I'm kinda a noob here. I can do most repairs if I know what the problem is, but they just take forever(watch youtube video on the fix, pause, look at my engine, rewatch youtube, stare, drink a coffee, turn a wrench, rewatch vid to make sure I did it right, and it goes like this for hours until either I get right or there's a huge puddle of oil and coolant all over the floor.) Once I do something though, I can usually do it much fast the second time around.

I recently purchased an 82 Dodge B250 Mini-Ram Van 318 with a 3 speed with overdrive manual transmission. It turned out to be the best car I've driven, and I want this car to haul me and my crud crud around for years, possibly decades, to come.. It's just that fun. It's probably hard for most people to understand when there's Ram trucks and Chargers around.

My question is would a 5 speed help with mpg, and if so, is it even possible for my car's year? The second one is about carbs. Would a 4 barrel carb help mpgs enough to be worth investing in? I heard 4 barrels are better at mpg. Most my driving is ciy with occasional highway.
thanks

 

I can't help you with all of your questions but yes a 5 speed with help with mpg, but I'm not sure if it's possible without lots of modifications. The 4 barrel is tricky because the function of a carb is to add the right amount of fuel with air so you'll be guzzling down more fuel. This won't help you in the city.

 

Theoretically yes. Would you ever recoup your costs in the long run? Unlikely. Plenty of forum discussions out there adding the numbers up and that's often the consensus. Seems trans swaps are generally done more for performance/durability reasons. There are much easier ways to gain MPG improvements.

 

That's what i assumed, but since I'm not too knowledgeable thought I'fd check here. Thanks