The newest edition, 1987 CRX HF

[texanidiot25]

Vacuum line hell, I swear....

Turns out the base gasket was OK, but the gasket between the carb base-plate and the carb body was the leak, but thankfully had that rebuild kit. Goes to inspection today or tomorrow. Hopin' and prayin' it makes it! Just worried about the emissions on a 23 year old car.

What was the name of the stuff that some folks added to pass emissions? I've heard of acetone as well..

[texanidiot25]

Only vacuum leak left was the throttle shafts, and it's miner so for now, it will just have to be. Other than that, it's not only smog'd and tag'd, but it's finally Blues Brother's Certified, like the CST10


So now the fun begins.





You can't say I'm not diverse!

[jamminjimmy]

Nice!

Congrats on yer new project!

[texanidiot25]

I'm quit impressed with this little car. It's still not quite running right, the missfire is come-and-go, largely based on outside temps it seems, but it's no where near as severe as the trip home was. Sometimes you can go full throttle flawlessly, other times it's nothing but half throttle. Eventually will get motivated to track down the miss fire. Will throw on a set of plug wires as that's the only thing left in the ignition system that hasn't been changed, excluding the coil and dizzy. Though, it helps keep my foot out of it, to say the least.

It does effect my driving style though, as I generally have to run the piss outta it in first and second gear to get it up to higher speeds before 3rd - 5th, which are not geared like normal 5 speeds. Third is actually your 1:1, and 4th and 5th are over drive. Entering a freeway (which is the only way to get anywhere) usually entails running up to ~65mph in 1 - 2 - 3, and skip shifting to 5th when at speed.

It's not the most fuel efficient driving, at all, since I'm shifting at 3-4000 rpm. Note that this is for roads with about 40+ mph speed limits. Neighborhoods can be driven slowly. Also with the lack of A/C, the windows are always down.

Never the less, motor running bad and hard driving, and the car averaged 37.4mpg!

Got rid of the purple tint... Hours of scrapping and using Domino's unconcentrated window cleaner (rich with amonia) to kill off the adhesive, but it looks better with out the purple, and I can see out of it. And added my sticker of choice for my beater cars.



It goes to a good cause... a '66 Plymouth Belvedere that races in the 24 hours of Lemons!

[RobertSmalls]

I've learned a few things about my Insight that probably apply to your CRX. For one, windows down is a pretty big aero hit. Follow the usual EM advice to keep your car cool and yourself comfortable. If that fails, turn the blower to 4, then roll down the windows one at a time as a last resort.

It sounds like it's geared similarly to the Insight, which can hit its top speed in 3rd gear. You have work the engine hard to merge, but you should make a habit of keeping the revs down when you can. It takes longer to accelerate, but you could raise your cruising speed to compensate and still come out ahead.

[texanidiot25]

TX heat and at generally speeds lower than 40 mph, windows are staying down. On the highway I can get away with the passenger window up, but it's killer with both windows up.

I can't short shift the lower gears until I solve the missfire issue, which will be this weekend. While not as bad as initially and intermittent, when it does miss, it misses hard. Accelerating at higher RPM (@ part throttle) keeps the motor happy for now. Off the higway I can 1 - 2 to to my speed, and go right into 5th, and cruise happily once at speed.

I am in the habit of coasting as much as possible, much easier to keep in mind with a manual!

[texanidiot25]

38.3mpg, only a half tank. Mostly city, maybe 20 miles of freeway I'm guessing. A bit of work and and average driving mileage. Strange thing is, I've been driving the car aggressively on back roads quite a bit too, when ever I get a delivery that goes out there. It's a nasty-fun set of twisties that this car is a hoot to run along. Outside of that, however, I run along the feeder when I get deliveries in other nighborhoods (my area is right off the highway, so to get from one section to another, you jump on it) and stay at about 50-55, which also keeps it well out of missfire-land which can hit around 65-70 when the car is working to keep at speed.



Missfire is still an issue, but not a terrible one if I drive accordingly to avoid it. I am trouble shooting with RedPepperRacing, but just paid bills so a few parts will have to wait.

Still an incredible piece of engineering, while not even running good it's averaging better than most modern cars could dream of, even with an occasional back roads run. Once this missfire problem is fixed, I can start trying some other ecomodder methods in driving.

[hat_man]

texanidiot25,

I just caught up with this thread after starting to read it from the beginning. I have a question about your trans. gearing. You said that 3rd-5th is geared differently with 3rd being 1:1 and 4th and 5th being overdriven. What are the gear ratios for 4th and 5th (1:x)? I know a few EV guys who would love to try that trans in their EV CRX's. Not being a mechanic or knowing anything about Hondas, was this an easy gearing change with readily available parts or something truely custom built with custom fabbed parts?

Thanks for the help.

Hat_man

[Clev]

I had almost exactly the same issue on my '90 Accord, and it turned out to be a faulty coil. You might want to test it out with a multimeter. (In my case, I tested and recorded the resistance between the various terminals, and then took my multimeter into an Autozone, where they let me test a new coil and compare.)

[texanidiot25]

I've thought about an ignition coil, though I would've thought the miss would be more consistant over the RPM range. It's on the to-do list.

Originally Posted by hat_man

texanidiot25,

I just caught up with this thread after starting to read it from the beginning. I have a question about your trans. gearing. You said that 3rd-5th is geared differently with 3rd being 1:1 and 4th and 5th being overdriven. What are the gear ratios for 4th and 5th (1:x)? I know a few EV guys who would love to try that trans in their EV CRX's. Not being a mechanic or knowing anything about Hondas, was this an easy gearing change with readily available parts or something truely custom built with custom fabbed parts?

Thanks for the help.

Hat_man

4th and 5th are Overdrive from the factory.
According to specs
HF
3.25
1.65
1.03
.82
.69
Final drive:
US: 2.95
California: 3.25

Mine is a California car... gotta love their way of killing off efficiency in order to make cars "cleaner" in emissions.