Running rich in the wet?

[89AccordNate]

I dont know why my car likes to do this, but I think its a carb deal. This morning it was about 33 degrees and raining. When you put these 2 together, my car runs RICH and RICH as can be . To the point where if you dont hammer on the gas then its going to die. I bet I burned a half tank driving 3 miles to school today. Does anyone know WHY it does this? It has to have something to do with moisture, but I dont know what it could be.

Any clue?

Nate.

[Blue Impact]

Could this be the result of taking your car way too much to band camps? :D

[89AccordNate]

That COULD be it, but normally when I go to band camp its pretty dry because most chunkers dont like to march in the rain.... :D

Nate.

[A20A1]

If it's real cold try and divert the intake so it sucks air from above the exhaust manifold. and since it's raining try not to point the intake so it faces the fan or it will just spray in water.

if you can just get some cheap hose and zip ties and route the hose over or under the upper radiator hose and to the #4 or #3 spark plug wire... use the zip ties to kep it from hitting the valve cover and other hot metal areas.

[rocky2]

I suggest to compare your choke linkage on top of carb to some pictures on this sight of carbs. Because I bent it on my 3-g and it caused problems . Also your going to have to look at the choke butter fly inside carb when its at operating temp to see if its fully open.

[Greg]

Before you start to modify shit, check for vacuum leaks and clean your choke linkage, throttle linkage, and choke plate w/ carb cleaner.

I have a semi-manual hand-choke hooked up (I added extra linkage, disabled choke opener, but didn't remove the auto-choke), and I notice that if I keep the choke so it's open less than 45 degrees, it runs really rich and stutters (but duh, of course this would happen) so I usually open my choke 45 degrees immediately after the car starts in the cold. Normally your choke opener should do this.

If you have a vacuum leak and the choke opener doesn't open, I think what would happen is that at first it woudl run really gassy and stutter like a bitch. Then as it warmed up, the gasoline would vaporize better, adn you would get super-high rpm's at idle. If you manually rev it by stepping on the gas pedal to open the throttle plate, it DOES rev high, but gets way too much gas and runs like shit.

Anyway, I would guess you have a vacuum leak. If not, then make sure your choke opener, idle controller, and fast idle unloader diaphrams are working.

Get a vacuum pump and play around with drawing a vacuum on them to see if they pull off. FYI, the choke opener gets vacuum from underneath the diaphram, not the hoses that attach to it, so you can only successfully maintain a vacuum w/hand pump with the car running.

[A20A1]

Well I only suggested it to him since the probem didn't sound like it was an everyday thing.

Did your temp guage needle reach it's normal positon during the trip?

[oldsub86]

If it does not run well when it is wet out, start with ignition. Have you changed the spark plug wires lately? When plug wires get old they leak and the moisture affects the spark strength. I can't see any real reason why the carb should dislike the damp.