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I bought a new GPZ550 back in 1981 and it got 60-65mpg every fill. Too small for me, so only had it for 1500 miles then got a GPZ1100 and it still got 50mpg on a good day, 45mpg otherwise.

Just simply switching my filter from a K&N to a UNI foam filter made my bike go from 20MPG in town to 30+.

I have EMGO filters and just jetted from tk22 carb Jett 92 to 94 by drilling extra jets with #63 drill. I did it this year trying to tune it to the pods but the mileage stinks.

The little bit of restriction from the foam pods seemed to really help my bike for around town. Highway stayed very similar. Much better than the wide open style air like the EMGO filters as far as MPG is concerned.

Did you jet your bike or is it stock?

I'm running a custom VM 34 on mine. The change in air/fuel mix was nonexistent or negligible though. MPG that low points to inefficiency somewhere in the system. My thought has been that your trading your motors efficiency for power with the open pod filters. I don't think the power gain on the low end is really all that much leading to mostly just loss in MPG. Foam ones are not terribly expensive. May be worth a try.

I switched to pods cause my air box was broken. I was hoping that tuning/jetting would bring it similar to airbox performance.

I had a similar situation with my bike. I don't know if you will ever get it all,the way back, but I'm sure you can get close. those carbs really do like a little restriction. The filter on the airbox is usually foam. I think the UNI foam pods are only $15 through Amazon.