Hi,

I have a 96' EX VTEC 1 engine with 168K miles. Up until a week ago my car ran fine then just like that it all started to fall apart big time. I live in Maryland, the weather has been cold and I had been noticing that the car would take a long time to warm up, then once I started driving over 60 mph it would cool down all the way back to the C mark, My guess is that the thermostat has finally gone.
Next problem and far more severer is that the engine hesitates quite badly on medium to full throttle acceleration. I'm not talking about mashing the gas pedal and dropping the clutch here I'm talking about normal acceleration. As the engine reaches 2000 rpms the car shudders and appears to be choking this continues until 2500 rpm when all of a sudden it clears and accelerates normally it happens normally after the car has been run for about 5 minutes and occurs in every gear. If I slowly move the revs up it doesn't do it but if I try to push it does. I have also seen it do it around 3000 rpms. I changed the plugs wires cap and rotor about 6 months ago the clutch has been going for a while but seems to still be strong I'm thinking its fuel starvation but I'm not sure any input will be greatly appreciated.

 

If it was fuel starvation then it would happen the whole time its at wide open throttle (when you floor it), it sounds like bad spark plugs but you said they are pretty new so I dont know. Id have to be there I guess.

As for temp, it sounds like the thermostat has taken a dump on you.

 

What kind of plugs do you have in it?

 

haha, he said dump

 

it could be the spark plug wires too. that's what happened to me when i first go my swap.

 

Check your spark wires even though there new. Easiest way to do this is to check for wires arcing (electricity not completely reaching plug) the most common plug failure. First carefully visually inspect wires for small cracks. If none noticed while engine is running remove each individual wire and lift minimal distance from plug slowly from the plug and look for spark from wire coming from any other area of the wire but bottom of boot that connects to top of plug. You may have to move wire and put in different positions against valve cover to see were the plug wire may be arcing. This is one was to diagnose your drivability problem without just randomly replacing items. Been there done that.

 

Wait until dark, and lightly mist the engine with water. You'll see the the arcs that way if that's the problem. And don't assume new plug wires are good.

 

yeah, ive broken quite a few sets of brand new wires.