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Thread: Feels like its way down on power or secondary isnt opening

  1. #1
    DX User
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    85 Accord/ 2001 VW Passat/ 93 Crown Vic
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    Feels like its way down on power or secondary isnt opening

    Ok, so I have searched pretty good with different key words and dont get exactly what im looking for.

    I have been daily driving my 85 Accord for a few weeks. Its completely fine around town but on the highway, it struggles to maintain speed even with the slightest little grade in the road. I find myself in 3rd gear with my foot flat on the floor to maintain close to posted speeds on these little inclines. I dont feel a surge from a secondary like I would think I should.

    Now this is the slowest car I have ever owned and I have to get used to that.

    I was poking around the carb and found a collapsed vacuum line coming off the drivers side of the carb. I replaced that and car seems to have picked up a bit...I dont know if this is normal or not for it to be this damn hard to maintain speed. I understand it only made 86hp when new but I should be able to at least keep up, right?

    On Sunday, we're moving from Idaho back to the Washington coast. There are a couple good passes I have to climb. Im afraid I'll be around 35mph for much of those climbs while it revs its little balls off.
    It really feels like its just running off the Primary barrel. I guess I may be shifting to soon and to afraid to let her rev out to 6 grand. Shes an old girl with 320k miles on her. I dont like the idea of an old engine spinning so hard for so long. Maybe Im wrong and need to just let her eat?
    Excuse the crappy formatting.
    Last edited by FartCan3; 01-15-2020 at 05:07 PM.



  2. #2
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    Re: Feels like its way down on power or secondary isnt opening

    What is the engine rpm when you're "in 3rd gear with [your] foot flat on the floor to maintain close to posted speeds on these little inclines?"

  3. #3
    DX User
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    Re: Feels like its way down on power or secondary isnt opening

    If this has a manual transmission, how many miles are on the clutch?

  4. #4
    DX User
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    85 Accord/ 2001 VW Passat/ 93 Crown Vic
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    Re: Feels like its way down on power or secondary isnt opening

    Not a clutch issue

  5. #5


    Join Date
    Nov 2004
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    88 LXi
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    Knoxville TN
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    Re: Feels like its way down on power or secondary isnt opening

    Quote Originally Posted by FartCan3 View Post
    Ok, so I have searched pretty good with different key words and dont get exactly what im looking for.

    I have been daily driving my 85 Accord for a few weeks. Its completely fine around town but on the highway, it struggles to maintain speed even with the slightest little grade in the road. I find myself in 3rd gear with my foot flat on the floor to maintain close to posted speeds on these little inclines. I dont feel a surge from a secondary like I would think I should.

    Now this is the slowest car I have ever owned and I have to get used to that.

    I was poking around the carb and found a collapsed vacuum line coming off the drivers side of the carb. I replaced that and car seems to have picked up a bit...I dont know if this is normal or not for it to be this damn hard to maintain speed. I understand it only made 86hp when new but I should be able to at least keep up, right?

    On Sunday, we're moving from Idaho back to the Washington coast. There are a couple good passes I have to climb. Im afraid I'll be around 35mph for much of those climbs while it revs its little balls off.
    It really feels like its just running off the Primary barrel. I guess I may be shifting to soon and to afraid to let her rev out to 6 grand. Shes an old girl with 320k miles on her. I dont like the idea of an old engine spinning so hard for so long. Maybe Im wrong and need to just let her eat?
    Excuse the crappy formatting.
    Carbs dont deal with altitude well...in fact not at all. on my fuel injection 1988 I would loose 1 sec in the quarter mile at 5000 feet.

    I know on my 1st gens I would sometimes on long grades here east have to just let it hang in 2nd gear. Most of our paved mountains go about 3000'.

    id still go thru the carb and make sure the timing and fuel pressure /volume are good. Possible the timing belt is off a tooth that would really kill power.
    1988 Lxi owner since August 1995
    336k miles running strong!
    Now running E85.

    Oldblueaccord <<< MY YOUTUBE PAGE!

  6. #6
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    Re: Feels like its way down on power or secondary isnt opening

    just let eat the 6-7k it might take to keep up?

  7. #7

    Dr_Snooz's Avatar
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    Re: Feels like its way down on power or secondary isnt opening

    Clogged cat.
    Dr_Snooz

    "I like to take hammers, and just break stuff, just break stuff." - Beavis


    1989 Honda Accord LX-i Coupe, 240k miles, MT swap, rear disc swap

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  8. #8
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    Re: Feels like its way down on power or secondary isnt opening

    Quote Originally Posted by Dr_Snooz View Post
    Clogged cat.
    I agree with Dr.Snooz, if you never touched the cat since you owned it and the chances are with this car you have 200,000 miles like the rest of us; that's bound for a big clog. Being a carb'd car I would also add some Marvel Mystery Oil to the fuel ONLY the recommended dosage 4oz to 10 gallons. People claim it snake oil but I've gotten results many times, it helps lubricate some carb parts and may free something up if its mechanical.

  9. #9
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    Re: Feels like its way down on power or secondary isnt opening

    Wow! this is an interesting post to say the least. If you read the post I made yesterday 10/29/24, this is the exact symptom I noticed with my 85 accord. I started losing power going up hills. my buddy heard a misfire when i started the engine cold. I hadn't noticed any misfire while driving it. It would chug when you first started the car (before the auto choke kicked in). It basically ALWAYS does the high idle/mid idle kickdown phase (even if its 90 degrees outside). But it would smooth out once it warmed up. I had the entire exhaust replaced a couple years back (including the cat.

    I suspected a carb/vacuum issue was causing me to lose rpms going up hills (we have alot of long gradual glacial hills in WI). @FartCan3 If you happen to still be on this forum and ever found the solution for this I'm all ears! Unfortunately I personally have bigger issues with my car now but I'm hoping to fix them and I might end up back with this symptom/or maybe not.

    @AccordAndRex good call out for the Marvel Oil, I put that in my 83 civic and 73 olds 98 all the time and I feel like it helped (both cars treated me well for years).

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