87 prelude 1.8L carb stalling in the cold

Hi there,

We just got our first cold snap here in winnipeg, and my
girlfriend says she's having idle problems. It stalls
when she doesn't keep her foot on the gas.

I seem to remember her having this problem last winter, but
it just sort of went away. Is it possible that some sort
of mechanism on the carb is gummed up, and its just taking
its time to work properly?

t

 

I've never worked on a Prelude but have seen this on an integra (=civic).
Look at the Air Control Valve (I think a prelude has this thing as well) --
on most cars it is located on the air intake manifold. It affects idle by
controlling air flow under all conditions, including starting in the cold.
On the civic you ramp the engine to 3000 until the car warms up. You then
unplug the Air Control Vavle and should see if the engine ramps up if the
sensor is ok - perhaps check to see if this test is similar on a prelude, if
it has this sensor.

It could be a million (well, maybe a dozen other things like vacuum
leaks, various sensors, timing, missing spark, etc. Usually checking for
this ACV is easy to check -- others will I am sure have other ideas for you
to try.

Hope you nail it soon.
Remco

 

Idle is suppose to rise when cold. Possibly the fast idle
unloader or a thermovalve not opening the choke. Peek
in there, it should open.

 

I believe you mean Electronic Air Control Valve. They're only for the FI.

 

Serves ya right for living in Winterpeg!

It has been my experience that the 1980s carburetted cars are a real
pain in cold weather. At the time Japanese manufacturers were
constructing diabolically complicated carburettors in a desperate
effort to meet the new air pollution specs coming out. Much of the
effort involved keeping mixture as lean as possible, and that's the
last thing you want in cold weather. When these carbs are 17 years old
and need some maintenance, it's a nightmare. They didn't work all that
well in cold Canadian climes when they were new.

So yes, until it warms up, it's gonna be a bitch to keep running.
Make use of all the Canadian winter tricks, cardboard over the
radiator, make sure the air cleaner snorkel is positioned where it
gets hot air off the manifold etc.

Better still, trade it for anything with fuel injection. That proved
to be the only practical answer to Canadian winter driving.

Been there, done that, got frostbite doing it...

 

right -- the EACV. Really? I thought I had seen them on carbed cars as
well - I stand corrected.
Thanks!
Remco

 

Probably looking at a Dual Point FI (88-91 Civics.) Dual-port is
sometimes confused with carb. Majority of the carb'd stuff stopped
in 87. For 88-91 Prelude they went with moslty DPFI (Dual
Point Fuel Injection). Kind of a carb design but uses two fuel
injectors for fuel instead of bowls/jets/tubes.

 

Probably looking at a Dual Point FI (88-91 Civics.) Dual-port is

I've never seen an 88-91 Prelude with Honda Dual Point Injection... Up
until 91 the Prelude S had carbs, and the Prelude Si (2.0 and 2.05) had
Multi point injection. The civics had carbs up until 87 (unless it was an
Si), the Accords had carbs until 89 (unless LXi or SEi)

 

Correct. I should've said, "for 88-90 Prelude S they went with dual side-
draft constant velocity base carbs." The Civics, Crxs went with DPFI.
Thanks