Found my Maverick a year ago sitting inside a garage for 9 years with 65k original miles. Took me a while to clean all the old gas goop from tank, lines, new fuel pump and carb, new oil, plugs and she fired up with help from Marvel Mystery oil in the cylinders. Been driving it for 3 weeks with no problems. Needs shocks all around and the old (but new) bias tires feel like there square. It's in great (7 of 10) shape in bronze with perfect saddle interior. My question: I thought I would get better than 17 mpg. Since it's 35 years old it no longer has to be inspected here in N.C. can I remove all the EPA crap, air pump and plumbing, cat converter, anything else?
The short answer is that it is a Federal crime to remove or disable any emission device from your car. You have to be careful if you are removing the smog stuff for "Off-road" use because there are a lot of things that were done that work with each other. EGR, carb jetting, compression, timing curve, plug gap all were modified to work as modified. Most times if you take the engine back to a 1969 version you are much better off than trying to re-jet, have the advance curve done, just to find out there is a hole in the carb base of the intake that blows exhaust gases through the EGR valve that you have removed so now it is burning the base of your carb and leaking into the intake. Paul
any tire that is over six-seven years old is dangerous, the rubber gets bad as they age even if they look good they are dangerous and could fly apart unexpectedly change the tires before you have a blowout
....and the exhaust manifold will need to be changed out to an early style. If all this stuff is still working....just leave it on.
You may just need a good tune up, plugs, wires, cap etc but also change your PCV and such as well as the air filter. Get your tranny serviced and the rear diff. Change out your antifreeze and all of your vacuum lines and then check the timing. I wouldn't remove the smog stuff because you might gain a mile per gallon but doing a good complete tune up will give you much more than that.
I think 17 mpg is about average. You might get a little more with a tuneup and new tires. But you gotta remember that this is a 35 year old small motor pushing that weight around. A steady foot helps a lot too.
If all is still hocked up an working, leave it be chech the vaccuum of the tee on the manifold to see what its running . The better it is closer to 20. Bye you'll get better gas millage.
