Well, I don't know about the mileage; my gas gauge is still broken.

Seriously though, I think I'm getting about 12-14 around town, and possibly 16-18 on the highway, but I rarely leave town. You can do better than that with a 318 or 360, but not with the mods this motor has.
As for the wheel bearings, I've seen quicker than normal wear and tear due to over-sized tires on just about every truck I've ever owned. For instance, my old '85 RC had 14,000 miles on it when I bought it, and I ran 33x12.5's on it for 6 years before I replaced the bearings. I think it was about 50K-60K miles, or at 75K miles total. If you're supposed to be prepared replace wheel bearings every 100K or so, I'd call it worth it for the 33's. Everyone has their own threshold for how long things are supposed to last, and for me, I'd rather run 33's or bigger and live with doing my bearings more often than a stocker. Small sacrifice, if you ask me.
And by the way, "cheap-o" isn't offensive man, it's right on the nose! My neighbor across the street (the Pontiac collector) calls it a "Beautiful Beater", and that's exactly what it is. All I have to do now is decide which one is going to get which 440.

- LOL!
