Anyone ever set up a water choke?

[PDXAccord79]

Hello everyone!

The weather is getting better here in PDX and I haven't sold this damn car yet so it's time to start screwing with it again. I recently installed a water choke and am having issues setting it up. As of right now I'm having the following issues:

Takes over 5 min (usually 7-10) to warm up

Choke takes FOREVER to close back up once the car has been running

My guess is I just don't know what I'm doing when it comes to setting up a water choke. My guess is that I need to go and really crank the spring down by at least a half spin but I'm running out of ideas. If I can't get this figured out I guess I'll go back to that craptacular electric choke but I'd really like to try and beat this. Ideas?

[79cord]

Well the 1.6l EG/EL Accords usually only ever had Manual choke... So I'm no help.

[PDXAccord79]

It worked fantastic when the weather was 50 degrees but once it got up to 70 it got cranky. I think I'm just going to have to tighten the spring way down, drive it until it's all the way hot, then see if the choke is open. If it is keep adding more tension until it doesn't open all the way then back it off. I know Jeep guys love these water chokes so I feel like there's potential here.

[Dr_Snooz]

Never heard of a water choke. Care to enlighten me on what it is?

[PDXAccord79]

It looks like this:



I'm using the hot water hose off the manifold to heat it. Basically it works the same as a electric but with hot water. Unfortunately it seems to take forever (7-10 min) to work.

I found a NIB Honda choke on ebay the other day and am going to try to reinstall the original choke and air temp sensor onto the Weber and see how that works. There's a hole in the back of the Weber filter housing which should take the temp sensor.

[2oodoor]

Yeah 50 to 70 degrees is about the magic spot, mine usually is oppositte yours. But a small turn of the mix screw fixes it unless your way off in idle jet size. Water choke is a great idea as is manual choke , for these webers.

[Dr_Snooz]

it seems to take forever (7-10 min) to work.

If I'm understanding its operation correctly, then I would expect that. A normal choke opens based on air temp, which changes relatively quickly. The coolant takes much longer to heat up, so a water choke would stay closed longer. It seems like a lot of extra complexity for little gain. I could be missing the point though.

[2oodoor]

No a normal choke, which Im going to say is the electric choke that is most common, opens as 12v heats up the bi-metal spring inside which in turn allows the choke butterfly to open and fast idle stepper moves accrdingly.
The webers fuel atomization changes drasticly between 50- 70 degrees F. A hot air riser ultimatly would serve these justice but most weber kits come with the little square breather that has no way to attach one.
PDX I think you could go up a size in idle jet.

[2geeSEi]

My 74 Mustang II (Holley/Weber 2bbl) always worked fine with the water choke, but it came that way from the factory. It has a H shaped metal bypass tube that allows water to flow through it from the heater hose, even if the heater valve isn't open. I would check to make sure that the heater valve isn't preventing water from flowing to the choke when you don't have the heater on, and the heater valve is closed.

[Dr_Snooz]

My '76 Accord had a manual choke which, for me, was by far the most superior design. I could fine tune the cold mix perfectly and turn it off prematurely to save gas. My '82 Accord had a simple air choke, which is what I was referring to as a "normal" choke above. It used a bimetal strip to control the choke. It worked just fine, but was always slightly off at least somewhere in its operating range. My Edelbrock has an electric choke, which is an air choke with a heating element added to it. It works just fine unplugged and as I understand it, the electric is only there to help hold the choke open at operating temp. Apparently the bimetal strip isn't quite strong enough to do it all alone. Some simple adjustment takes care of that issue though. Otherwise, it is a simple air choke. For my part, I think manual chokes work the best with simple air chokes running a close second. Of course, I'm not the final word on chokes and I've never tried a water choke.

[2oodoor]

The most common place Ive seen water chokes were on those holley webers and a few imports I believe. There good for more extreme temperatures in the cold and they assist with emissions. Most of those will have a idle jet cut off solenoid as well.
Manual chokes are the best but no way a manufactor could meet emissions with them because they are not idiot proof. Small engines and small aircraft would be screwed without manual choke carb systms because the operator can compensate for temp and atmosphereic/barametric pressures that come on suddenly or while out on a venture.
A water choke would also warm up the carb body which makes a huge difference in cold weather drivability.

[PDXAccord79]

Update on this one: do not run a water choke. It was way more of a pain in the ass than I was expecting and really made no difference with anything. I'm back on the Weber electric choke. It's still somewhat half-assed but it gets the job done as long as I don't drive until the car is warm (temp needle barely in the normal operating temp zone).