'89 & '90 Achilles Heel

[wflaw45]

anybody ever removed all the junk off the stock carb and let it run on its own? back when i was into suzuki samurais i know a guy that did that with his stock sammy carb (tons of vaccum hoses just like the festy) been lookin at the carb manifold ive got sitting on the bench and scratching my head allot.

-W.F.

[Grey Vw]

The carb guy just sounds like he's out of his comfort zone.

[Banana Bonanza]

anybody ever removed all the junk off the stock carb and let it run on its own? back when i was into suzuki samurais i know a guy that did that with his stock sammy carb (tons of vaccum hoses just like the festy) been lookin at the carb manifold ive got sitting on the bench and scratching my head allot.

-W.F.

You cant, its a feedback carb. In other words ALL carb Festivas had a computer from the factory that controls the original carb. If you go back in posts, I tracked down a non-computer version of this carb used ONE year like 1981 or 1982 on first year of front drive GLC/323. Anyway it looks exactly like Festie carb except not computerized. It would bolt on without adapters. Good luck ever finding one in junkyard. I found one place that would sell remanufactured one, but you dont want to know the price.

Thats why you cant just start willy nilly removing stuff and expect the original to still work. Now you can rejet a Weber to lean out things to meet pollution specs for just about any carb car, BUT if you live in some pollution states, it has to LOOK exactly factory original. They dont care if you can make a different carb meet pollution standard, unless its an officially approved replacement they wont even test it, they insist it be duplicate of factory original. Now most arent going to check numbers or worry too much as long as it looks right, so if you can hide it under original air cleaner and camouflage it with some black spaghetti and wires around it, you might get by. If they see a tidied up minimalist engine compartment that looks more like car from 1960s and an open aftermarket air cleaner its going to raise red flags big time.

Where I am, no emission inspection at all. I love being rid of all the carp, I can actually get to the oil filter and alternator from on top, no more crawling under the car just to change oil filter.

[Oren09]

I agree with your rant on emissions, Banana.
I'm in Ellis County, TX, just south of Dallas County.
This county and the few others around Dallas do tailpipe emissions testing on ALL pre-96 (OBDII) cars. It's difficult to find an inspection place with a dyno because they actually run the cars for the test.
I found one, but they wouldn't accept my temporary insurance paper because it had no expiration date. I'm still awaiting my actual card.

I miss Montana. There were NO inspections on any passenger vehicles. You could remove the cat and no one would know. You could also permanently register cars older than 11 years and be done with stickers forever...

[getnpsi]

It's a way to make money for states that have to pay so much money out for people who don't belong here and/or are abusing the system. Cars with no cat in a great state of tune are polluting no more than a car with everything still hooked up but not working right. I get it not everyone can afford insurance tags and smog for a car all at once, I cant either...gotta pay to play I guess. I'll keep my weather even if i have to bend over every 2 years. If the tests were just out the tail pipe the air would be cleaner and people would take better care of their cars but its a huge financial hit to play the game, that's why there are shady smog friends

[wflaw45]

You cant, its a feedback carb. In other words ALL carb Festivas had a computer from the factory that controls the original carb. If you go back in posts, I tracked down a non-computer version of this carb used ONE year like 1981 or 1982 on first year of front drive GLC/323. Anyway it looks exactly like Festie carb except not computerized. It would bolt on without adapters. Good luck ever finding one in junkyard. I found one place that would sell remanufactured one, but you dont want to know the price.

the Suzuki Samurai ALSO has a feedback carb and ALSO has a computer to control it. its all about how much time you are willing to take to make something work. just saying...

-W.F.

[Banana Bonanza]

the Suzuki Samurai ALSO has a feedback carb and ALSO has a computer to control it. its all about how much time you are willing to take to make something work. just saying...

-W.F.

There are only two strategies that I am familiar with to run a feedback carburetor without computer.

First if it was made plentiful in non computer form with parts available, like the old Rochester Quadrajet, then you can buy or steal parts off old style one to convert it. As I've mentioned finding a non-feedback version of Festy carb is not an easy thing and parts are obviously not available.

The other strategy which is probably only one to use on something like this and thats IF it uses metering rod(s) [I've never taken Festy carb apart to know how they did enrichment] then you can clock the computer controlled motor that adjusts metering rods to a compromise position and unplug wire to computer and this locks the metering rods in place. It will be rich at low speeds and it will be lean at high speeds, but it will run and give reasonable mileage. Much better than just running it in limp home mode with black smoke pouring out the exhaust. I've seen old CJ straight six Jeeps with the infamous feedback Carter carb, where people did this after fighting with the computer controls forever. The Festy has vacuum advance, on the Jeeps once you did this, you had to replace distributor with one off older engine that had vacuum advance. Do a google for the "Nutter modification" and you will find lot of info on the Jeep boards.

So it is possible, but you still get lot better results if you just adapt a non-feedback carb! Now if you have lots of free time and a well equipped machine shop, perhaps you can re-engineer and custom make parts to retrofit a feedback carb into a non-feedback carb that is totally functional, not just a make-do. But few people are going to have skills or equipment to do this.