i have a 94 honda civic dx with about 189,000 miles on it. ya thats alot. well recently it seems my car has a little loss of power. when accelerating from 1st to 3rd it seems like the engine kinda skips. it almost feels like its not getting enough air into it. i have an option racing cold air intake ive installed on it, i reset the ecu so it would recognize it to. but still it skips. even when im on the highway going about 80 in 5th gear it loses power when going up a slight hill. ill have the pedal floored sometimes and it will still lose power. could this be a dirty intake maybe?. ive tried intake cleaner on the manifold. and all it did was cause problems. my idle air controller got cloggy and started making my rpms bounce (but now it doesnt). and when i sprayed the cleaner into the manifold it just choked my car and would die after spraying it for 5-10 secs. any ideas on what could be leading to this major power loss?

 

Sounds like misfirng under load -- weak ignition. How long since the last tune up? Replace spark plug wires, spark plugs, distributor cap and rotor. Do it about in that order if you can't afford all at once, but inspect the cap if you're hoping not to replace it right away.

Not getting enough air (e.g. badly clogged air filter) cuts down your horsepower, but it'll still run smooth.