Length of Time for this mod - ~ 30 minutes
Difficulty to perform this mod - Easy
What is the charcoal canister? To my understanding, it routes fuel vapor from the fuel tank back into the engine using this device. The device draws in fresh air, and "mixes" it with the fuel vapor. Then, there's a VSV on the water neck that basically controls on letting the "mixed air" into the throttle body. Basically, this is an emissions device. There's also claims of emissions device to help the engine run cooler, etc, but i'm not here to tell you that. Find out about what you want and need to find out about how/why this device is here before you decide to remove this. I did this because it makes more room, and there are no emissions here in my state of Oklahoma.
Alright, here's a quick and simple write up on how to remove your charcoal canister. There are other ways to do this, but this is how I did it. My disclaimer is that if something goes wrong as a result of what I told you to do, I am now therefore stating I do not claim this method to be 100% accidentproof/proper/etc (you get idea). So, don't blame me :wink: .
So, now, on to the writeup!
First off, you'll need to remove a few things. Assuming your car is stock, remove the intake box. This means to remove the afm with the air box lid AND removing the bottom portion of the air box by unbolting it. This just gives you more room to work with. Don't be lazy, it's only 2-4 bolts (depending on how many you're missing).
Second, remove your cruise control device for those that still have it. All you need to do it unplug it, and take off the two mounting bolts on the STRUT TOWER, not the bolts holding the mount bracket to the cruist control device itself. Then, just leave the cable and vac line on, and set the this thing out of the way as it permits you to do so.
Third, d/c the HT lead wire going from the coil to the distributor. It makes a little more comfortable room and it's only two clips. Again, don't be lazy!
Now, you should be able to see the charcoal canister. It will be sitting in the engine bay like this (this picture has the intake and what not still in). This picture is just to show the location of the charcoal canister after you remove everything:
You should see two lines going into the top of the canister. Disconnect both of these right now. Go ahead and remove the vac line from the VSV of the water neck too. Leave the VSV on the waterneck (you can remove this on your own other time, i won't discuss that here). There will be another vac line going from this VSV to the TB. It will be interwined with a lot of other hoses, so put some effort into this part and remove it. Then, be sure to get a vacuum cap to plug up the TB, so you don't have a vac leak. The fuel line, just set it aside for now. (NOTE: On JDM engines, I believe there is no VSV for the charcoal canister. Usually, the vac line goes straight to the TB from the charcoal canister.)
To get the canister off, you will need to remove two bolts. One bolt can be easily reached with a wrench (10mm I believe). The other bolt will require a ratchet, a long long extension, and a 10mm socket. Basically, find a suitable pathway between the brake master cylinder and strut tower to stick the extension/socket onto the bolt, and have at it.
After getting those two bolts off, don't just yank the crap out of the canister to get it out of the engine bay. Carefull rotate the canister so you can see the fresh air line connected to the bottom of the canister. Get whatever tool you need (screwdriver to pry, and pliers for the hose clamp) to get that fresh air line off. Then go ahead and remove the canister from the engine bay. Here's a pic of the canister showing the bolt hole locations and how the fresh air hose connects to the canister:
Okay, here's two more pictures examining what you should be seeing. Go ahead and just read the comments on the pictures, as it's easier to visualize with a picture in front of you!
Alright, now that everything is identified, it's easy from here. Just take the fuel vap line and connect it to the fresh air line. That basically redirects the fuel vapors to just release into the atmosphere. It vents pretty much away from the engine bay to cause any damage to anything. Here's another pic to show you what things should be looking like:
Finally, go ahead and put the cruise control back on. And then put the intake air box all back on. DON'T forget to plug that AFM plug AND distributor wire back in, or you'll be wondering what you did wrong and possibly accuse the removal of the charcoal canister to be the culprit! Also, before putting everything back together, NOW would be a good time to change out that fuel filter hiding way down there.
I hope this helps in explaining what needs to be done. Any comments or suggestions, do say!
