Though everything seemed to be fine, started up every morning, warmed up nicely, idled decent, and accelerated adequately, every single time I popped the hood I was just totally turned off by how dirty everything was. Especially all the rubber hoses. Bugged the **** out of me. So this past weekend I decided to swap it all out with fresh lines. So, note, this little project was more out my being anal and not some sort of mechanical issue I was trying to solve. As I started to swap each line out one by one, a lot of the ends would snap off! I had to use my long nose pliers to carefully remove the remaining pieces stuck on the nipples off the carb. A lot of the vacuum lines were ROCK hard and just dirty as all hell. I would not doubt if some of them were the original lines from 1979! There were a few that had these tiny white stars printed along the length of the line - that had to be a 70's thing - LOL. One vacuum line coming off the carb had burned/melted on the inside, right at the tip - so it was literally block! The scary part is you couldn't tell on the outside portion of the line. In the process, when it came to the lines dealing with fuel, I decided to change the tension clamps for something new and more secure. Fuel Injection clamps may have been over-kill, but for .50 cents more I felt they looked cleaner and if they were good enough for fuel injection, it gave me that much more peace of mind. Now, with everything swapped out, what a freaking difference. Let me say this, again, WHAT A FREAKING DIFFERENCE! After all is said and done, I had to have had a leak somewhere. Might have been a minor one, but a leak nonetheless. Because I immediately felt a difference in how it started.....how it idled.....and how much more smoothly it accelerated. To most of you guys who know these motors like the back of your hand, this is old news, I know. I apologize if I'm singing an old tune. But to anyone like myself, new to the Minis and the 20R motor.... ...before you think about lowering blocks, drop spindles, headers, Weber carbs, and whatnot - for approx. $50 and 2-hours of labor, you might find a few strayed horses if you take the time to swap out those vacuum lines. Thanks for reading.
Approx. 28 feet of (4mm) vacuum line, 3 to 4 feet of (6.4mm) fuel line, and 3 to 4 feet of (9.5mm) of fuel & breather/vacuum line......can be daunting when looked at as a whole. But really, just have all your new lines ready (had to make 4 trips to Kragen because I kept running out), and don't forget your new clamps for the fuel line - take your time - and work one hose at a time. There were 2-3 particular lines that were a slight PITA to remove and replace, because there wasn't a whole lot of room to work with. But everything else was pretty easy.
F'n awesome i keep saying, "if you didnt do it or know its been done in the last year do it your self". on a carb'd motor this is the MOST IMPORTANT tune up thing you can do. period. i will have the carb tune up faq done tonight.
