Help: what's wrong with my CRX?

[CRXZC]

Posted on H-T, thought I'd post here...

Okay, '91 CRX Si, Original d16a6, 200k km's, (140k miles)..
Here's my problem:

For approx the last 300Km's or so, the car felt extremely sluggish, especially once warmed up. When on the highway cruising at highway speeds, trying to speed up in 5th or 4th gear resulted in slight shuddering and no power and basically the inability to do so.

The symptoms progressed to consistent shuddering and loss of power under tourque at 3000rpm+, car would simply run out of power completely. When driven for a period of time, the car would even have a slight miss when being revved up in neutral and while idling.

On Sunday morning it was -10celsius here, I have never ever had a problem starting the car and it just turned over to no avail, no firing.

Thought it was an ignition/distributor problem, while freezing I pulled two of the wires and grounded with a screw driver and I have spark.

From what I remember the fuel pump was indeed priming when I was trying to start the car.

I'm thinking either:

A) Blocked Cat
B) Clogged Fuel Pump
or C) Tune up req'd - plugs, cap, rotor

Anybody have any ideas for what I should check? The car is at my parent's place half an hour away and I can't fix it until Saturday but I need some direction.

Anybody have similar problems?

I have NO CEL, so I'm pretty sure it's not a sensor issue.
-Mark.

[tegontherun]

try diagnosing the problem.... pull each plug out at a time to see if its the plug or wire on each cylender while its running... if that doesnt do shit for ya.. try pulling the harness on each fuel injector... pull the dist cap off and look at the 4 points ( assuming u still have a 4banger in there) also look at the rotor too.. while its open look for dried up water or dirt inside the cap sometimes its got a big enough crack in it that its letting in condensation/moisture in. may also be a plugged fuel filter. when i was driving my bell van the fuel filter was so plugged it would bog down when u floored it. (we beat on those vans so much!!) hope this helps.

where is the car located anyways? if its near me i could take a quick look at it. im no mechanic but ive fixed a few things here and there.. ( i own a jeep)

[BrettR]

Ignition system, start with your plugs, then cap rotor and coil.

You might have spark, but it might not be good enough. 9/10 times when I see/hear of things like this, it's old/worn plugs or a bad coil.

[CRXZC]

Thanks Brett, I'll try that first..

I'm gonna get plugs, cap, rotor, and fuel filter. If that doesn't work I'll change dizzys... and if that doesnt work I'm finding a cliff to push it off... lol

[CRXZC]

try diagnosing the problem.... pull each plug out at a time to see if its the plug or wire on each cylender while its running... if that doesnt do shit for ya.. try pulling the harness on each fuel injector... pull the dist cap off and look at the 4 points ( assuming u still have a 4banger in there) also look at the rotor too.. while its open look for dried up water or dirt inside the cap sometimes its got a big enough crack in it that its letting in condensation/moisture in. may also be a plugged fuel filter. when i was driving my bell van the fuel filter was so plugged it would bog down when u floored it. (we beat on those vans so much!!) hope this helps.

where is the car located anyways? if its near me i could take a quick look at it. im no mechanic but ive fixed a few things here and there.. ( i own a jeep)

Car's located just south of Carp towards almonte...

[CRXZC]

Thanks guys...

So I woke up at 8am this morning and went and picked up new cap, rotor, plugs and fuel filter. My wires are relatively new. Put everything on and no luck - but I did find out that my valve cover gasket gromets are screwed! sooo taking out the old plugs drenched in oil meant massive ammouts of oil going down each cylinder. Swapped the Dizzy off my old A6 and sputter sputter bog SMOKE so I kept revving for about 30 seconds and the impromptu smokeshow ended and she seems good to go

Time to find another spare dizzy for next time!

[Jdc]

Nice, good show chap! I like to keep an extra dissy in the car just in case.

[CRXZC]

Nice, good show chap! I like to keep an extra dissy in the car just in case.

Yeah, looking back, between my crx, accord, and gsr I believe this will be my 6th distributor... And yes, I won't ever go on a long trip without a spare. Changing a dizzy is turning into clockwork, 12mm wrench, 12mm wratchet, 8mm socket Bam!

I'm just happy I have something to drive while I look for something newer...time for a change :)

[srswarts3]

change the valve cover gasket asap. 99% sure that is your problem. oil in there causes a miss.