# b11 e16s lose of power and acceleration problem



## nssntra85 (Nov 7, 2006)

My car is manual trans(b11, e16s), carburated and have a mechanical fuel pump. It idles at 800-900 rpm at normal operation and it never stall while it is idling inside a garage or traffic light. Lately its been losing power after driving for 15-20 minutes. When it loses power after driving for 15 to 20 minutes, the rpm moves erratically between 2000 and 3000 rpm. I have to rev it up to 3000 or 4000 rpm to move by pressing the gas pedal all the way down to the floor and I have to press the clutch pedal to half way to keep it from dieing on me. It makes a huge revving noise when I try to accelerate but does not have the power to accelerate and moves very slowly. But it gets me home. It used to be like 30 or 40 minutes of driving before it starts to lose power but nowadays its about 15 to 20 minutes. Something is slowly getting from bad to worse. I did check and replace new vacuum hoses where it is needed. I made sure all the groundings are clean and tight(unlesss i missed something). I did changed the spark plugs, spark plug wires and coil wires, changed the ignition coil. I also made sure the connection point are clean and tight. My battery has 12.4 volt without running (key at on position at ignition switch) and 14.3 volt when its idleing. I made sure the connection are clean and tight on my battery too. Currently my air conditioner does not work and my compressor fan (small fan beside the radiator fan) stop working. I did replace my water pump about 2 months ago. I did my clutch work about 10 months ago. Thank you in advance for your time, suggestion and patience.


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## ZombieX (Feb 10, 2010)

i figured out this problem, after i took the carb apart about 5 million times lol, hitachi put a anti backfire valve( wich doesnt work when the ball gets sucked to the other side of the spring) in the secondary port going to the secondary dash pot, there is a metered vacuum port at the back of the carb and it get a better signal because its closer to the manifold. plug the old one and put a hose and tee to the new one. this will save you from buying a $500+ carb. and un hook the dahm altitude compensator thats what makes the idle go all crazy high (the port by the screw in the end)


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## nssntra85 (Nov 7, 2006)

Thank you for getting back to me. I did read alot of posting on this forum. Could you please explain to me a bit more. First, tell me about the location of secondary dash pot. Is this the diaphragm for secondary system that was shown in the haynes manual? I think I saw this device behind the rocker cover and underneath the air cleaner cover and beside the breather valve. Am I correct? You are saying some kind of ball from ABT valve is blocking the secondary throttle valve from functioning as it should. I read your suggestions and I was trying to find the metered vacuum port you mentioned but could not find it. You were saying that plug the old one and put a hose and tee to the new one. I don't understand which old one i plug (meaning close it with a plug cap,right?) and put a hose to new one(which new one). And why do we need a tee?Please elaborate? Are we talking about unhooking/cap the ABT valve beside the firewall? Or we trying to do a minor work around on the ABT valve. Last one, I was trying to find the altitude compensator and i could not find it my car. I saw the haynes manual talks about in A/T model but mine is a manual transmission. Any suggestion on where it is located. I might have missed it. I could really appreciate if anybody else might have any suggestions on this issues. 

The changes made after the first posting on this car. I did change the fuel filter today and the fuel level is more than half way on the fuel window. About 3/4 of the window level. But i still have the lose of power after the engine runs for 15 to 20 minutes and the temperature level get to more than half a mark on the temp gauge. The VCM is ticking away as it should. The car has a breakerless distributor. THank again.


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## ZombieX (Feb 10, 2010)

*check it out*

the dash pot is the round metal thing on the passenger side of the carb. i have and 86 5 spd wagon. there is a vacuum line at the back of the carb by the bottom that runs to and splitter by t he dash pot, tee it and run the hose to the dash pot and plug the old dash pot port on the drivers side of the carb. on the drivers side of the carb that big ugly black plastic thing is the alttitude compensator, take the hose out on the very end by the screw and plug it, and u should now have a functioning carb.


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## nssntra85 (Nov 7, 2006)

*let me look around again*

ZombieX,

Let me look around again and get some pictures. I have to take the air filter cover and have a better look. Can I send you some pictures? I have to get the model number of the carbureator. The following description is before I take the air filter cover off. Looking through the cracks and holes. Please bear with me and thank you for your patience. 

So the diaphragm for secondary system is the secondary dash pot you're talking about, right.When I look at it last night, it seems that secondary "the dash pot" you mentioned is already hooked up to a hose already. I got to find out where this hose goes to. It seem to run through small passage back into the rear of carburetor. 

