ugh, broke down for a carb job...

I'm sick of this stumbling, bad gas mileage and poor running conditions and not being able to diagnose it myself, so I took it to a local shop here in Marietta, GA, called Carburetor Specialists. They've been in business for 30 years and all they work on are carbed vehicles.

Excellent reputation from everything I've found out and they're intimately familiar with tuning Honda & Toyota's carbed cars.

Anyway, what I found was that the PCV valve and other easy fix stuff was all fine. From what they've told me, the "circuitry" in the carb is bad and that to really fix it properly, the carb needed to be replaced with a rebuilt unit, tuned properly and the timing needed to be adjusted. He indicated that it was somewhat retarded causing a rough running condition, poor acceleration and bad gas mileage.

The cost for diagnosis, labor, carb and timing job is going to be about ~$600. I told the guy that I could get the carb online for about 1/3 less than they were charging, but he convinced me that they do a better job locally rebuilding them and provide a 12 month guarantee on workmanship, labor, etc. I bit...

It's a chunk of change, so it sure better make a hell of a difference in performance and gas mileage.

their website is www.carbspec.com

Hrm, well you could do it a lot cheaper yourself, but for a year warranty, I guess they'll do a good job.


The internal carb circuitry can usually be cleared and cleaned... the exterior circuitry, mound of vacuum lines will kill you :lol:

EFI Conversion. :)

Peace.

FI would be great. But, if I were to go that route, I'd look for a 4th gen 4-door, 5sp in black. They're out there, but I'm not willing to pay the asking price.

My car, pics to come, is in incredible shape. Interior is a 9.5 out of 10, I bought if from the original owner w/ a stack of every svc record done. The body is straight - never wrecked and the paint is in pretty good shape. If it were a 5sp, it would be just about perfect.

The only thing that bites is the stereo - it's still factory with factory speakers and has no sound whatsoever. I haven't taken the time to put in anything else in as I want it running right first before I put money into the stereo.

I agree though, I could have done it cheaper for sure as I know it's a bolt on, but I guess I'm the age that my time is more valuable than money...

mike

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Originally Posted by mhopton

FI would be great. But, if I were to go that route, I'd look for a 4th gen 4-door, 5sp in black. They're out there, but I'm not willing to pay the asking price.
My car, pics to come, is in incredible shape. Interior is a 9.5 out of 10, I bought if from the original owner w/ a stack of every svc record done. The body is straight - never wrecked and the paint is in pretty good shape. If it were a 5sp, it would be just about perfect.
The only thing that bites is the stereo - it's still factory with factory speakers and has no sound whatsoever. I haven't taken the time to put in anything else in as I want it running right first before I put money into the stereo.
I agree though, I could have done it cheaper for sure as I know it's a bolt on, but I guess I'm the age that my time is more valuable than money...
mike

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time and money are always valuable

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mhopton

The only thing that bites is the stereo - it's still factory with factory speakers and has no sound whatsoever. I haven't taken the time to put in anything else in as I want it running right first before I put money into the stereo.

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all you need is a good deck and itll sound so good (if your speakers arent blown or something)
i didnt have much money so i got a regular $300 clarion (cdn) for 120 bucks because of futureshop discontinuing their line, and i gotta tell you the stock speakers in my car are amazing
i didnt have much money to work with so that was an awesome surprise and now i dont have to get a whole system until i actually have money to waste :)

my speakers sucked so bad with the factory radio, but an aftermarket cleans up the sound so well

Wow 600 bucks? Thats crazy, theres a shop in town here that rebuilt my buddies sprint carb for 90 bucks, parts and labor included.

the rebuild kit runs 30-50 bucks

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Originally Posted by Cant Stop

the rebuild kit runs 30-50 bucks

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yup it was 30 from autozone... it comes with lots of stuff but you only need like 1/7th of the parts...you will need to know how to take out the carb and clean it...also the manual from pauls site will help you out when you go to put the carb hoses back on....lots of info on carbs on this site if you look around. and you can save thoes 600 bucks for performance parts..lol

I dont understand where something 20x the cost of the kit comes in.... eep

I know that shop,I used to live there,they rebuild everything on site,a carb kit is not going to fix the problems in these carbs,there are parts not available that they make on site,and certain parts of the carb can not be disassembled without special tools,for example the vaccume vent valve on the side of the carb,it'l cost you a few hundred from honda,because the parts inside it are not available seperatly,but they are able to manufacture the parts there and fix it,that one part alone will cause your carb to not work worth crap,and it's almost always bad,due to the diaphram being in constant contact with gasoline vapors. also the choke pull off is usually bad,another part they can get,i bought cvcc carb parts from them for years,they know their stuff. for the 600 bucks they will get it right,it's well worth the money. you can try to fix it yourself,or you can have someone who is an expert fix it and not worry about it. they also do mail ordr for people not in georgia,and they sell parts.

smokin crack? a new carb with all those bad parts brand new costs 755 so why not spend extra 155 for new? 600 is too much for a rebuild as for all those parts that go bad? i stripped all of them off my carb and rebuilt it got more power and maybe 5mpg less so.....
tired of places ripping off the common man
i could understand a 600 dollar rebuild if they had say 200 in parts used but they dont at most 100 so what 5 hours labor? i dony think so
just rebuild yourself and take it from there

just looked on the dealer site the most expensive part they sell on the carb is the choke set for 90 dollars everything else drops from there so if a a part is bad buy a new one from dealer and save 600 bucks.

thats because A lot of parts are actually not available anymore, when I checked here at the dealer for that vaccume vent valve,it was listed in parts,but wasn't made anymore. and it was a lot more then 90 bucks when it was made.