Dear Honda-Tech....

I am at a point of utter confusion with my CRX(OBD1 GSR swapped, 1991 CRX HF) this week. The car has been running great for months with no issues at all, but this past week has left me with a problem that I have no idea on what to fix or even what to look at. So I come to you Looking for answers.

Here is the situation. After driving my CRX for a period of time a half an hour or so, the car develops a Random stutter from 5,000 to 7,500RPM. It isn't a straight power cut but the car sounds like its revving higher, yet you can feel it going slower . It feels like it will dip in and out of this odd noise/feeling while in the said RPM range. It is not a solid all the time weird sounding power loss, it seems to flicker in and out of the normal power while in vtec. I have no idea what is causing it, to me it feels like a spark issue. But who knows. Its hard for me to explain what it does, but like I said it keeps accelerating but you feel it loose power, and it develops an odd noise.

Here is what I have checked so far.
Oil level
vtec solinoid screens
vtec pressure switch
Oil change
Timing
Compression -230 across the board
Plugs and Wires

The Few things I think might be causing this would be Distributor, Fuel Filter, Or Fuel Pump. I would like to know everyones thought on this situation before I go and drop a chunk of $$ on parts I may not need. Thanks for your input.

Reference picture of the car. (Yep I felt like being a *****)

 

Check the air filter and fuel pressure.

 

Air Cleaner is Fine.

 

Clutch Slipping?

 

No definatly not the clutch, It sounds like a mechanical issue. Somtimes the car won't do it, its a random thing that tends to happen the longer you drive the car.

 

That was my first thought as well but a slipping clutch would be more problematic when cold and would get better after driving for half an hour, no? At very least I wouldn't expect it to get worse. However, if the rear oil seal were leaking then the clutch could slip more after the engine warms up.

 

Leaning out at the top end would be more of an issue when vtec engages and also get worse as the fuel warms up.

 

Its starting to seem like cornering effects it too, tends to happen always when cornering.

 

Check the axles. I hope it's not a problem with the differential.

 

See if driving up steep hills causes the problem as much as cornering. If it does, then it's a problem with engine torque. That would substantiate the A/F ratio problem theory. You might want to do the same test driving with the vtec disabled and see if the problem still happens.

 

Hmmm, I will try that today. I am replacing the fuel filter today as well. When it started to stutter/loose power last night while cornering it was seeming like it was running to rich, but maybe thats jusy in my head.