dman0042

I just recently bought a 1995 Honda Civic DX coupe with a stock D15B7.

It has around 178,xxx miles on it.

It idles fine and its quite. I dont know much about engines and such but I am mechanically inclined so mechanics and electronics come real easy to me. But this is also my first car.

Ok now the problem.

Say I change to 2nd gear and get on it a little bit. And i keep the gas pedal at a certain spot the whole time. I do know that when I push the gas that it's not letting more gas into the engine but is opening the valve more in the intake manifold for more air.

But anyways im driving down the road, I change into second and I push the gas pedal say halfway down and I keep it there i dont push it more while I accelrate more I just keep it halfway and itll be gaining speed then out of nowhere itll just gain speed...and sometimes when this happens a puff of smoke will come out of the exhaust, usually when I push the car harder.

Also it can be in 2nd or 3rd gear and probably any gear when it does this idk.
Other than that the car runs great ever gear runs good it idles good so idk.

I'm thinking maybe its the spark plug wires or the distributer idk so i'm hoping someone who does know could tell me what it is or what it could be it would be much appreciated.

pityocamptes

Sounds like your carb is dumping too much fuel into the engine. Plugs and wires would not hurt, but I suspect you need to tune in your carb. The puff you are seeing is unburnt fuel.


Also, not sure what you mean by this statement:

I do know that when I push the gas that it's not letting more gas into the engine but is opening the valve more in the intake manifold for more air.

...as when you push on the gas pedal you are in fact introducing and compressing more fuel and air. If it was just air you would be running extremely lean, burn out your valves, and have zero power/torque...

delsolproblems

First off, you don't have a carburetor. You need to perform a complete tune-up on the car with new filters or else you'll just be guessing what parts are working. You can test the ignition by either buying a spark tester or:

First, warm the car up completely to normal operating temperature or as hot as your motor gets. Some ignition components are affected by heat and problems with those parts may not show up until the engine is hot. Disable the fuel injectors and get a new or known good spark plug. Set the gap of this plug to your vehicle's specifications and make sure it is clean afterward. Wear gloves (welding gloves work great), preferably with latex or nitrile gloves underneath, and remove a spark plug wire from its plug. Connect the good plug to the end of the wire and hold the plastic deep-well tube at the very tip of the wire end with the threads of the plug touching bare metal on the valve cover. Have an assistant crank the motor while you watch the spark, carefully keeping all body parts away from the plug, motor and car body. Different types of plugs have different colored sparks but usually a good spark is a thick, strong flow of bright pink or is at least bright. Little blue or pink "lightning bolts" indicate a weak ignition. Check all four wires. If the sparks at all of the wires are weak, try holding the threads of the plug against the battery negative post to see if the better ground makes a stronger spark. This will test your entire ignition.

You follow a similar procedure when using a spark tester. It would be very good idea to purchase a maintenance manual for the car asap. You should also borrow a fuel pressure tester from a parts store and check the fuel pressure with and without the regulator vacuum hose connected. A store like Autozone will let you put down a deposit for the tool and give you the money back when you return it. Once you've gone over all of the regular maintenance, you'll have a much better understanding of your car and will have eliminated alot of possible problems.

Red_Army

uhm...on spark testers you want a bright blue almost white. orange arcs are bad.

pityocamptes

Your right, my mistake. Was thinking of something else.

dman0042

So you agree thats its most likely the spark plugs, spark plug wires or distributer?

I just want some opnions or better yet it would be nice if someone with the smae problem that fixed and knows what fixed it would be nice.

delsolproblems

What you described wouldn't be caused by a weak spark alone. When someone suddenly has an engine problem, 99% of the time it has only one ultimate cause since its highly unlikely that two separate, unrelated problems occurred at the exact same time. When you buy a car that already has a problem, there's no telling how many worn or broken parts are contributing to it. Until you know how the engine's systems are performing, the list of possible combinations of problems able to cause the issue you're having will be quite long.