Guys. I recently bought a 1929 Mercedes Gazelle replica with a 1980 Pinto drive train. It was factory built in 1981 at Classic Motor Carriages in Florida. It has 20K miles and is in incredible shape. It has not been driven much as you can tell from the mileage.

The car idles great and accelerates perfect up to about 25 MPH, but it just won't go much faster. Seems 2500 RPM is the limit. Since it acted like only the idle part of the carb was working, I bought a rebuild kit and I just rebuild the carburetor (Holley 5200) and I found sludge in the gas bowl and the main jets were plugged. I felt certain I found the issue. I cleaned every passage I could find. I replaced all the diaphragms and cleaned all the jets. I just drove the car and it frankly is about the same. It will rev to 5000 rpm easily in park, but 2500 is the max driving. Vacuum looks good according to my gauge. All the emission stuff is just like is came from the factory. I also installed a new fuel pump and new filter. I flushed the gas tank and it has fresh gas in it.

I replaced PCV, plugs, wires, cap and rotor. Timing is right on and the advance seems to be working properly.

Right now I am stumped. Could there be passages in the carb that I have not got clean. Any ideas guys?

 

1980 Pinto could have the 2.3 OHC 4 banger, or the 2.8L V6.

Is the carb ID tag still present?

 

It is a 2.3 OHC 4 banger as you called it. The Carb is a Holley 5200, the tag says EOEE AEA.

 

I thought maybe it had a plugged catlytic converter, So I disconnected the catalytic converter and put two 1/2" nuts in between the front flange and it sounded really cool, but it had minimal help. 2700 RPM's instead of 2500. Also the inside of the catalytic converter was pristine clean.

My gut tells me it still may be in the darn carburetor.

 

Not knowing what your linkage set up is like did you verify that the throttle plate is opening completely when the peddle is on the floor?

 

The Ignition control module was bad. I swapped it out this morning and now I can hit 4200 rpm driving. It accelerates well and I can now go 55 up hill. I could barely get to 45 downhill before. The pinto was 0-60 in 10.7 seconds so it is not set up to be a race car, but I can beat that now.

Here is one photo, I will post some more later

 

Upper pic: Carburetor / Lower pic: Accelerator linkage.

 

That looks like a fun little cruiser!

 

Thanks Bill, that is very helpful.