coolhandmatt

I recently got an 87 CRX for free - it hadn't run in 3 years. I figured what the heck I can try it out. I brought it home knowing that the motor (3 years ago) was rebuilt -kind of, but it was $1200 worth of rebuild. The guy handed me the documents, sure enough he had put a shit load of money into it and said that he had done all of this stuff but when I got it home it started to mess up, apparently he parked it then. When I got it the oil was still fresh, well clean anyway. I dumped the gas and fired it up, started perfect but idled weird. It was revving on its own. While it was running I did a flush of the fluids. The next day I took the carb off and inspected, and shot it with cleaner. I DID NOT TAKE IT APART. I found some hoses that were rotted, and one with a hole. I replaced the bad ones, and put it all back together.

When I started it the revving was gone but no power and when you pushed it to full throttle it would stop.

What’s the problem?

I’m sure this question has been asked a million time but those hoses are intimidating and I don’t know what to do.

coolhandmatt

Could it be the CARBURETOR BASE GASKET leaking, choke, or just the damn vacuum hoses?

Kai

First note: Please don't choose black text for your posts. A lot of the older members of the site use the black/grey colour scheme and black text is invisible on a black background.

Was the carb rebuilt? Recheck all the vacuum hoses for leaks and make sure none of the fuel lines are pinched. A new carb-to-manifold gasket would be good if you didn't use one.

coolhandmatt

I'll use red so everyone can see it because I wouldn't be able to use white then I couldnt see it.

I doubt the carb was rebuilt.

I didn't check for pinched lines, but seems to be getting fuel ok? I'll check but until then could a spacer be making that kind of problem. Like I said it fires up then quits after a few seconds. I even hooked a gas line stright in and it still quit after a few seconds. I know when you do that it won't have the vacuum like it should but it still should run. Right?

When we got it running before it idled even though it was revving up and down on it's own. Once I replaced some vacuum hoses the revving stopped but it won't idle now ( unless I use starting fluid, and maybe if I get it hot). I've dicked with it today, I'm thinking choke, fuel, vacuum, or the carb need rebuilt. None are an easy fix. The carb only has 127,000 mi on it.

I'm outta ideas...

Thanks for your help,
Matt.

Kai

If you don't select a colour, it will default to a colour everyone will see.

All I can say is it's either a vacuum leak (most likely) or a fault with the carb. I don't know much regarding carburetors, unfortunately.

coolhandmatt

Yeah I don't know what color to select since I don't know much about this forum.

Im going to take the carburetor off and then silicone the spacer real good just to see if I can get it to run. It just seems weird how a little air will make the difference. Nothing could have a serious leak because we looked it over very well and replaced the stuff that was even close to bad.

To everyone: I just found a 1988 CRX SI motor and transmission for 400 bucks. I figure i'll give him $200 cash - should I jump on it? Is it a hard swap or should I just try to fix what I have. I'm not looking to make a real fast ride but I will make it look good on the outside.

Thanks

wilsel

You have a vacumn leak somewhere, what happens if fill a spray bottle with gas, and squirt it directly in the carb? Will it run as long as you spray gas?

Kai

88+ engines do not directly swap in, plus you would have to convert to fuel injection. It will end up costing way more then $400.

coolhandmatt

Well it comes with everything. Motor mounts, ECU, harness, heck the whole car might be there. I think it might just be plug and play for me. I'm not the best at this stuff but I can do it. If everything is there.

On the otherside I agree with you KAI. I'm sure i'll run into some crap.

WILSEL
It runs like that with starting fluid (ether). No problem. Im sure gas will do the same, i just dont want to get a fire started, I can see me buring the car up - which at this point wouldnt hurt a dang thing LOL.

Exempt

What he means is, to convert from carbed to fuel injection, youll need to add a whole shit load of things... The parts you listed, plus all new fuel lines, fuel pump, and a whole mess of wiring work... Then you would have to have a drivers side mount fabbed up because its in a totally different possition on both engines... When its all said and done, its not really cost effective to do this... And to put it blunt, just not worth it for 105HP...

If it comes with the whole car, just keep the car and build that up... The 2gs have more aftermarket support anyways...