Just bought a 1991 Crx Hf. It has a B18A1 and a jdm tranny. The engine was supposedly just rebuilt and not even broken in yet. Car itself has 102,000. ALso has a bunch of new suspension parts.
Anyways when I got it the guy said all it needed was a "tuneup". He said mainly the timing was off. A day ago I picked the car up and took it to my place. First thing is we had to use a screwdriver to start it cause previous owner fried some wire since the intake piping was too cllose to the battery. But it fires right up though its running really rich with a lot of black smoke coming out. I just changed the plugs as the old ones were covered in black. Could off timing be causing it to run this bad?
Also I think the clutch is on its way out-it didnt grab until around 2k rpm. And I think something in the shifter needs to be adjusted-when I had it in what I though was reverse it pulled forward, and weve tried pushing the car into a parking spot and the shifter felt like it was in neutral though I had to move it around before the car would even budge. And when I was on the highway I put it in 5th gear and the engine jumped to almost redline so I immediately downshifted to 4th.
The check engine light came on once but didnt come on yesterday when I started it too.
Any suggestions on this? This is my first honda as Im a GM guy and I just bought the car for the gas mileage.

 

-the running rich thing is prolly your timing get that checked
-the clutch means its probably almost gone
-shift linkage check your bushings and see if their wearin out and check how stiff it is when the car is off it might not be fit right to the car my friend had the same issue we just cut the shift linkage and fit it right for the car
-hard to say how to fix it without see'n the car for myself but thats what it sounds like

 

follow what was said above me, if your going to replace the shifter bushings you might as well get the whole package and start replaceing them all over the car as im sure those are shot too. if its not the shift linkage it could be a cracked or broken shift fork in the transmission which can be costing to have fixed.

 

Talked to the guy I bought it from today and he said the engine hasnt even been broken in yet and needs a full tune up consisting of timing-and adjusting the cams and head to fuel ratio. Honestly Ive never heard of head to fuel ratio. For the tranny he said it has some custom linkage that was welded and needs to be adjusted so he said I was taking off in 3rd when it looked like the shifter was in 1st so I guess that explains why the clutch took so long to grab.

 

are you sure on head to fuel ratio?

I would think air to fuel ratio would be more like it.

 

Yea those were his exact words. Like I said Im not new to cars, just new to hondas. Though Im beginning to think this guy doesnt know a whole lot himself.

 

that makes sence to me xD but if you can send some pics of the shift linkage

 

yeah man! my head to fuel ration is way off...hehe. Sorry, couldnt resist.