If I had the money to do that with my exhaust, then by all means. I will. I need to space things out, so I still have gas money. The truck picked up codes that night. 13 and 44.

Anyway, I don't have a cover that says vortec. I'm going to show two pictures of what I do have. I don't think it's stock like this, mine's vin code Z. There's a wear circle on the insulation on the inside of the roof of the hood.

Today was maintenance day, so while I was doing my brakes I decided to look for this hockey puck. That's what I got. I also found a spark plug wire not attached to a spark plug, for who knows how long. My oil is also not overflown, it does have a very very light gasoline smell though. I don't know if a misfire will cause that much of a mileage drop, or the codes produced.

I'ma 17 year old college student working a minimum wage job until I turn 18, by the way. The cash to just go fix things isn't a hot commodity.

 

Bump!

 

Ok 1st off put the air cleaner cover back on properly lol. That along with the plug wire off will cause crappy mileage & the gas in the oil.
A new air filter is a must when it has the same coloring as the top of the air cleaner cover.
Is the PCV valve tube hooked up to the bottom of the air filter housing?

 

Yup, flip that air cleaner lid over. Trying hooking up that plug wire will help alot too.

http://www.extreme-check-engine-ligh...%20Decoder.htm

 

will the air filter lid matter that much? I'll do it regardless, I thought it was on properly since it was like that from when I bought the truck. The air filter is actually pretty clean, but I'm comparing it to the one on there before I replaced it. What do you guys think of the insides there under the filter?

I popped the wire back on as soon as I noticed it, no worries about that. The sound of the exhaust has actually gotten quieter, it doesn't roar at me. I'd guess that's because I'm running on all 6 cylinders. and it smoothed out. It did throw the codes at me still, but i haven't reset anything since I found the plug.

 

Yes it will matter. The PCV (Positive Crankcase Ventilation) I mentioned draws the excess air in the crankcase out. Without that you'd have lots of issues & a build up of gasses.
With the cover back on properly & the plug wire hooked up you may notice less gas in the oil & overall better running. I'd still change the oil just for chits n giggles though. You may want to (if you already haven't) check the EGR. A simple search in here will tell you how to check & clean it.

After a certain number of warm up cycles the codes may clear themselves if the issue/s have been corrected.

The PO flipped the cover for that throaty carb sound you get when you compression brake - manually drop it down gears.

 

Thanks for the video!

Definitely makes sense. I know about EGRs from my F150., it pulled a code for it no matter what I did.

The intake valves under that though, is that gold wash ethat was talked about last page? Or have those circumstances changed now that my intake is different?

 

I'm not sure about a '92, but that intake, cleaner housing etc looks stock. Just not with the lid flipped upsidedown.

<--- what does that mean?
Intake valves are under the valve cover.
I'm lost... gold wash?!

 

Now that it should be flipped over, itmakes a lot more sense to me on the whole stock part, lol.

Anyway, I guess they're not really valves but the second picture I posted, underneath those two or three little modules there there's two valv looking things at least, that's the inspiration for calling it that. ohsofly had talked about gold wash and injectors and such, and to me that seems like it would be the spot, throttle body area and such and right in the middle of the intake.

To me it meant that that somethin g was too rich and it was basically just cleaning the whatever area he meant.

My computer and this website do not get along.

 

So, as of yet, I'm still pulling codes. I haven't checked the codes yet to see what they or if they're the same, but it seems like my gas mileage may have even dropped more. I did have 17 MPG, then it dropped to about 10-12 or so, it seems like it's dropped to lke 7 or 8 after flipping the lid and reattaching the plug wire.

I'm pretty confused.