New and first time swapping

[Cassie88accordlx]

Hey there,
New to cars and forums in general but I was just wondering if possibly anyone could help me out with a few questions I have. My car is a 1989 Honda accord lx stock everything and I am not doing anything fancy or crazy to it just swapping the engine with another a20 with less miles. Its carbureted and I just wanted to know what things I can do to make my engine bay less cluttered (what unnecessary things can I get rid of) and what can I do about all those vacuum lines? Can i tuck or bunch things together? Cause I can't stand all that mess under the hood. I want a nice looking daily. Please let me know and once again I'm new. Don't be too savage.

[Fixedit]

Welcome to 3geez! Very useful place for these cars and we're all glad to have new members. As much as I enjoy carburetors, I'm less familiar with them on the 3g, but from what I've seen it isn't difficult to clean up & tuck vacuum lines. However I believe it's just as easy to confuse their connections and/or accidentally miss a few or all 700 of them. I see you're new to cars in general, but have you heard of swapping the carb for a Weber? It's a popular aftermarket carburetor that cleans up the engine bay as well as slightly improves performance. It's a mild modification and there's always info here about the swap.

I personally have not done a vacuum line tuck in a stock DX or LX, but it seems pretty open to me, as in be creative so long as you know everything's hooked up, and correctly at that. I have however installed a Weber on a '78 Civic which is pretty close. A lot of the smog/emissions components left the bay along with their respective vacuum lines.

Also, have you checked out the 3geez facebook group? There are a couple but the main one includes people around the world working on these cars, if you're on FB it may be worth a look. It's a little more active there

[MessyHonda]

Welcome,

since your profile says you are from California you probably have to pass smog. These were the last year for carbs and they had to pass emissions test. This means you cant really do a vacuum removal. my first questions is why do you have to swap to a lower mile engine? hope you use this site to do research.

[Cassie88accordlx]

Welcome to 3geez! Very useful place for these cars and we're all glad to have new members. As much as I enjoy carburetors, I'm less familiar with them on the 3g, but from what I've seen it isn't difficult to clean up & tuck vacuum lines. However I believe it's just as easy to confuse their connections and/or accidentally miss a few or all 700 of them. I see you're new to cars in general, but have you heard of swapping the carb for a Weber? It's a popular aftermarket carburetor that cleans up the engine bay as well as slightly improves performance. It's a mild modification and there's always info here about the swap.

I personally have not done a vacuum line tuck in a stock DX or LX, but it seems pretty open to me, as in be creative so long as you know everything's hooked up, and correctly at that. I have however installed a Weber on a '78 Civic which is pretty close. A lot of the smog/emissions components left the bay along with their respective vacuum lines.

Also, have you checked out the 3geez facebook group? There are a couple but the main one includes people around the world working on these cars, if you're on FB it may be worth a look. It's a little more active there
Thank you very much for the help. I will definitely be looking into the Weber. These vacuum lines will be the death of me I swear.

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[Cassie88accordlx]

Welcome,

since your profile says you are from California you probably have to pass smog. These were the last year for carbs and they had to pass emissions test. This means you cant really do a vacuum removal. my first questions is why do you have to swap to a lower mile engine? hope you use this site to do research.
Well as being new to cars, I am not familiar with in depth mechanics of the engine. It was making a pretty bad knock last time I ran it and I feel that'll since I have this engine laying around might as well just take the "easy" way out.

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[Ryon Toth]

Ha! Im swapping mine out too! Welcome and good luck! ( i had blown head gasket, then a rod knock, and i found a short block with 30,000mi)

[Cassie88accordlx]

Ha! Im swapping mine out too! Welcome and good luck! ( i had blown head gasket, then a rod knock, and i found a short block with 30,000mi)
Haha I'm sure you have some sort of experience and thank you. I'm gonna need all the luck I can get.

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[Ryon Toth]

Haha I'm sure you have some sort of experience and thank you. I'm gonna need all the luck I can get.

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My experience is minimal, but i have learned tons from this site so i know i have a good reference point if i screw anything up. Definately search and find the shop manual for these cars on here- that helps. I also have a haynes manual.....not the best but its a paper. And im just doing it. I have no choice really. Either sell my harley and get a car or do what i can with this.....lol. its a fun task and a great car to learn with. Jump in there and tear it apart! Dont forget pics tho!

