Hey all, I picked up a 1987 Honda Civic 4 door sedan 5 speed 1.5L off Craigslist for free. It sat for 6 years and the previous owner could only keep it running by pouring gas directly into the carb. I have since cleaned out the jets and orifices in the carb, drained the gas tank, put in fresh fuel, two new fuel filters, and checked the fuel pump and it's working great. The problem is is that I can only start it by pouring gas into the carb, then I have to keep my foot on the gas pedal for a couple minutes otherwise it dies, but then it finally will run on it's own but will idle at 2000 RPM. Any thoughts on what this could be? If a vacuum issue are there particular hoses to look at?

I'm trying to keep costs to a minimum so I'm trying to avoid forking over the money to buy a new Weber carb and do the update.

Thanks for any help!

 

The carb version are known for a failing carb to intake manifold failing gasket. So it will idle for a while at a high rpm, but usually can be started.

In your case as you said, vacuum leak, the easy stuff is to check in the back between engine and firewall, this is where all the hoses are. It is easir to jack up the car on solid jack stand of wood blocks under the front wheel, you do not want to get crushed by a free car. The one next the alternator is a big one, and while you have the car on blocks, check the fuel level in the carb driver's side window.