I have a 1987 Honda civic rt4wd wagon with 161xxx miles on it. I bought it a few years back and rebuilt the carb to get it running. It had a bad radiator (which I recently replaced, as well as the thermostat). I think the old radiator had debris in it and must have jammed up a thermovalve in the intake manifold. The car will bog when just started and will continue to until It has warmed up. It's as if the engine cuts out and restarts immediately. If you step on the throttle, the car either loses power and slows down, or it starts cutting out and bucking which also causes it to slow down. The symptoms seem to go away around the temperature that the thermovalves are supposed to be opened/closed, but occasionally it'll randomly start bogging at highway speeds (45mph and up) and I can stop it by putting the clutch in to let the engine idle for a few seconds. Advancing the timing makes it much easier to bog, and retarding it will resist bogging, but it'll still happen. I cleared the EGR valve port because it was clogged with carbon, but it didn't help. I had also gotten a new distributor as well as changed one of the solenoids in the control box #1. I'm wondering if anyone has had a similar problem and knows how to fix it. If you have any other questions, I'd be happy to answer them. I posted whatever I can remember off the top of my head, so I may have already done what people suggest. I'll just let you know if I've done it or not. I would really appreciate it if someone knew what the problem is. I'm running out of ideas. Thanks.

 

I would tend to think that the most likely culprit is your choke not working properly. Have you checked that yet?

 

Yes. I inspected it when i rebuilt the carb about two years back and again when this bogging problem started occurring. No sticking, and the linkages are set correctly. The car is finicky because on some days it will run perfectly with no signs of trouble, regardless of weather, outside temperature, etc.