skestral

I've perused around and read some stuff on the backfiring that it could have something to do with the AFM?

I have a 1990 4runner v6 4x4 5spd with 250,000 miles on and I've had it about a bit over a year now.. I lived in Lake Tahoe for all that time and just came down to San Diego, where I do tons of city driving now.. When I was in Tahoe I noticed that i could get about 220 miles on a tank, down here it's between 150 to 175 if I'm lucky.. I'm not sure if it's becuase of all the stop and go and idle time in traffic or something is seriously wrong now... It definately seems strange now (I would get better mileage coming up from Sacramento going uphill the whole way than I get now)

Also, since I bought the car the muffle had been cracked.. I just recently had it replaced and the guy at the shop said he was surprised it had been cracked because it was a performance muffler and that there might be something wrong where gas is going down to the muffler to heat it up and crack it?

Also, there had always been a sorta backfiring sound when I accelerate or take my foot off after hard acceleration. I had always assumed it was the pressure leaking through the cracks in the muffler, but with the new one I still hear it... just muffled.

There's also a ticking or claking sound when idleing from my transmission that goes away when I put the clutch down.

Ah, and when I first try to go the engine will bog down quite a bit if I don't keep the engine rev'd up above 3.5k rpms. Otherwise, the engine will bog down and stall and then be harder to start up... I don't notice it as much once the engine is warmed up after a while.. not sure if it's a sympton of a larger problem or just age. I've never really had much power out of the engine, either.. Never driven a model in good health to compare, though, either... but it has a hard time going up hills and such.. But I've heard this model has been notorious for bad acceleration.

Well... those are my concerns... Any help is muchly appreciated! I love trying to fix what i can on my 4runner and had replaced the brushes on my alternator not too long ago, but I lack too many tools and anyone to help me along.. 'cept you guys!

Thanks
Sav