Hello all! I am a girl and I suck at working on cars. That being said, I am trying my hardest to figure this shit out. I bought a crx hf about a year ago as a project car. I have made a ton of progress, it came as a total piece of crap from california. So far, with the guidance of my friend/mechanic who lets me tinker around at his shop, I've done many things. Ive replaced the exhaust, the shocks, did a complete tune up, new tires, rebuilt the original carb and re installed, front brakes, new engine, devac-ed, bought a weber, installed that and now here I am with a CRX HF that is only getting 26 miles to the gallon and is laggy as ever. KILL ME.
So, I need help.
I am regretting getting rid of the original carb because once the engine was at temp it ran fine, gas mileage was a dream etc. etc. but driving before that sweet spot was a total disaster ( everytime i put the clutch in the engine died so as you can imagine maintaining focus on the road was hard when you were driving with constant pop starts and dying in the middle of intersections) I tried for months to get that bad boy to be smooth sailing (with a mechanics guidance) and nothing was doing it. SO, the mechanic suggested i get a weber. he said my life would be much easier with it and there wouldnt be all those hoses and crap! WELL, it is! starts great. doesnt die once started... so i guess it is safer. BUT, its really laggy (i know it shouldnt be) and uses tons of gas. Ive adjusted the carb and it is still doing this. I did install the carb fresh out of the box and alone. I was then informed by some people that I need to get a tuning kit or try out different size jets (i know i probably sound really stupid talking about this) and although i already knew it, my car was running rich.
I need advice, maybe some positive feedback about where i am at?
I have the original 1.5 liter engine in there and the 32/36 dgev Weber as is, out of box. I need to know what size jet might work with this combination. I do still have the old carb with all of those black plastic boxes though my mechanic just snipped a lot of the hoses so itll be hard to reassemble but not totally impossible. i am reluctant to let go of it for some reason because there is still a part of me that really wants the car to just be in its original state but i dont know whats better for me at this point.
So!
1. did i make the right choice by switching to a weber? i care about gas mileage enough to want to get around 40 mpg to the gallon but i dont need much more than that and i dont mind a little less.
2. in layman's terms, how should i proceed? I know i need to change the jets but i dont know to what size or what jet kit i should buy. Will changing out the jets be enough? have i made a huge mistake?
Please help!