What to do for a DD?

[carnuck]

There is one of those sitting in my yard the previous owner needs and wants to find a new home for. It popped the rear seal so that needs fixing. SL2 I think. 5 speed.

[Cheap Hobby]

Well I replaced my 79 with a 2000 F250 Super Duty 4 door 4x4 v10 and gained 2MPG. So it depends on how much you want or need to gain. I will say 15 years and 460,000 miles later my highway mileage has not changed and towing has only dropped a bit. The 79 would let me know when it needed a tune up, oil change, air pressure checked, needed to me washed, vacuumed out all by the gas gauge.

[WT91]

There is one of those sitting in my yard the previous owner needs and wants to find a new home for. It popped the rear seal so that needs fixing. SL2 I think. 5 speed.

I loved that little car, was the perfect econobox DD. If you were on the east coast, I'd buy it and drive it into the ground. Again. The Wagons are also great for hauling car parts, provided you don't mind riding on the bump stops

[cmaje72]

I have been daily driving a FSJ for about the past 15 or so years with a 10-30 mile commute and have gone through most of the iterations you have listed. So here are my opinions.
2150 and Edelbrock 4bbl - Ran them both and had the typical carb experience...the 4bbl worked well but I suspect the 4bbl intake made most of the difference. I actually like the 2150 2bbl cartbs.

TBI - this will give you much better drivability and maybe a little better mileage. A lot depends on the health of your current 360. When I was driving 30 miles a day each way the difference was night and day. I would never bother with a carbed 360 again for a DD.

EFI Engine swap w/newer tranny - for a dd this is by far the best option and obviously the most expensive. I currently have a 94 LT1 and 700R4 tranny. I am an EFI geek and I have it tuned specifically for my commute. I consistently get 18mpg in a mix of highway and city. My best ever highway milage was 22mpg on a trip from NY to MA. 70mph is my sweet spot on the highway. This is with stock size tires, 3.31 gears, and keeping your foot out of it as much as possible. So it is possible to get decent milage out of these things but it takes a lot of work. It took me a while and a lot of datalogging to get the commute tune just right.

I am currently planning on moving from the LT1 to a 5.3 so its going to start all over again.