[Cassie88accordlx]

My experience is minimal, but i have learned tons from this site so i know i have a good reference point if i screw anything up. Definately search and find the shop manual for these cars on here- that helps. I also have a haynes manual.....not the best but its a paper. And im just doing it. I have no choice really. Either sell my harley and get a car or do what i can with this.....lol. its a fun task and a great car to learn with. Jump in there and tear it apart! Dont forget pics tho!
I have the Haynes manual. Its been very helpful. Any things better than nothing when it comes to help. The only thing really annoying me are the vacuum lines.

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[rigel]

I have the Haynes manual. Its been very helpful. Any things better than nothing when it comes to help. The only thing really annoying me are the vacuum lines.

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the haynes manual is pretty good. i would suggest downloading a copy of the service manual though, especially if you're planning on doing anything like rebuilding it, as the service manual has the torque specs. it's around here somewhere.

secondly, these are really great cars to learn wrenching on. there are practically dozens of them in any junkyard you care to go to, so you can always get the bits you wind up destroying in the teardown phase.

third, if you're in CA, it's probably going to be illegal for you to remove any of the emissions controls, and it's definitely illegal to swap in a weber carb. i know there are a lot of them, but careful study of the vacuum diagram should allow you to put it all back together. it helps if you read some of the background in the 1989 USDM service manual as to which lines are part of which system (X-system, M-system, etc).

i think it's worthwhile to try and rebuild the carb, myself. that's mainly because i did it once and it worked, YMMV. it allows you to see what's moving when, and really all the carb does is turn a valve to allow more or less air into the intake. so, for instance, when the engine isnt up to operating temperature, there's a little spring that opens the choke more, so that it starts easier, and can warm up faster. i've run my engine plenty without a filter in place, but most people dont recommend it., because if you get bits of crap in your vacuum lines it's going to make things really difficult to diagnose. however, one way around that is to just get some compressed air to blow out the hard lines, and replace all the vacuum hoses after you have things dialed in on your carb.

one additional thing you should probably be aware of behorehand. there are a bunch of little solenoids (electric switches) that can cause all kinds of havoc when they are starting to go out. it can be really frustrating, but you can test most of them, and there's a whole section in the 1989 usdm manual that goes into pretty serious detail on how to test things. personally, i think it would be better if there were also instructions on how to sit down and bench test all of them, and ive been considering writing something like that up (maybe soon).

anyway, welcome and good luck!

[Cassie88accordlx]

the haynes manual is pretty good. i would suggest downloading a copy of the service manual though, especially if you're planning on doing anything like rebuilding it, as the service manual has the torque specs. it's around here somewhere.

secondly, these are really great cars to learn wrenching on. there are practically dozens of them in any junkyard you care to go to, so you can always get the bits you wind up destroying in the teardown phase.

third, if you're in CA, it's probably going to be illegal for you to remove any of the emissions controls, and it's definitely illegal to swap in a weber carb. i know there are a lot of them, but careful study of the vacuum diagram should allow you to put it all back together. it helps if you read some of the background in the 1989 USDM service manual as to which lines are part of which system (X-system, M-system, etc).

i think it's worthwhile to try and rebuild the carb, myself. that's mainly because i did it once and it worked, YMMV. it allows you to see what's moving when, and really all the carb does is turn a valve to allow more or less air into the intake. so, for instance, when the engine isnt up to operating temperature, there's a little spring that opens the choke more, so that it starts easier, and can warm up faster. i've run my engine plenty without a filter in place, but most people dont recommend it., because if you get bits of crap in your vacuum lines it's going to make things really difficult to diagnose. however, one way around that is to just get some compressed air to blow out the hard lines, and replace all the vacuum hoses after you have things dialed in on your carb.

one additional thing you should probably be aware of behorehand. there are a bunch of little solenoids (electric switches) that can cause all kinds of havoc when they are starting to go out. it can be really frustrating, but you can test most of them, and there's a whole section in the 1989 usdm manual that goes into pretty serious detail on how to test things. personally, i think it would be better if there were also instructions on how to sit down and bench test all of them, and ive been considering writing something like that up (maybe soon).

anyway, welcome and good luck!
Thank you very much. You have been very helpful. I'll look into all things and I will let you know about my progress. Have a good one and once again thank you.

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[Ryon Toth]

I deleted all vaccuum lines and went with a weber 32/36. No smog check here. But dr snooz on here has a great write up on passing smog and from his knowledge it CAN be done and easily but an a/f (air/fuel) ratio o2 sensor will help to pass flawlessly. There is actually a write up by him on that.......get car hot, tune a lil and then retune when complete..i love my weber.