I just recently bought an 86' 4WD Civic Wagon carbureted, i am having a few problem that a few techs can't seem to figure out. The first problem and most annoying is that the car will not hold its idle? it will drive fine with no acceleration problem. We have looked for vacuum leaks and came up empty. The second is there is a knocking/tapping noise coming from the engine bay? the sound happens only under 3500rpm. I just had the valves adjusted two days ago in the hopes that this may of been the problem, but the noise is still there. Lastly, there is blue smoke when starting from a stop, the smoke seems to go away when driving?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

fuel injected or carburetor?

 

should be carb'ed. i am almost 100% sure that all the wagons, 4wd or not, were carbd.

 

It is carbureted

 

Well I'm not a pro, but first thing I would do is dump a whole bunch of Lucas carb cleaner in the gas tank. You can't over-treat, and I usually do this with every new-to-me vehicle. Then I would clean the entire outside of the carb with carb cleaner. All the linkage, and anything that looks dirty. Then with the car running I'd spray it inside the carb a couple times. Not enough to kill it though. Sounds like a vac leak, but the carb is old and may need re-built. Don't know what to tell ya about the noise and smoke. They would worry me a bit though. Good luck

 

I just worked on my buddy's identical car with the same problems this afternoon. I found the carb base gasket his troubles for it not wanting to idle. He had a noise coming from the timing cover. T-belt tensioner was bad. Good luck

 

Thanks I'll check these thing later today I appreciate it

 

did you ever find out the problem?

 

Another issue that I had with similar symptoms. See if the timing belt has been replaced recently. I had my timing belt replaced after it snapped, and I had a surging idle, and a constant valve tick. I kept adjusting the lash, and checking it, but no help with the noise. I found it when I pulled the engine to clean it up. The shop that did the timing belt/head work re assembled everything so the cam gear was a tooth off. The valves were just "kissing" the tops of the pistons.