Bryan
Difficulty to perform this mod - Easy
What is the charcoal canister? To my understanding, it routes fuel vapor from the fuel tank back into the engine using this device. The device draws in fresh air, and "mixes" it with the fuel vapor. Then, there's a VSV on the water neck that basically controls on letting the "mixed air" into the throttle body. Basically, this is an emissions device. There's also claims of emissions device to help the engine run cooler, etc, but i'm not here to tell you that. Find out about what you want and need to find out about how/why this device is here before you decide to remove this. I did this because it makes more room, and there are no emissions here in my state of Oklahoma.
Alright, here's a quick and simple write up on how to remove your charcoal canister. There are other ways to do this, but this is how I did it. My disclaimer is that if something goes wrong as a result of what I told you to do, I am now therefore stating I do not claim this method to be 100% accidentproof/proper/etc (you get idea). So, don't blame me :wink: .
So, now, on to the writeup!
First off, you'll need to remove a few things. Assuming your car is stock, remove the intake box. This means to remove the afm with the air box lid AND removing the bottom portion of the air box by unbolting it. This just gives you more room to work with. Don't be lazy, it's only 2-4 bolts (depending on how many you're missing).
Second, remove your cruise control device for those that still have it. All you need to do it unplug it, and take off the two mounting bolts on the STRUT TOWER, not the bolts holding the mount bracket to the cruist control device itself. Then, just leave the cable and vac line on, and set the this thing out of the way as it permits you to do so.
Third, d/c the HT lead wire going from the coil to the distributor. It makes a little more comfortable room and it's only two clips. Again, don't be lazy!
Now, you should be able to see the charcoal canister. It will be sitting in the engine bay like this (this picture has the intake and what not still in). This picture is just to show the location of the charcoal canister after you remove everything:
You should see two lines going into the top of the canister. Disconnect both of these right now. Go ahead and remove the vac line from the VSV of the water neck too. Leave the VSV on the waterneck (you can remove this on your own other time, i won't discuss that here). There will be another vac line going from this VSV to the TB. It will be interwined with a lot of other hoses, so put some effort into this part and remove it. Then, be sure to get a vacuum cap to plug up the TB, so you don't have a vac leak. The fuel line, just set it aside for now. (NOTE: On JDM engines, I believe there is no VSV for the charcoal canister. Usually, the vac line goes straight to the TB from the charcoal canister.)
To get the canister off, you will need to remove two bolts. One bolt can be easily reached with a wrench (10mm I believe). The other bolt will require a ratchet, a long long extension, and a 10mm socket. Basically, find a suitable pathway between the brake master cylinder and strut tower to stick the extension/socket onto the bolt, and have at it.
After getting those two bolts off, don't just yank the crap out of the canister to get it out of the engine bay. Carefull rotate the canister so you can see the fresh air line connected to the bottom of the canister. Get whatever tool you need (screwdriver to pry, and pliers for the hose clamp) to get that fresh air line off. Then go ahead and remove the canister from the engine bay. Here's a pic of the canister showing the bolt hole locations and how the fresh air hose connects to the canister:
Okay, here's two more pictures examining what you should be seeing. Go ahead and just read the comments on the pictures, as it's easier to visualize with a picture in front of you!
Alright, now that everything is identified, it's easy from here. Just take the fuel vap line and connect it to the fresh air line. That basically redirects the fuel vapors to just release into the atmosphere. It vents pretty much away from the engine bay to cause any damage to anything. Here's another pic to show you what things should be looking like:
Finally, go ahead and put the cruise control back on. And then put the intake air box all back on. DON'T forget to plug that AFM plug AND distributor wire back in, or you'll be wondering what you did wrong and possibly accuse the removal of the charcoal canister to be the culprit! Also, before putting everything back together, NOW would be a good time to change out that fuel filter hiding way down there.
I hope this helps in explaining what needs to be done. Any comments or suggestions, do say!
Bryan