Then, I saw the y-splitter (you mentined splitter), you want me to add a tee to it. Do I add the tee after the y-splitter or before the y-splitter? I think we're trying to add one extra port and run the hose from the tee to the secondary dash pot and leave the y-splitter as it is.Am I correct? I will let you know where the existing hose that plugs to secondary hose runs to. 

I have not found the old dash port on the driver side of the port. Is this the throttle positioner aka primary/old dash pot you are saying? You want me to plug the old dash pot right? How do I plug it? When you say plug it, you mean close the orifice/port that comes out of the top of the head, right. Can I use a blind plug from auto store and close it?

I saw the ugly black thingy aka altitude compensator you mentioned. It shows up as idle speed control actuator in the service manual. Does this turn this altitude compensator off for good. Can I turn this on again if I ran my car to colder climate such as up north? You say take the hose out at the very end and plug it. You mean close the port at the altitude compensator, right? Which hose? There is one at the top that runs to VCM and another hose to a vac switch. There is two more under the top head. One beside the other. Let me look at it again. Which one is it between this two underneath the top head? When you unplug the hose you mentioned, how about the other end of hose? I have to take a look at it again to find out where this other end of the hose is connected at or to another device.

Does the replacement hose have to be the exact size? Do I have to use any sealant at the end of the hose so there is no leak? Or if it is fit and tight that is good enough? 

So these fixes/reroute of hoses will fix the poor acceleration, erratic tachometer reading, bogging, buckling and lose of power problem. Basically, what does this reroute of hoses do? Are we rerouting the vacuum signals? 

Let me look around and get back to you again. Thanks again.


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## nssntra85 (Nov 7, 2006)

*let me look around again*

ZombieX,

Let me look around again and get some pictures. I have to take the air filter cover and have a better look. Can I send you some pictures? I have to get the model number of the carbureator. The following description is before I take the air filter cover off. Looking through the cracks and holes. Please bear with me and thank you for your patience. 

So the diaphragm for secondary system is the secondary dash pot you're talking about, right.When I look at it last night, it seems that secondary "the dash pot" you mentioned is already hooked up to a hose already. I got to find out where this hose goes to. It seem to run through small passage back into the rear of carburetor. 

Then, I saw the y-splitter (you mentined splitter), you want me to add a tee to it. Do I add the tee after the y-splitter or before the y-splitter? I think we're trying to add one extra port and run the hose from the tee to the secondary dash pot and leave the y-splitter as it is.Am I correct? I will let you know where the existing hose that plugs to secondary hose runs to. 

I have not found the old dash port on the driver side of the port. Is this the throttle positioner aka primary/old dash pot you are saying? You want me to plug the old dash pot right? How do I plug it? When you say plug it, you mean close the orifice/port that comes out of the top of the head, right. Can I use a blind plug from auto store and close it?

I saw the ugly black thingy aka altitude compensator you mentioned. It shows up as idle speed control actuator in the service manual. Does this turn this altitude compensator off for good. Can I turn this on again if I ran my car to colder climate such as up north? You say take the hose out at the very end and plug it. You mean close the port at the altitude compensator, right? Which hose? There is one at the top that runs to VCM and another hose to a vac switch. There is two more under the top head. One beside the other. Let me look at it again. Which one is it between this two underneath the top head? When you unplug the hose you mentioned, how about the other end of hose? I have to take a look at it again to find out where this other end of the hose is connected at or to another device.

Does the replacement hose have to be the exact size? Do I have to use any sealant at the end of the hose so there is no leak? Or if it is fit and tight with the clip that is good enough? I am still trying to find if there are any leak. 

So these fixes/reroute of hoses will fix the poor acceleration, erratic tachometer reading, bogging, buckling and lose of power problem. Basically, what does this reroute of hoses do? Are we rerouting the vacuum signals? 

Let me look around and get back to you again. Thanks again.


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## nssntra85 (Nov 7, 2006)

ZombieX,

Sorry about that double posting on the same thread. They are the same. The forum log me out while I was writing the email and I could not find a way to erase the extra copy when I login again.


