Honda Project Update - Racing At Last

This was the first "cure." A steel ball with a ball-point pen spring replaced the original needle. Spring tension was adjusted with spacers under the squirter-a very critical adjustment. This improved things enough to run the first race, but it still was not right.

In chasing the cause, I attached some small tubing to the squirters. Even at 7 inches above the carb, fuel still poured out through the pump circuit. I know there's no vacuum that high out of the carb, so there must be a reverse pulse coming through the manifold.

Manifold pulses should be softened by a large plenum. Surgery on a stock manifold left short 3-inch runners. A large plenum was fabricated and welded to the short runners. Too bad it made only a slight improvement.

One of our sharp readers, whose name I lost in a computer glitch, suggested using a carbureted manifold from an '86 Honda EW-1 engine. The EW-1 manifold looks like a pair of Y's with the bottom stems bent together to form a small plenum. It took some grinding and applying of epoxy, but when the Holley was mounted, well, the piranha was now on the stringer. No. 58 jets, No. 14 squirter, and a 2.5 power valve seems to be close to the right combination.

These A&A Manufacturing 25-pound clamp-on weights make weight placement easy. I have them all over the left side and left-front of the car. At 1 pound per cubic centimeter, it took 225 pounds of ballast to make the car legal.

With its tail raised, the Honda is ready to back out of the shop and go race.