1996 Honda Prelude 1.8 dual carbs

Getting sparks to all four spark plugs.
Car acts like its choking up but not right away. I'll be driving and you
can tell its going to stall. To get it where I'm going, I throw the clutch
in, leave the car in gear, turn the ignition off then on again and then let
the clutch out again. This forces the car to solve its own problem for the
time being. but it will do it again just miles down the road. Worse in
wet\cold weather and better in warm but not mutually exclusive.

I'm thinking its a fuel delivery problem. The air cleaner is pretty clean
and I've put in fuel-line cleaner. I've used WD-40 on the throttle\choke
linkages with moderate success (the problem did go away for months the first
time but doesn't seem to work as well as it used to).

The car does not have a muffler and has 375 large on the clock so I'm not
going to pour a large sum of money into it. I know doing a major tune-up
would do the car a world of good but I'm not prepared to do that just yet.

Any help?
L89

 

Maybe a different thing, but an 84 Nissan 300ZX I had did the same sort of
thing, but like clockwork. A minute (IIRC) after restarting it would
suddenly sag and I would have to turn the ignition off to clutch start it.
The ECU was convinced the engine wasn't running (in spite of me yelling at
it "you fool, you're the one making it run!") and would shut down the fuel
pump. The main relay has a common failure mode something like this, and I
wonder if it is just starting to become intermittent. TeGGeR, jim beam or
one of the other Honda wizards can tell you more.

Mike

 

not many can tell you about a '96 dual carb prelude - here in the
u.s., i don't think the prelude's been carburetted since '88.

if it /is/ carburetted, e.g, it's an '86, not '96, it's likely something
to do with the automatic choke mechanism not functioning properly -
maybe a blocked water heater hose. further investigation is required.

 

Carb icing just behind the venturies

 

I considered icing - the weather info really suggests that - but the
immediate fix by cycling the ignition led me to pretty much rule it out.
Icing normally requires intake air heat or a minute's sitting to recover.
Still, a check of the intake heat parts (duct and thermostat) couldn't hurt.

Mike

 

Indeed it is an '86, I just mistyped.
The choke makes the most sense given the symptoms but I've got no clue which
of those stinking linkages is the right one.

Thanks all for your help. Good stuff and quick too.
L89

 

Not being familiar with this car begs this question:
Are in carbs standard equipement for this type, and if so which countries
where they available?

 

get the factory honda manual - it's by far the best way of finding out
what to do. helm.com