basically, i smell gas when i start the car. i dont know how severe it is or if its normal or if theres a leak, i will be checking that later tonight when its not 90+ outside. Even if it isnt leaking, i'd like to change it for my own peace of mind. i do not want to drive the car until i have either changed the fuel pulsation dampener or done the banjo bolt mod.

Im not concerned with which mod is better for the car, im concerned with which one will be easier for me, as a new mechanic to change safely to ensure that no engine fire will occur.

I own a 1986 base FC, and the only work i have done on this car is changing brake booster, master cylinder, brake lines, and a brake caliper. I dont know how similar changing brake lines is to messing with fuel lines, so i want to do whatever will be easiest and safest.

Which modification do you reccomend will be easier for me to do, and also which will be quicker? Feel free to give me any advice on how to go about doing this, or point me in the direction of a nice write up. I've read RETed's site about the fuel pulsation dampener, along with the long controversial threads about which is a better mod. i feel comfortable doing both so i just want to do what will be easiest for me.

 

first of all, the smell of gas when you start it is most likely just a leaky injector, does it flood?
and just changing stock parts with a new stock part is always easier but neither of them should take much mechanical ability, its just a couple small parts

 

yes, it was flooding for a while and my friend suggested it may be leaky injectors, but i adjusted the throttle screw the other day to accomodate my shitty idle, and since then i have had no flooding or starting problems in the past 4 days. i'm still interested in changing it unless it is a huge pain in the *** for my own peace of mind. i am going to go inspect it more thoroughly right now though.

 

it all comes back to how much money you want to invest to feel safe with your car

I bought a brand new PD at my local mazda dealer for 130$ CAN.
Expensive, I know, but as Ehren from jackass once said :

" Safety first!!! "

 

The difficult part is getting access to the PD. You have to remove the Upper Intake Manifold (UIM). Once that's off the change out to a new PD or the banjo bolt are about the same.
The whole job takes about two hours.

 

yeah the more i looked, the more i realized that there will be a ton of stuff i have to take off. is there any other cheap common mod i could do while all that stuff is off? or something i should clean or check or replace or something? thanks for all the responses so far!

 

do you have a die grinder? port the hell out of the intake while its off.

 

Haha I'm a noob mechanic and I would NOT port anything...When I had the UIM off I send the injectors to get cleaned and calibrated @ http://cruzinperformance.com/ cheap, but your car won't be running for about 2 weeks (Shipping there, cleaning/calibrating, shipping back) I also replaced nearly all of the hoses. They are really old (16 years old on my car) and tend to get brittle over time. Also I went with the banjo bolt mod...there are pages upon pages of arguements about a new pd being essential and the bnajo bolt is bad....w/e though. I know one thing: the new pd pump may go out again sometime and I don't want my engine on fire, so I went with a banjo bolt-they don't fail or leak.

 

Im going with a bango bolt too. porting is very very easy and gives you great gains for the small amount of work.

 

Sorry, I didn't mean to dissuade you from doing this yourself. It really isn't too bad of a job especially when you think that if you don't do it you will have a car-b-que.

 

The only hard part I had was....putting the UIM back on with that stupid *** 90 degree coolant hose...to get the UIM off...my razor sharp leatherman took care of the hose..just replaced it :P

 

i think i am going to do this. i know a pretty smart rotary guy who's ported engines so maybe he can help me port the TB and the intake, ill send the injectors to get cleaned, do the banjo bolt mod, and buy all new hoses. i might have to walk to work for a week or two, but its only a one minute drive so thats cool. thanks for all the advice!

 

DONT port the TB, complete waste of time and makes your car idle like crap. I did it and did a good job with it, got me no power and took 2 months to get a decent idle. TB is big enough already just port the intake manifolds

edit: this is assuming by porting the TB you also are taking out the butterflies and crap like i did

 

uhm... porting the TB doesn't hurt the idle much and it gives you a VERY NICE response all through the 'band... maybe it ***** you up if you do it wrong...

porting intake manifold isn't very hard... look at the thread in the archives... it requires more common sense and steady hand then knowledge. Oh yeah, and being conservative is nice...

If the car isn't already apart, your should figure out what's leaking before you take it apart. Could be a pulsation dampener.

 

this is an old pic of my TB. so your saying that doing the TB mod doesnt affect idle at all?