1987 Horizon

[horizon_87_withneons]

HELLO!!, i bring greetings from the Ford world

well, new to the site so an introduction is in order. im a 20yr old Ford guy whose got a thing for the full size rides with V8's. i like LEDs and lights in general, and you cant be driving anywhere unless youre rockin a nice sound system well anyway, not too ling ago, i got a rude awakening when i had the fortune to be given a free 1987 Horizon. this is unknown territory for me, a compact, hatchback, inline 4, FWD, 5 speed, and a Mopar. no complaints there, im 100% American, i just have no clue what im doing haahaha. lucky for me its a carb so i feel a LITTLE at home under the hood. it was sitting for nearly 10 years, so shes got some age. it ran decent before parking, but my friends dad, (the owner whos giving it to me) said he was chasing an idle problem. itd run up past 1500 but anything lower would chug and stall. did some digging around the engine bay, found MULTIPLE vac leaks. fixed them still no change. new plugs, wires, and dist. rotor, then decided to seafoam it and after the 2nd time around i noticed the white smoke that seafoam creates when you put it in the brake booster vac line was coming from the top of the engine. closer inspection and i find that its from the back side around the carb and manifolds. more digging resulted in finding that the carb isnt even tight and moves if you twist it side to side. my thoughts are that the gaskets are completely wasted. so as of now i have a few parts on order. gonna pull the carb, do a rebuild, pull the intake manifold and exhaust manifold. put new gaskets on both, and throw it back together. whole exhaust is rusted. so a new garage build is going under it and removal of the cat.

a couple questions for you mopar experts here.

1. how do i determine what carb i have? the 5220 or 6520? i need to get a rebuild kit.

2. will this 87 carbed horizon run properly without the cat and O2 sensor?

3. can i get rid of the emissions crap related to the cat? if so, what pieces can i remove.

i hope to keep things updated on here, and hopefully pics will come soon.

[horizon_87_withneons]

ok so i answered my questions.... found out i have the 6520 carb so i got a kit for that. picking that up tomorrow and doing the rebuild. then im gonna throw it all back together and see what happens. i also now know where the O2 sensor is so im leaving that in and im doing a full exhaust from manifold back. resonator being replaced with a glasspack and large muffler/exhaust tip for the back. leaving all of the emissions stuff on with the exception of the cat. i think...... but ill know more after i can get the car up and have a better look.

[horizon_87_withneons]

well..... nevermind... rebuilt carb, fixed vac leaks... still the same exact thing. would a bad sensor cause this?

[1988AriesLEwagon]

You may need a rebuilt or good used carb.Sounds like the idle circuit is messed up.

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Try a new fuel pump and filter too.Blow out all fuel lines with compressed air.Maybe the EGR valve is faulty and kicking in when it shouldnt..??