I am working on a 1996 Honda Accord LX with a 2.2L F22B2 engine with a manual transmission. When in neutral it will limit the rpm's to 3000rpm. When driving, it bucks and carries on when it gets close to 3000rpm and has no power. I replaced the distributor cap, plug wires, plugs and the valve cover gasket(plug holes had oil in them). It ran bad before doing all that. It seems to idle smoother and run smoother up to 300rpm but runs terrible on the road. It also has an exhaust leak close to the catalytic converter. What should I look at next?

 

Is the check engine light on? If the CEL is on I would suggest retrieving the stored codes from the ECU and go from there.

An exhaust leak near the O2 sensor would probably affect the operation of the car. Specially if it is large enough to alter the air to fuel ratio that the O2 is reading.