Ok, so I'm new to the Honda scene first and foremost. I've been a VW guy my whole life but I just got my hands on a little civic project so I'm going to be getting it going. The car is a 1988 Civic with the 1.5 16v. It starts right up perfect and idles nice and smooth, no surging or shuttering. When you rev the engine it bogs quick and then begins to rev up and then at higher rpms it falls on its face. It will stay running but it just flattens out above 2500-3000rpm and it feels like it's possibly a lack of fuel or something. When you hold the throttle wide open the engine seems like it is hitting a lazy rev limiter at about 3000rpm (I don't know how many rpm exactly because the car does not have a tach in it.). I've carefully gone through all the vacuum lines and replaced any suspect lines then replaced all plugs/wires/cap/rotor just for the heck of it.

Is there possibly an iacv that would be dirty or maybe an ignition issue? I've heard something about bad distributors in these cars, is this true and something I could test? Any insight on this or pointing me in the direction as to where I could find some answers to this problem would be greatly appreciated.

This car is a race car running in a STOCK ENGINE enduro series. I'm trying to get it running pretty reliably and hopefully running an entire season in it.

-Erik

 

any cel's?...i had this issue before, it was a bad o2

 

If it still revs when you arent giving it gas means the clutch is slipping/clutch cable isnt adjusted right.

 

I'm going to check out the codes now, we'll see what they turn up.

As for the clutch cable, it's fine. The car drives fine and revs normal, it's some sort of ignition/fuel issue that's cutting out the power at higher rpm.

 

Try checking the injectors or you're fuel pressure. I had the same prob with my friends DA integra.

 

i would try the tps or map sensor typically if your having problems around that rpm it would be a tps

 

So I couldn't locate the connector that's supposed to be below the glove box. The glove box and center console were all removed but no wires were cut. There's no interior in the car which made it easy to to see the little blinking LED on the pass side floor and it seemed to be blinking a code. It was 8 long flashes and 8 short ones or 7 and 9 or 9 and 7 or something like that, then a pause but none of those code combinations have any significance using http://http://www.c-speedracing.com/faq/05.php as my reference.

Does that flashing red light have any meaning at all? And am I an idiot and just can't find the connector needed to jump or is there one at all on this car?

 

The connector is there somewhere, sorry I don't have a pic of it.

I am not sure, but I don't think the blinking on the ECU will tell you anything if you dont have the connecter jumped.

Another thought would be to check out the main relay, they are notorious on EF hondas. There is tons of info on here on how to re solder them if it has gone bad.

 

So I did a little research and found out that 16 flashes on the computer is the code for a Fuel Injector. Knowing that the car is run only on 2 injectors, the Main Injector and the Auxiliary Injector, I would think that diagnosis would make a lot of sense for the symptoms. I won't be able to test the injectors until this Saturday when I can get over to the race shop again but when I do I'll check resistance in the 2 injectors and see if they're within tolerance. Hopefully I'll have some good news this weekend.