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## ZombieX (Feb 10, 2010)

*here*

i cant get the pics loaded, but the altitude/ idle speed control is not really needed but for smog purpose, you can run in a colder/higher climate just ajust the idle stop screw the o2 sensor and fuel trim solenoid in the carb will do the rest. as for the dashpot the hose should originally run to the top of the carb on the drivers side, u want to tee the metered vacuum hose before the tee, close as u can get it to the back of the carb


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## nssntra85 (Nov 7, 2006)

ZombieX,
Thanks again. It does have more power when it runs. Here is the update on what I have done so far. I have put a tee on the metered vacuum hose before the multiple splitter so I can run it to the dash pot you mentioned. I capped the vacuum pot with a vacuum cap on the driver side which was previously connected to "the dash pot " (in my case secondary diagphram)you mentioned. I think that this diagphram is connected to primary dash pot(but I am not sure). I cap the primary pot too. There are two pot with one above the other. The vacuum pot underneath has a hose running to the altitude compensator. I unhook this and capped it too with vacuum cap.On the meantime, I probably placed the tee way back too close to the metered vacuum hose at rear of the bottom of the carb and it is getting a bend/making 180 degree turn/u-turn and constrict the vacuum passage on the hose when I run the hose to the front to hook it to the dash pot. May be I should add a elbow or a y-splitter in place of tee or should reroute it better without any bend. I have a bend/u-turn in the hose running from the dash pot to the tee on the dash pot top itself. The car ran better for about 45 minutes and then it starts to have the same problems and slow down and hesitate when I try to accelerate. It has a bit more power than before. And the tach meter acted erratically again and were revving up between 3000 to 4500 rpm when I try to accelerate. Can a bend/u-turn or constriction on the vacuum hose cause this problem? Any suggestion on this? I will drive it tomorrow for some time and see what happens. But this time, it takes the problem much more longer for it to reoccur.From 15-20 minutes to 40-45 minutes to reoccur. 

About the altitude compensator, I did unhook the hose that connect the altitude compensator and carb and used vacuum cap to cap it off on both sides. But there are still hoses running to vacuum control module and valve switch from the altitude compensator. Does the altitude compensator still works? Do I have to unhook and cap all the port completely to turn it off? But it might interfere with VCM and valve switch function which is hooked up to the altitude compensator. Maybe i did not completely turn it off. That may explain the tach meter revving and acting crazy. Any suggestion on this? I wish I can send you an email so you can see what I meant by bend. I will update you when I have another look at it tomorrow. Thank you again.


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## ZombieX (Feb 10, 2010)

*eratic tach*

this may be your distributor going bad or u have a bad tach or ground, check all the electrical


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## nssntra85 (Nov 7, 2006)

ZombieX,
Maybe you are right, it maybe an electrical problem. It might be electrical noise and ground problem. I did change the condenser that connects to the earth connection on the distributor to the body of the car. It is a small condenser/resistor and it maybe malfunctioning. Does anybody know what is the rating and spec on this device(resistor/condenser)? It has inscription on it as -0168-15, 150-0.5, A-H 3. I replaced it with another piece that I had with me which I got it from the junkyard. What is it and what does this device do? The car seems to run better and I have not had the acceleration problem since I replaced this device. I think I might just try replacing the old condenser tomorrow just to see if the acceleration problem reoccur. This might narrow down the problem. Where can I get this device? Does radioshack carry an equivalent? 

Another thing is I took the car to a car wash and give it a good engine compartment wash. That might clear up some grounding problem too. So let me drive around a couple days more to see if the acceleration problem reoccur again. It might be a combination of things that's screwing around with the acceleration. I did take out the distributor cap and sealed cover and cleaned the crank angle sensor and rotor plate with compressed air. 



nssntra85 said:


> About the altitude compensator, I did unhook the hose that connect the altitude compensator and carb and used vacuum cap to cap it off on both sides. But there are still hoses running to vacuum control module and valve switch from the altitude compensator. Does the altitude compensator still works? Do I have to unhook and cap all the port completely to turn it off? But it might interfere with VCM and valve switch function which is hooked up to the altitude compensator.


Does the altitude compensator still work? I did unhook it from carburetor and cap both the ports on each end. I do have to go through the state smog test inspection for the car to be driveable. Does disabling the altitude compensator interferes with the state inspection?

I did couple of things at the same time and I sure love to narrow it down to one specific problem. lol. So it might help others if they have the same problem. 

Thanks again for the follow-up, ZombieX. Let me get back to you after driving the car for few days. This is an intermittant acceleration problem.


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## nssntra85 (Nov 7, 2006)

> Does anybody know what is the rating and spec on this device(resistor/condenser)? It has inscription on it as -0168-15, 150-0.5, A-H 3. I replaced it with another piece that I had with me which I got it from the junkyard. What is it and what does this device do?


I made a mistake. It read as -0168-15, 150-0.5, SV rather than -0168-15, 150-0.5, A-H 3 . The A-H 3 part belong to a power transistor on the ignition control module. I got it mixed up. Where can I get this replaceable power transistor or equivalent? Sorry for the typo. Thanks again.


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