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Me, I like being cheap, in fact I'm sitting here with a glass of 'Two buck Chuck', for those who know about Trader Joe's.
If you had burnt valves, you'd have a poor idle and possibly a lot of popping through the carbs or tail pipe. Same if you had sticky valves or a poor valve adjustment. Because the plugs are coffee colored, you are not running rich. And to have 14 MPG for that long you'd see it in the oil level if it were the fuel pump. And because you have plenty of power, I doubt it's timing. Maybe your 'friend' is syphoning your gas?
OK, here's your to-do list this weekend: Get the car on jack stands and follow that fuel line the whole elngth of the car. Use your nose too. Got any black spots on the bottom of the fuel tank on on the lines? If so, it's probably seeping fuel, no matter what you might think. So sniff those spots! Check the fuel fill hose too. Next warm the car up and check the compression. After you take those readings, put a teaspoon of oil in each spark plug hole and check it again, see how big a difference there is between 'wet' and 'dry'. shouldn't be more than abou 5 psi difference. Get a vacuum gauge and hook it up to the intake. Honestly on a B18, I don't know a good place to do this, I guess the PCV connection is the only place. You should have 18-21" at idle, and a steady needle, not drifting about or fluctuating. I'll have to get out my old Motors manual and refresh my memory on what each means. Blip the throttle. The needle should drop to 2 or 3", and then return to 18-21". If it goes to 0, it could be either worn rings or a plugged exhaust.
Give us a report and we'll try again!
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