Top hat is comming off...

[VTEC_Inside]

Any problem(s) I've been having just took a back seat.

I've got a sudden persistant leak from the float adjustment screw. I played with it today and it stopped. However then I let the car cool down, went to take a short drive and it started leaking again.

Its parked now until I get this fixed.

I'm going to try and get/order a top hat gasket and new float level adjustment screw tommorow. I'd order just the o-rings, but I don't want to play around with sizes.

Do I really need the gasket? I pulled apart my parts carb and the gasket looks pretty stout on it.

The float pivot pin was a PAIN IN THE ASS on my parts carb. Any tips other than the drill bit for removing it?

Is there any harm in using oil in that shaft to reduce friction for the new adjustment screw? I know roughly where it has to br so I wont be moving it much, but now I'm paranoid.

EVERYTHING is secondary to just getting this thing to stop leaking now.
BUT, Is there any point cleaning anything while I have the top hat off? Are there any other o-rings or parts that I should replace since I will be in there anyway?

Needless to say that this is extremely frustrating as the car is for all intents undriveable and the weather is piss poor for having to do this repair.

I'm going to start looking at getting a rebuilt carb or getting one from a wrecker and rebuilding the whole thing myself, but thats not gonna happen anytime soon.

[russiankid]

If you are taking it apart might as well replace the gasket so you can forget about it ever having a leak in that particular area if you do it correctly. And why don;t you take the adjustment screw from the donor carb?

[VTEC_Inside]

If you are taking it apart might as well replace the gasket so you can forget about it ever having a leak in that particular area if you do it correctly. And why don;t you take the adjustment screw from the donor carb?

You are right about the gasket, might as well.

The screw is fine, but its the o-rings I'm concerned with. I have no clue about the history of my parts carb.

Given that the float pivot pin is likely to be a pain in the ass, I'd much rather go new.

[russiankid]

You are right about the gasket, might as well.
The screw is fine, but its the o-rings I'm concerned with. I have no clue about the history of my parts carb.
Given that the float pivot pin is likely to be a pain in the ass, I'd much rather go new.
Well instead of ordering all the parts, just get a carb rebuild kit from an auto parts store. Has all the gaskets you need i believe.

[VTEC_Inside]

Well instead of ordering all the parts, just get a carb rebuild kit from an auto parts store. Has all the gaskets you need i believe.

Yeah, and it should have a new adjustment screw and o-rings too..

BUT, the last time I called around they wanted over $100CAD for the kit....

I will pursue that a little further tommorow as well. I'll be hitting up Napa pretty early since they will likely be able to get whatever I order tommorow as well..

[A18A]

you got fuel leaking from that float adjusting screw?? were you adjusting it? i think i read somewere that you should only turn it a 1/8th of a turn when adjusting. I learnt that if you turn it too much then fuel will just come out of the top by the screw.

[Tailfin]

It should never come out from the actual screw. If you have the float bowl level way too high, it will spill out the vents on top. The 1/8 of a turn just applies to getting it set properly. You don't turn it more than that every 15 seconds, according to the manual, in order to allow everything to balance out.

[VTEC_Inside]

I've had it leak out the top of the screw opening when adjusting it in the past so I made a point of leaving it alone when I got it to stop.

Now it just started leaking out of there and I haven't touched it in a long time.

Part of me wants to back it out as far as I can to the top and then wrap some teflon tape (the gas resistant kind) around the top threads. I wonder how well that would work? lol....

Part hunt commences shortly.

[A18A]

must have been your adjustment??? its happened to me before, i just turned it the oposite way that i was adjusting it, its all good now :)

[shepherd79]

the screw is very sensetive. overtime the o-ring can get damaged.
i don't know what stores you called to get rebuild kit, around here the kit cost under $40US.

[VTEC_Inside]

I ordered a top hat gasket, complete adjustment screw, and float assembly from Honda today. $85CAD.

I could have just bought the o-rings and gasket for less than half that, but meh...

Honda actually sells a rebuild "kit" that looks like it includes all the gaskets, o-rings, and possibly diaphragms for $40.

Parts will be in Monday.

I'm going to throw the new gasket on the scanner with a ruler to add to the gasket pics here.

Now I'm just concerned with actually getting the top hat off, it was a bit of a bugger on my "parts" carb. That and that damn float hinge pin.

Any thoughts on using a bit of oil on the o-rings of the new one to give myself some piece of mind when re-setting the float level. I'm pretty confident I'll be able to set it damn near perfect right off the bat, but...

