Hi all, new guy here. I'm trying to help my friend out with her 88 Prelude S with twin Keihin carbs. It has driveabilty problems that have progressively gotten worse. Now the car barely starts. If it does start, she has to keep her foot buried on the gas pedal to keep it running. The car has close to 200k miles on it, and I believe the carbs have never been removed. I suggested that she get a carb rebuild kit and I would do the job. (I'm used to working on Holleys and Edelbrocks, so I was in for a surprise.)

In the meantime, she called a few shops. Many of them said "I won't even touch an 88 Prelude carb". The ones that would do the job were charging $1200-1500 just for a rebuild!! WTF??

So today I started to pull the carbs off, using her Chilton manual as a guide. All it says is "remove the 2 band clamps and all vacuum hoses". Ha ha. The 50-plus vacuum hoses and actuators are making it impossible for me to get the driver's side band clamp off. I gave up after about 3 hours. Now I know why the shops are charging so much. Without some major disassembly, I can't see how the carb is going to come off.

This car is a beater. It's not worth a $1500 trip to the shop, and she can't afford that anyway. So before I go any further with this project, I have a few questions:
1. Has anyone ever removed the carbs on an 88 Prelude? How is it done?
2. Should I be afraid of the control box on the passenger-side firewall that has about 20 vacuum hoses between it and the carb? Could something be malfunctioning in there? Is there something else I should check before pulling the carbs off? (I verified the ignition has good spark, and fuel supply to the carbs is ok.)
3. I thought about adjusting the adle mixture to get it to run, but I can't even find the mixture screw. Does it exist?
4. How much is this car worth? 5 speed, ~200k miles, front end cosmetic damage, shoddy interior. Mehanically good, burns no oil.

Sorry for the long post. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Scott

 

Anyone???

 

try engine tech forum