janrivera17, ARCO is a national gas station. They are mainly out west, but you can find them here and there. Just remember to stick with a name brand gas station and you should be good.
As for mods that will net you more power and not kill the bank, I would say to start with the Gotts Mod and K&N filter. I dynoed my truck with my filter mod and I gained 1 hp and 10-ft-lbs of torque. Not massive numbers, but for $40 and 30 minutes of my time, any gain is welcome. After that, you will want to open up the exhaust (since the truck is now breathing easier). With this, you have 2 basic options. You can go with a single 3" setup with a 50 or 70 series muffler or you can spend a little more for a true dual 2.5" setup using 50 or 70 series mufflers. Do not go bigger in the pipe department as you will start killing your back pressure and it will hurt your low end torque. Same with a freer flowing muffler. It limits the low end grunt and you will find getting off the line harder to do. Plan on spending about $500 for the custom exhaust setup.
From here, I would say to look into an E-fan setup. Lots of options there. If you are looking at doing this, let me know. I have done this mod and have helped out more members than I care to admit to. There's a few things that you need to keep in mind. THe benefit of this mod is you gain the power across the whole RPM band unless modifications like the intake and/or exhaust which really only help the top end. You can plan on gaining atleast 6 hp and 8 ft-lbs of torque (assuming the fans are running). You will gain slightly more if the fans are not running.
From there, how are you with tearing into motors? This next step is not for the faint of heart, but you can net some decent gains for little money. If you can port/polish the intake and heads, you can free up some more horses. Essentially you are allowing the actual motor to breathe easier. If the motor can breathe easier, it gets more air into the cylinder, it can add more fuel and therefore make more power. But, you are talking about pulling the heads off of the motor, taking a stone to the intake to smooth it out, sanding it down, etc. You are looking at about $300 in bolts/gaskets/etc to rip into the engine, but the actual work is mainly just your time.
The easier place to net some power is to remove the elbow between the throttle body and the intake. If you look at the inside edge, you will see where the EGR gases enter there. You can do a fair amount of porting/polishing there to net some gains. Nothing spectacular, but for the $10 in stones/flap wheels and your time, the gains are well worth it.
From there, you have the computer chips. This will take a lot of investigation. I am not a big fan of them. Keep in mind that a lot of the chips require you to run premium fuel to get the most gains. So, you are looking at spending an additional $9 a tank to run premium fuel. If you are worried about money, that can be a deal breaker.
if you need some other ideas. let me know.