Hopefully the weather co-opperates. I'm almost looking forward to doing this. I suppose I can expect some improvement in the way it runs by overhauling the top half.

P.S. I asked for shits and giggles. Honda also still lists the whole carburetor assembly, for $900 and change CAD.... lol... no thanks.

[HondaBoy]

a couple of years back, i had to rebuild my carb. it was leaking at the accelerator pump. but i decided if i was going through the trouble of replacing the o ring in there, i might as well do the whole thing because the o rings will start leaking as the others did. yeah, you'll need a new gasket, unless you dont mind it leaking some. the rebuild kit is about $40 at most auto parts stores. if its more, then shop around, imo. there is a thread here somewhere that goes through all the steps of the rebuild for the dual barrel kehin for the accord. i hadnt ever done an automotive carb before when i did mine and the instructions i used were more than helpful. i have since had no carb problems.

[VTEC_Inside]

The thought of removing the carb at this point kinda scares me.

I've still got reservations about popping the top even though I'm pretty sure things will go alright.

I'll have to see how things go after this. There is a really clean looking carb on a junker at the local wreckers. They said $50 for it. I wouldn't mind picking that up and then the rebuild kit from Honda. That'd give me something to do.

Man, I just hope this goes ok. I don't need anymore headaches from this car. The cost of insuring it could have bought me winter rubber for the RSX already.

[VTEC_Inside]

Top hat is off and cleaned up. Went much easier than I expected.

Only thing that went wrong was that I ended up putting a small ding in the inside tower of the float pin holder. I was tapping it with a drill bit and a hammer and I tapped one too many times, the float had moved and my bit went off angle a bit.

As I said, only a very minor ding in the tower, less than 1mm deep. I filed it a couple times to smooth it out.

I await my parts tommorow. Thankfully, the hardest part is over.

[VTEC_Inside]

Got my parts... If the rain holds off I'm putting it back together later today.

Any thoughts on using a bit of oil on the adjuster o-rings while putting it back together?

[VTEC_Inside]

Carb is back together now and the engine is running about the same as it was.

That is to say, not stellar, but far from crappy.

I'd really love to know where I'm losing that 3-4inches of vacuum. Pulls a steady 20ish and will go as high as 24-25 if I rev it and let it drop, but as it setlles down it drops back to 20ish.

Arg...

[A20A1]

I have a printout for the top hat gasket no need to buy one if you have a gasket sheet laying around and a printer.

scroll down some.
http://www.3geez.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5350

[VTEC_Inside]

Thanks A20, but I wasn't sure about this part "v 2.0 doesn't have a hole/slot for the accel pump bleed channel".

What effect does that have?

Plus I didn't have any gasket paper, and in my state of mind I didn't want to add the variable of me cutting a gasket to the equation.

Sidenote: I'm pretty sure the powervalve on this one is shot. I checked it and the "parts" carb and neither of them held vacuum unless I pushed the plunger up ever so slightly first. Then they both held on for dear life.

I'm wondering if that could be the cause of my idle "pops" from the exhaust. Then again the car passed etest at idle like this with next to nothing when I would have expected some sign that it was running rich at idle if the valve was constantly open... meh....

[HondaBoy]

mine is running between 20-23 inches of vacuum. i thought it was normal though.

[A20A1]

I'm pretty sure I saw a bleed hole in the plunger when I dug the powervalve out. So it doesn't move up enough on it's own? Maybe the top hat has to be installed and the float bowl filled... like the gasket or the gas in the bowl plugs up the bleed passage.

[VTEC_Inside]

I'm pretty sure I saw a bleed hole in the plunger when I dug the powervalve out. So it doesn't move up enough on it's own? Maybe the top hat has to be installed and the float bowl filled... like the gasket or the gas in the bowl plugs up the bleed passage.

Thats what I thought because I thought it odd that neither of the two top hats I had held ANY vacuum at the powervalve when I checked them off the carb.

All I had to do was give them a slight lift and all of a sudden both held without leaking.

I checked mine on the carb after I had re-assembled it and it still didn't hold, but the float bowl was empty at that point.

As I said, the car passed e-test with some stellar numbers and gets amazing fuel economy so I'd be extremely suprised if there was actually anything wrong with the powervalve.

[A20A1]

put your finger over the silver tube, maybe that is where the bleed exits... it's the only tube that submerges when the float bowl is full. I can't find any good hats to play with so I can't test the theory.