have a 1993 accord 4cyl auto, with over 300k on the clock. Doesn't burn oil, haha... amazing. Two separate problems here - I searched, but didn't come up with conclusive enough things.

1) The car seems to run smoothly when it's cold but then when it warms up, there's definitely a miss + power loss, all the time. It just doesn't run right. Things that have been done: spark plugs, timing belt, valve adjustment - and I believe the wires/rotor/etc but I can check on that (it's the fiancee's car and her grandfather does some of the work on it at the moment). For now let's assume it has had a full tuneup. It was overheated once or twice in its life but I can't directly correlate that with this problem. What can I check?

2) Also, ON OCCASION (ie: not often), it won't start. When this happens, it cranks and cranks and cranks... but it doesn't "catch" and start up. When cranking incessantly, I open the hood and don't smell gas, which makes me think it's a fuel delivery issue. Problem 2 is sporadic, what can I check? I have a voltmeter/etc.

Thanks!

 

what I would do is while its cold and then again when its warm but not hot and idling spray some carburetor cleaner or starting fluid around the throttle body where the gasket is and around the intake, also on vac lines. if the engine revs up, you have a leak at the spot you sprayed, could be bad vac line if its a line, could be bad gasket if its at a gasket. Just be careful not to get the stuff on a hot exhaust as it will light on fire

 

You mentioned it overheated in the past. You may have got a wire or wires in the harness to hot and this could be your problem. I have had this happen to me before when I have bought a car that got hot and had to do a top end rebuild on it.

 

try changing out your main relay.

join www.cb7tuner.com for more info.

 

what exactly is a main relay, where can i find it? A description should be sufficient, I just don't have a shop manual for this car yet

 

Main fuel relay is going to be right under your dash on the drivers side close to the kick panel. It is usually a light brown colored box with a wire harness plug in the middle of it. Tim, do you have a way of checking the fuel pressure at the rail??? I would do that first. Also, have you replaced the fuel filter? I am also thinking the coil could be starting to go on you, when you mention it only runs bad when it is hot is a dead give away.

 

I would check the coil and also is it throwing any CEL codes?