Ok. My brother just gave me his '87 Accord sedan. It has some issues, but it is pretty fast.

This thing has idle issues. When I got it this morning, it would always idle at 3grand, which really annoys me in any car I drive.

Another issue is that it "Diesels" for about a minute after I shut it off.
BUT!!! Here is the curveball... I can't release the key fast enough when I start it. It takes less than half a second to start... EVERY TIME!



More info on the car.
The filter box says 12valve on it, the valve cover says Honda, and that is it... I have no clue what engine is in this thing.

It IS carburated, but I really want to go to VTEC (anyone have a post about this?)

AND this thing has a LOT of wiring issues... For instance... The electric fan doesn't turn on. The headlights will turn on if you have the magic touch.



What I have already done:
I took the filter box off and messed with the carb. I felt all the vaccum hoses and they all seem to be fine. I felt the throttle linkage; it feels pretty loose.

I switched 2 vaccum hoses around and it dropped my idle to about 2300, but not nearly what I want it to be at.

I didn't check the side of the carb too see if the float was sticking, but I will do that tomorrow.

Even with all the stuff I did to it today, I can still do 0-60 in about6-7 seconds.

 

Also, if I am driving down the road, I will let off the clutch and the idle will stay there for a second, even if I let off the gas.

I am kinda thinking the timing is a little advanced.

 

The idle is either adjusted too high at the throttle stop screw, the butterfly valve is sticking open, or you have a massive air leak somewhere. It diesels because the idle speed is waytoo high, allowing air / fuel mix into the engine in large quantities even after the throttle is 'closed', and you have 'hot spots' in the combustion chambers causing pre-ignition (which will be the case even when the engine is isn't dieseling after shut down, and can cause damage). These hot spots will continue to ignite the fuel / air mix even after the sparks plugs have stopped sparking. Hot spots can be from overheated plugs glowing red hot, or carbon build up glowing red hot.

To address the dieseling, first fix the high idle, then check plug heat range and correct if the plugs are too hot a plug (you might want to fit the coldest recommended plug for that engine). If this doesn't fix it then try trickling a stream of water down the carby throat with the engine running at a high idle, but be careful not to use too much or you can 'hydrolock' the engine causing damage. This 'steam cleans' the combustion chambers and often gets rid of carbonhot spots. You should see dirty steam come out the exhaust pipe, and the engine will run a bit rough while you trickle water in, but if the engine starts to struggle back off the water trickle and increase rpm a bit.

Find the engine number on the motor or on the vin plate and ask Honda dealer, they can tell you exactly which engine it is, or you search on the net once you have the engine number. Some (all?) Hondaengines have the engine model designation engraved or stamped somehere on the engine block.

I think you will need an entire VTEC engine etc.

The fan may be cactus, or it may be the coolant temp switch that turns it on, or you may have a loose wire or bad earth or fuse. The lights sound like it's a switch related problem.

I highly recommend you don't run the engine without a filter, you'll suck all sorts of crap in and shorten the engine life quite substantially. The loose cable could be associated with the high idle speed, this would fit with the ideas that the throttle stop screw is adjusted too far out or that the butterfly is sticking open.

So long as you remember what you did, you may want to switch them back once you've sorted the real cause of your problems, and anything else you may have "messed with" on the carby.

Float level will have nothing to do with a very high idle problem, it will be air flow related. But,check it anyway.

Really? That sounds optimistic to me, at least for a standard engine in need of work...

 

I would be very surprised if this problem doesn't dissappear once you sort the high idle issue.

 

the throttle plate is hanging open, you need to remove the headlight switch carefully open it and clean the contacts and stretch the slider springs a little bit.
Which of the 3 electric fans are you talking about.

 

Hey! Thanks a lot, guys! This is tons of info.

I will check in on all this.

What is the recommended timing on these?? 8*? 10*? Does this effect what kind of gas I put in it??

On my samurai, they like to run 8* advance for regular, 10* for plus, and 12* on supreme. Is a honda like this?

 

you could seafoam it to clean the carbon off, but be careful. I hear horror stories where its knocked off a large chunk of carbon and caused one of the valves to stick open.

 

yea, seafoam is good stuff. Too good! We used some on our 93 Suzuki Sidekide and it blew the #4 exhaust valve.

I turned the idle down, and now it sits at just about 1500.

When I slow down or back off the throttle, I get this loud gargle coming from the carb, so I took some vacuum line off and it stopped, then I put it back on and it gargled again... My best bet would say this is something of an EGR valve?

 

I've never run advanced timing on a honda and there is no need for you to run anything but 87 octane fuel in that car. Stick with NGK plugs, I'd do a tune up on it if it's due for one... also, if the timing was advanced usually it makes the car take a little longer to start so based on what you've said I don't think it's a timing issue but I'd defenitly check it while you're doing the other adjustments that were mentioned

 

on a car that old it prolly would not hurt to replace the vaccum lines and check the choke out.