I'm going to finally get around to changing some of these old sensors out in a bid to improve my lousy current ~8-9mpg even after a full tuneup and no blown plenum, gutted cat, and dual exhaust. No check engine light either saying any sensor is out of range...but I heard map's harden up over time and o2 can get lazy, and heard obd1 in general is pretty crude and won't always give codes.

already ordered a mopar brand pcv valve to replace the autozone one previous owners put in. At the very least I need to clean off the iac and the its passage too. Already got an NTK o2 sensor to install too.

many in those old forum posts said it instantly increased power alot and mpg putting the new MAP sensor in. One guy said it didn't help his mpg whatsoever but did make the truck run much better at least with the new MAP.

If by chance any of the older members that changed their maps in their trucks around that time and posted in those huge MAP sensor threads could tell about the longevity of the non-mopar sensors that'd be truly golden info lol.

 

A fair few folks replace a perfectly good MAP sensor, just because. Shotgunning parts at a problem, before doing proper diagnostics, is just not a good plan. Map sensors rarely fail.

That said, there really isn't much to 'em...... and the aftermarket fellers may work perfectly fine. It's things like cam, and crank sensors where the aftermarket kinda sucks...... their parts just aren't up to the job.

 

Good to know, I actually went and looked and it's a Wells brand one, same as an autozone iirc. Once I get it on I'll post if it helps it run any better, I heard they don't really outright die but with age harden up inside due to the vapors and get lazy like old o2 can, which I'm sure is part of my problem too, got an o2 sensor socket in as well. If it's not these two sensors the only other thing I can really think it could be is the coolant temp sensor. I just expected a bit better fuel consumption since my usage is about 50/50 in-town and highway, certainly not every 5 second stop and go traffic like a major city. I'd like to at least ink out a little more.

way back I'd always read people posting about getting 20+ mpg with these trucks w/ auto trans with big pumped up tires/wheels if they threw a cold air intake and dual exhaust on it, makes me wonder how truthful that is lol. Even stock figures brand new were rated quite a bit lower than that. I'd be happy with even like 12mpg honestly, I'm getting about 8 now even after a full tuneup even with a cold air intake and dual exhaust.

 

I think those folks were being seriously optimistic on the fuel economy. On my 96, I could get 12-13 around town, and I did an absolute BEST of 18 on the freeway once, very lightly loaded. (two people, and our gear for a weekend out, but, not camping.....) I was only able to manage that once. After the plenum fix, I think the best I ever saw on the freeway was about 16.

 

I know those guys, they're all going downhill with the wind at their backs and the pickup in neutral, lol. I've had my beast since brand new in '96 and the absolute best she ever got was 1 time (cruise on/all highway) around 65 (speeding back then) around (truthfully less than) 20MPG. Brand new vehicle, no corn n the gas and still a relatively small family. These days, I average, mixed use 15 MPG. I rarely put my foot into her anymore.
But on a positive note...
I drove from upstate NY to Texas years back, the bed loaded up like the beverly hillbillies and dragging a fully loaded with possessions minivan, and 6 people in the cab AND STILL got around 15 MPG doin' around 70 the whole way.

 

That's another thing I forgot too that burst my bubble of getting ~20+ mpg in my old 305 v8 firebird, some claimed they got 30mpg in those before... the gas back in the day was much better but guys told me don't expect that much these days. There is ethanol free gas here but it costs quite a bit more per gallon than regular so I'm not sure if it's even worth it. I've learned to take those grand claims of mpg on online forums with a big grain of salt lol.

I plan on running all my old gas out and filling up with new gas for good measure then using some gumout fuel system cleaner, I had previously been using some marvel mystery oil but am unsure if it even helped any, didn't seem to boost my mpg much if any.

is it really easy to "burn out" or ruin an o2 if the vehicle is running rich? I'm wondering if I should just change my o2 since it's a good new NTK brand I have and see how it acts then maybe later throw my autozone quality map sensor in. If the map sensor is slow that can majorly effect the fuel mixture I heard, if mine really is bad it would ruin a new o2 sensor I install is what I'm thinking.

 

I had an 88 Firebird Formula 350, that I did some tweaking on the programming for it. (there is a LARGE community for helping folks learn how, wish I could find the same for dodge.....) GM included code for "highway mode", but, never actually implemented it. It allowed the ECM to push mixture ratios higher, under certain conditions. I played with that for a while, and actually managed to pull 25mpg on a trip from Adrian to Cleveland, 99% freeway driving. I was quite happy with that......

 

that's really nice for a 350, I'm chasing down some sensor woes in the old used 92 305 tbi firebird I got, thought the starter was bad but the old owners had the positive side battery cables hooked up totally wrong, started up much quicker and better when I fixed that. Idk what happened to the factory terminal but it's some large bronze aftermarket long bolt from autozone as the positive terminal now, they had a big fat wire hooked up flush to the sidepost battery and the starter wire way at the back of the bolt...I just moved both wires next to each other and it helped alot at the back of that long bronze bolt. Thought of just carb swapping it before honestly, I could have already done it instead of replacing the sensors and stuff I did replace already, maybe that car needs a new o2 like my truck does. Odd enough on the car there's no check engine light on either.

obd2 was so much easier just plugging in a scan tool :P

 

The 92 should have an OBDI port under the steering column somewhere. Sometimes, just looking at the data that the PCM is getting, is very enlightening.

 

And TPS... For us pre-98 models aftermarket is all we get since Dodge quiy supporting 97 and older. :/