46 replies to this topic

[othrpinkthng]

OK, here's some pics...
http://www.gitarted....tures/crx05.jpg
http://www.gitarted....tures/crx01.jpg
http://www.gitarted....tures/crx02.jpg

It looks like a vacuum hose nightmare, a dirty one at that.

[othrpinkthng]

Just in case you were wondering...

http://www.gitarted....thrpinkthng.jpg
http://www.gitarted....es/mystudio.jpg
http://www.gitarted....tures/mycrx.jpg
http://www.gitarted....res/myacura.jpg

These are a few of my favorite things :-)

[kaymo]

try using the image icon next to the smiley. here ya go










well what about a pic of you? we dont get many CRX chicks here, so you gotta pose next to yours so we can say "look, see, girls think the CRX is sexy" otherwise we dont really have a case...


oh and dont be afraid of the spiderweb mess. you're gonna rip all that shit out.

[othrpinkthng]

well what about a pic of you?

Click the link in my signature :-)

[othrpinkthng]

...back on topic.

What I want to know before I start tearing my car apart (this was my daily driver until it started fkn up) is do I have to do the entire devac at once, or can I do it a step at a time?

I'd like to do this with the idea of repairing whatever it is that is fucking up.
and not change everything if I don't have to. Or is this an all or nothing type thing?

Not that I'm opposed to doing the whole devac, but I can't go too long without the car running.

So, since I have an idle problem...where should I begin?

[Captain Regular]

...back on topic.

What I want to know before I start tearing my car apart (this was my daily driver until it started fkn up) is do I have to do the entire devac at once, or can I do it a step at a time?

I'd like to do this with the idea of repairing whatever it is that is fucking up.
and not change everything if I don't have to. Or is this an all or nothing type thing?

Not that I'm opposed to doing the whole devac, but I can't go too long without the car running.

So, since I have an idle problem...where should I begin?

The devac is actually the removal of a few different, small systems. Unfortunately, they're kinda all combined in those two boxes and the few plastic thermovalve sensors on the intake manifold. I'm sure you could keep certain parts of it, but you would have to map out the functions and vac lines for everything, which is a BIG deal. The good news is that it really is all pretty much unified, and when you start ripping out those vac boxes, you'll just SEE where it all goes and what it does. Really, the ONLY rubber vacuum hoses you can or SHOULD have left when you're done that are NOT lined to the "mess" are these:

The distributor. If you use zip ties to link the primary and secondary throttles open, you don't have a line to the secondary throttle (theoretically, it can get stuck and hold your engine running high) and you'll actually HAVE a functioning secondary. Anyway, the line from the carburetor to the distributor. It goes from the vac port on the front of the carb, the one on the passenger side. There's one sort of like under a little metal thing that kinda looks like a nose, then there's one to the left of it (looking from the front) THAT one gets hooked up to the innermost (I think) port on the distributor, the port more towards the front of the car. It can be one straight line. That one's required.

Also, the air jet controller. I meant to hook mine back up, but never got around to it. I still might one day. Anyhoo, this is the little black box marked "Keihin" with "A B C" on it, it's near the drivers side vac control box. It might slightly improve gas mileage by letting it run leaner and it might alter performance at varying altitudes. I have yet to do any serious experimentation.

Also, the air conditioning idle boost. There's a small electrically controlled valve mounted on the firewall, above the brake master cylinder. If you have a working AC system, you might want to leave it hooked up. It bumps your idle speed up slightly when the AC is turned on. Since I have no working AC, mine is disconnected, but even if my AC worked I have a slightly high idle anyhow, so I wouldn't be worried about it.

Really, everything else comes out fairly easily and quickly, took me about a half hour, and I had no idea what I was doing. That's not including rebuilding the carb, that's just the devac, though. Still, it's very easy, and I wouldn't worry about what you have to leave or anything, because it pretty much ALL goes!

[othrpinkthng]

Really, everything else comes out fairly easily and quickly, took me about a half hour, and I had no idea what I was doing. That's not including rebuilding the carb, that's just the devac, though. Still, it's very easy, and I wouldn't worry about what you have to leave or anything, because it pretty much ALL goes!

Thanks for replying back...I was starting to wonder if I had asked the wrong thing.

The big question....Did your car run after you completed the devac?

I've read a few threads here where some of you guys did the devac and your cars didn't run afterwards.

It kind of put a little caution into my approach.

Thanks again

[kaymo]

OMG she is AWESOME. her hair and her car are both TOTALLY 80'S! (wayne impression) SHAAWINGGG LOL

wAYNES WORLD WAYNES WORLD PARTY TIMEE EXCELLENTTTT

maybe i drink too much...

[Captain Regular]

Thanks for replying back...I was starting to wonder if I had asked the wrong thing.

The big question....Did your car run after you completed the devac?

I've read a few threads here where some of you guys did the devac and your cars didn't run afterwards.

It kind of put a little caution into my approach.

