In Need of Tech Help
 

I have a problem with my 97 Civic that I just can't seem to figure out and my knowledge is growing but limited and I know of people on here with far greater knowledge then me so I'm asking for some help.

I am trying to get this car ready to be put on the road. All it needed was the exhaust manifold changed and I recently did that but have had another problem I just can't seem to fix.

The car starts and runs fine ... for the first 15 mins or so. After it is nicely warmed up the engine seems almost like it is about to die ... I counted it and every 4th second it's like it bogs and almost dies on me for a second .... then another 4 seconds and it does it again. I thought maybe my alternator but the power levels stay the same in the car. I checked the spark plugs and they're not bad but could be changed soon.

Also, I have a little bit of smoke coming from my passenger side headlight. That's right in front of the rad in these Civics. A bit of vapour too on the grille on that side after it's been running awhile. No rad leak or any leak for that matter that I can see and my temp gauge in the car is reading normal.

Any help into this would be greatly appreciated. I'm researching it on my own as well naturally but I'm lost as to where to start with this problem. Thanks in advance! :beer: :rockon:


Edit: Something I also forgot to mention .... this problem only happens when the car is in either park or neutral. When it starts doing that and I put it in drive or reverse it runs normal again but as soon as I put it in park or neutral it starts once again.

One thing that comes to my mind is the idle air control valve .... I was going to say cap/rotor but it would be misfiring like crazy, if that was the case.

how long has the car been sitting with gas in the tank? are you getting a cel? i'd try a different map sensor maybe if you have a friend with the same one that you know is good.

just try to find the source of where the smoke is coming from near the headlight.

The car has been sitting for awhile now with gas in the tank and barely started (about 4-5 months) since I've been soooo busy with school the last couple of months and haven't had time to work on it til recently.

No CEL at all. The smoke from what I can see is coming from the rad ... I can smell coolant a bit ... there isn't a lot of smoke though and I don't see any coolant leak.

Well it's coolant related so check your IACV, rad cap hoses rad, thermostat etc.

If worst comes to worst it's could be the headgasket...

As T said check the IACV. Mine basically melted and destroyed my whole cooling system including heater core. What a nightmare.

Thanks for the tips T and Glenn :yeah:

Waiting for it to stop raining so I can get outside and look at it.

Update though. Yesterday I was out in the rain for about an hour attempting to work on it. I bought some fuel stabilizer and put that into the tank and it seemed to help somewhat. The interval between it almost stalling was periodic now. Everything seemed fine though til I went to step on the gas and rev the engine just a bit. As soon as I put the pedal down the engine didn't even rev, it just totally bogged and stalled and then I couldn't start it for awhile.

Somthing similar happened to my frineds stealth.... didn't throw a code.. showed the exact same symptoms... except coolant... turned out to be the TPS....

James

The coolant problem I think is just some excess that was spilled and is burning off the rad. There is no leak near the rad at all so that's all I can figure.

As for the rest of it though, TPS James? Sorry, newb here ... it's a sensor right? Tried researchin a bit but only using 3 letters turned up a lot of results lol

Can anyone help me out with the correct name for this part:

Attachment 21906

It's for fuel pressure right? If so, is it connected with a rubber hose on the bottom at least? If there is a leak in this line could it be the cause of my problem? I just don't understand why it runs good when it's first started up but once it's warmed up it starts acting up :jeez:

Thanks for all the help so far everyone! Greatly appreciated! :beer: :rockon: