Picked up a 97 Civic EX (D16Y8) 5spd a little over a week ago and it has a miss under load that seem most prevalent around 3k rpm. The tach also jumps with this miss and at other random times. Since purchasing I have replaced the timing belt, fuel filter, and spark plugs. The guy I purchased it from said he recently did a tune up including distributor / wires / plugs and I will say the distributor looks new, as in the cap was spotless as was the aluminum on the distributor. Any recommendations on narrowing down the cause of this miss?

 

I would check the coil also.

 

bump!!!!

 

Any oil on the top of the plugs when you pull them, or the lower parts of the plug boots, could need simple spark plug tube seals.

 

ever figure out what it was? My civic is doing the same thing now. at 50% throttle the tach starts jumping around, a little more throttle and it stops firing all cylinders. When I let off it runs fine again. I think it might be a wiring issue or ground issue.

 

It could be a bad throttle position sensor. Sometimes when they go bad, its only at a certain rpm. If you have a digital multimeter, and know what the ohms are supposed to be, you can check it yourself. Does it do the same thing if you have the car parked and manually work the throttle?

 

Have the igniter unit tested.