Thanks again

To answer your "big question"... like a dream.
I went ahead and removed the automatic choke stuff right away, before I actually had the manual choke kit, which made my first few starts a little awkward. I literally had a piece of cotton clothesline rope running out from under my hood, through the open window. Its return was a rubber band. But it started right up once I choked it, and I drove it around. After a few minutes, I started smelling a really nasty smell all in the cabin. Forgot to block off the EGR pipe. Exhaust was coming into the engine bay. Two bolts and a soup can lid later, that was fine, too. Been running like that ever since. Once you get it rebuilt (but mostly devacced, the rebuild is more maintenance, it doesn't fundamentally CHANGE anything) you might need to fiddle with your mixture screw and your idle speed screw, but it's not that complicated. Once you have it RUNNING, the rest is fairly easy. I did my devac and carb rebuild in one shot, never even touched a carb before this, and I had it up and running when I was done. I now get about 37 MPG on average and haven't had ANY carb-related trouble in about 6 months and over 3000 mi.

[othrpinkthng]

OK, I've got some new information to tell you guy's about...

Today when driving I noticed something, the car had the "running hot" smell to it. (this was of course while it was doing it's not idle thing) but, my temp gauge said it was running in the normal range.

Sooooo.....when I got home, I waited a little while for it to cool off, then I cracked the radiator cap, it seemed ok so I opened it. I didn't see any water/antifreeze in it, so I started the car and began to pour distilled water into it.
...it instantly died.

....Hmmm (scratching chin) so I grabbed my room mate to sit in the car and keep it running while I add water.
....In 23 yrs of owning this car I've never seen it do this, the water/ AF level went from overflowing to dissappearing and it was next to impossible to keep running....veeery strange.

I had mentioned earlier in this post that it only seemed to stall when the fan wasn't running.

It didn't look like there was any oil in the antifreeze, I hope I don't have a blown head gasket.

I am pretty much convinced this is at least part of the problem I'm having with it not wanting to idle when warm.

Any advice greatly appreciated...I'm practically sitting on my PC waiting..
thanks,
Dianne

[mkgearhead]

If the coolant was that low, you'll need to bleed the air out of the system. There is a bleeder screw where the upper radiator hose goes into the head. There should be a detailed procedure in the service manual. There is a link at the top of the page for the manual. There is a coolant passage that goes through the carb, so it very well could be affecting your idle. Now for a question that's waaaaaay off topic, what kind of guitar is the pink one? It looks like an old pre-production Charvel. The body looks identcal to my MIJ Model 2 (with the exception of the pink paint).

[othrpinkthng]

Now for a question that's waaaaaay off topic, what kind of guitar is the pink one? It looks like an old pre-production Charvel. The body looks identcal to my MIJ Model 2 (with the exception of the pink paint). biggrin.gif

I sent you a PM :-)

[othrpinkthng]

If the coolant was that low, you'll need to bleed the air out of the system. There is a bleeder screw where the upper radiator hose goes into the head. There should be a detailed procedure in the service manual. There is a link at the top of the page for the manual. There is a coolant passage that goes through the carb, so it very well could be affecting your idle.

I was ready to jump into doing a devac on this car over the weekend, I'm not so sure (at this point) if the devac is where I should be starting.

After seeing the way my car ran when adding water I don't have any doubt that this could be the problem.
I would have thought someone was BSing me if they told me that air bubbles in my coolent could make my car not idle.
...and I don't just mean kind of mess with it, I mean it totally f*ck with it.

Have any of you ever seen this happen?

I've had this car long enough to have already went through a bad radiator that I had to add water to every other day, this isn't the first time I've added water while it's running, but I've never seen it do the crazy shit it did today.

[Captain Regular]

I was ready to jump into doing a devac on this car over the weekend, I'm not so sure (at this point) if the devac is where I should be starting.

After seeing the way my car ran when adding water I don't have any doubt that this could be the problem.
I would have thought someone was BSing me if they told me that air bubbles in my coolent could make my car not idle.
...and I don't just mean kind of mess with it, I mean it totally f*ck with it.

Have any of you ever seen this happen?

I've had this car long enough to have already went through a bad radiator that I had to add water to every other day, this isn't the first time I've added water while it's running, but I've never seen it do the crazy shit it did today.

I've never heard of air bubbles in the coolant causing an issue. I would think that the coolant lines on our cars are simply too wide to allow bubbles to form and significantly impede the flow. If there's no LEAK in the system, and the pump is moving the water fast enough, your coolant system should be fine. What temperature does your heat come out of your vents at? The carb DOES use hot coolant from the engine to warm it up faster, but you have to keep in mind that even if the carb is COLD and the coolant is COLD, once the engine is running, it should be able to keep itself running, so long as the choke functions. You should be able to FLOOD that baseplate with ice water, and it shouldn't have much impact. Long story short, coolant COULD have a impact, but I don't really see how...
Unless you have coolant LEAKING through the baseplate of the carb into the intake! That could definitely impede combustion and cause a stall. You ever see any white steam coming out of your tailpipe?

EDIT: Oh, and as for a blown head gasket or head or engine block, (I had one in a Saturn I had) I think it USUALLY happens the other way around, the coolant ends up in the oil, giving it a chocolate-milk look. But your coolant is going SOMEWHERE, and if your oil is free of water, it's either filling a previously empty coolant loop or it's going down the intake and out the ass end of the car. Unless it's undergoing an alchemic transmutation into oil and translocating itself slowly to the pavement under MY CRX engine, but that's another thread.

Edited by Captain Regular, 01 June 2009 - 10:57 PM.

[kaymo]

yes air bubbles in coolant can cause idle problems, but ive only heard of it with fuel injection....