So, my daughter picked this up from Jim a while back, and, unfortunately, it has was plagued with issues and we only got about 2k good miles out of it. To be clear, I am not upset about the purchase, things worked out and now the truck is mine and I have been working on it little by little. It blew a head gasket. So I pulled the head and found it was warped AND cracked. So I ordered up a new one along with a radiator and a water pump.
Installed all of this along with a new belt and I just could not get it to run right. I suspected it was the "electronic carb". These carbs are the bane of anyone who owns a Mazda of this vintage. Typically they swap it out with a Webber 32/36. I followed suit while replacing the coil, the wires, plugs rotor, and cap.
Now, the darn thing runs like a top...sort of. It will idle fine except when it doesn't. It will also cruise down the road at 65 mph. That's it, 65...no faster. I've played with timing, checked to make sure the belt did not slip. Tripple checked valve lash. Plugged every possible vacuum leak source and sacrificed a chicken. Still, 65 mph is all she has in her. A compression test shows about 150 in all 4 holes so, I think we are okay there. It's as if it is not getting enough fuel...so I started digging on the intrawebs.
So what's a guy to do? I played with the car adjustments and it finally donned on me. She is not getting enough fuel. Some of the guys have had to up-jet quite a bit while others have not had any issues with these carbs right out of the box. I noted that the idle adjustment is only about 1/4 turn out for it to idle best. This indicated to me that at a minimum I need to step up the idle circuit. I am at 3000+ feet as well.
Also, just to be safe I got a little fuel pressure regulator. These carbs do not like anything more than 3.5 psi so, I'm going to rule that out before I swap any jets. I did order a full set of jets from redline tho because if I didn't I will end up need them.
With gas prices creeping ever so quickly to the $3 mark I decided to make this my DD. A buddy and I are planning on shooting a coat of silver on it and I got my eyes on a set of wheels once I get it running right. I may just toss on a Chineseum header for shits and grins as well.
I'll update what I figure out allong the way.
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