Hi all,
I am new to the Honda Pilot FL 400's I have been trying to talk my friend out of his 89 Pilot for the last year. He recently took a job out of state and sold it to me just to get rid of it..now I have to fix it.....I got a great deal too, no its not for sale :)

First off I have had 2 FL350's in the past, so I am a familiar with those..I always wanted a Pilot, but they were pricy back in the day....

So hears the deal it has been sitting a long time, but I was surprised to find everything works great, no leaks, holds water, good radiator, brakes, electrical cables etc...

Now after all of the work below it starts easily, fuel flows great and it runs and idles fine but is slow to rev up and not crisp like it should be....
It runs like it is pig rich or too much oil in the gas, but that cant be the problem..

Hear is what I have done so far...

compression test 1st thing..125-130 psi not bad for sitting around for years...

checked the fuel pump, original one works great wow....good pulse from the Engine.

Removed carb, cleaned it out ( I have rebuilt many types of m/c carbs.)
blew out jets, removed pilot jet, mixture screw/jet, checked needle and seat etc...replace the crusty choke with the short pull up one, have the parts to do the remote one later..carb seems good, no leaks and holds fuel/needle and seat good.

fuel tank is not rusty nice and clean, blew out old gas, new clear fuel lines, fresh 91 octane fuel tried 20 to one mix like it says...oops cleaned it out again and with same Golden Spectro at 40 to 1 didn't seem to make much difference less smoke though ran it for about 20 minutes....still sluggish to rev up, not crisp..
I read your posts on the fuel mix ratios....

Clean foam air filter...

new plug,

adjusted the carb mixture screw, didn't seem to make much difference...

Checked the muffler, disconnected it to see if it was plugged, loud but still sluggish..

all this with the air box lid off.

I have read lots of posts already on everything I could find on the forums, but nothing too specific, this Pilot runs just does not rev up quickly just slow to rev up.

I am ready to take the top end apart, but shouldn't it run ok at 125psi and the fuel pump working?

Previous owner said it maybe needed new crank seals..?

Maybe I need to do a seal and leak down/pressure test?

So I know there are some real experts on here, I could use some help!
Thank you!

I will post some pics when I can...

Sounds like your pilot jet is all wrong.
I my opinion I would do a pressure and vacuum test first.
Rule out any air leaks because they are deadly.
Now for a pilot jet setting -- idle screw out 1 1/2 turns, air screw out 1 1/2 turns. Hook up a small induction type tach (they're cheap and dumb dumb proof to install). Start it up. Now turn air screw out until rpms stop climbing but not more than 4 or 4 1/2 turns. Turn it out 1/4 turn at a time and give it a chance to find its idle (about 20 seconds) each time. If you are out more than about 2 1/2 turns put in a bigger pilot jet and try it again. If you are out less than that you need a smaller pilot jet. The holy grail is an idle and air screw setting of 1 1/2 turns out each.
If you are turning it out and the rpms are not coming up then you probably need a smaller pilot jet.

Wheres the pix lol

Thanks for the tips Can oddy!!...
Is 120-130 psi good enough to drive it around?
I am gonna try some more tuning and adjust the carb a bit.
I also need to do a pressure test....pics? here are a couple!
Man I wanna ride it!..gonna be a while tho...