letank

Starts on first click in the morning, high idle.... idle lowers to 1200rpm when you depress the accelerator. After about 1 mile to 3 miles as the engine warms up, when starting from a dead stop, the engine will almost stall severely unless I give it a lot of gas... 2200rpm and spin the clutch. After the 4th or 5th mile the engine is real warm... and you barely need to feather the clutch to move from a dead stop....

Puzzled.... I replaced the fuel pump thinking that it was a bit loose, the pressure was at the low end of the recommended spectrum...

During mile 1 to mile 3 if you floor it in 2nd or 3rd, it seems to misfire! but after mile 4 or 5... you can floor it, and it will respond!

Ideas are welcome.... symptoms are getting worst day by day.

letank

Thinking of vacuum controlled device... I plugged the cold vacuum advance.... seems to be behaving.... 3 mornings without hiccups... It also seems to have fixed an abnormal high idle after the car has been sitting for over 5 min, which is impossible to lower with a tap on the gas.

Will post later as fixed if it is really fixed.

letank

This morning with heavy fog... probably the worse day.

Realized that pumping gas did not work... could not restart the engine after 1 mile ride. Cranking without touching the gas made it start... but a little bit of gas made the engine stalls... not even putting it in gear. I waited 2 minutes... but that did not work too well on the uphill... I had to slip the clutch on the flat... and use a long detour around the steep hills that we have around here.

After warm up, it ran fine... plenty of power?

Any ideas?

letank

Took a 500+ miles trip to Yosemite and the eastern sierras, no problems plenty of power for the 1.5L.... The temp gauge jumped to half while stuck at 25 mph behind a concrete truck going up the mocassin grade. Almost fried the brakes going back down the priest grade, 2nd gear at 4000 rpm did not help to slow down behind someone constantly braking...

Achieved 43 mpg, and no cold problem.

Of course yesterday, the cold engine was not happy until it was fully warmed up.

I'll try to disable the EGR to see if it helps

WheelPowerRacing

Good luck, I am assuming stock carb set up? I've heard nothing but misery from the stock carbs, purchased a used Weber aftermarket carb to try on mine. Hope I get some time soon to play with it

2ndGenGuy

I dunno if you have a factory manual, but it sounds like you have a problem with one of the thermovalves. They are in the intake manifold, or in the thermostat neck usually. They run vacuum through them, and they open and close and let vaccuum pass through depending on coolant temp. And they perform different functions on the carb and distributor. They tend to get "sticky" when they get old or quit working. I dunno the specifics on the Civics, but if you get a factory service manual, (like $10-20 on eBay) it details how they work, what they do, and their locations.

letank

Thanks, I have the factory manual.... the sticky valve is a good point... as it is at random, some days are fine some are really bad.
I only need to figure out which one... between the intake manifold and the 2 black boxes....

Being a Kali car, I have to stick with the OEM smog system, so no weber.

George2012

I'm having a similar problem on my 89 Accord (Carb) it floods itself in the mornings (first start up) and runs rough. In the afternoonn (after I get off work) its runs just fine! I don't know what it might be maybe a stuck carbuerator float... Or could even be an electrical problem. But its strange that it only happens on the cold morning start up...

letank

not too sure.... could be some electrical....

George2012

How is yours running now? did you find the problem?

letank

If the problem occurs: I can feel the engine bucking if I open the throttle too much.... If I stall, it will restart with a lot of cranking and not opening the throttle. It happens mostly 95% of the time in the morning when with have a heavy fog... I can smell unburnt gasoline.... so ignition or?

Today was the worst day... it did not start, I cranked and cranked. Now I need to figure out what is the best way to debug the issue.... of course it is windy, foggy...

Otherwise after 5 miles, or when the engine is fully warmed up.... It will go... and idle perfectly.

letank

popped the distributor cap, it. was damp, cleaned it w a rag, reinstalled, cranked, started immediately, warmed up for 2 mins, but it was not happy, it needs more gas and more clutching to get going.... Back to square one. I try to force the choke flapper more open.... No changes... Next. Step is to see ifmI can dump more gas in the primary barrel.

letank

On the pepper site... it was suggested that the choke may be slow to open.

So I disconnected the wire to the choke.... It is near impossible to keep the engine idling until the temp gauge reaches the first mark.... The fog has decided to skip town, the hiccup is gone... but the weather is a lot warmer.

letank

It has been 2 years, and I believe that I have it almost solved -the cheap way- I increased the idle from 750 to a bit under 1000 rpm, at 1100 it is perfect, but due to a smog check soon where the tech will make sure that the idle is not above 1000, there was a slight hesitation at less than 1000 rpm with the heavy downpours that we currently have. At 1100 rpm there were no issues.

letank

I made some progress.
During an episode on clic and clac on pbs, they recommended to replace the ignition coil for a similar model, apparently the coil is hard to diagnose, spraying a mist of water will not recreate the conditons that provoke such a poor running conditon.
So I bought the coil at the local parts store Oreil-ys auto , listed as a generic, for $40, and upon inspection, this is the same OEM installed on my engine bay, TEC, made in Japan.
This is the fog season, no heat wave here, Started fine as usual, no miss, not even a hint of stalling, I must say that it seems to be a bit more powerful. Not even the hiccup that happened after warm up when you try to raise the rpm pass 2500....

letank

Finally fixed it.... yes the coil helped a lot, but on a very wet day there were some severe misses...

Next step, the spark plug wires and coil wires, got a set from a reputable company... NGK was the recommended brand from the redpepperracing.com group and the number is 9797, great price on dabay... and yes, it is so good, that I must have gain the lost 5HP...

letank

Good suggestion, thank you, It occured a few times, so I went thru the test process, it is thermo valve B the one with 3 hose connection, the second from the driver's side. This is a manual transmission.
Discountinued from Honda.
Checked the junkyards, found one , but plastic separated upon removal. I may try to subsitute one from another vehicle, the jeep has a similar 3 way valve, same thread size.

letank

Well, I think it is finally fixed, no stalls, no hiccups. I replaced distributor 8 months ago, with the OEM one after I replaced the internal oil seal.... The vacuum advance seemed to be failing at random, it tested good on one day and bad on another one.