Just bought Civic vx with bad bog problem!
 

I just bought a 92 vx with 149000 miles on the odometer. I bought it with a bad tranny and clutch, so my friend (who is a honda guy) and I put in a working transmission, new clutch, new rear main seal, one new axle, and a lightened 7 lb flywheel.

My friend talked me into putting on the light flywheel, but after some research it seems pointless. After the swap, I got 44, then 38, 33, 29 and then 26. Something is going terribly wrong and its driving me nuts. My check engine light came on after a day of driving and turned off before I could check the code. It hasnt come back on since.

The biggest problem is the car is bogging out every time I give it throttle from 1800 rpm to 3300, roughly. It was doing this even with the bad transmission in it before.

My friend thinks it could be a dirty or clogged egr valve. Maybe an O2 sensor? We are going to try to clean out the egr valve tomorrow, so I will repost and let you know if it changed FE! Any help is appreciated!

Jeff

It is really hard to diagnose problems over the internet but that could be timing: ignition, cam, or both.

In any case a major tune up is in order particularly if there are no service records. timing belt and related wear items including water pump, an egr kit, all vacuum hoses, filters, fluids... cap, rotor, plugs, wires, the whole mid life go over. That is what I would do, and there is a very good chance that the steps involved in a major tune-up would fix the bog issue. I woulds swap out o2s for new ones as well, there is a thread with purchasing info on what seems to be the appropriate 5 wire o2 for 60 bucks at the top of one of the forums right now. if the car was treated well another 100k should be possible without opening up the motor.

https://www.gassavers.org/showthread.php?t=8372

Today I tired cleaning out the EGR valve by taking the valve off and tryng to spray inside the whole system with some cleaner, but its very hard to get into the ports. To get into the entire system involves drilling to pull out some port plugs. Theres a thread on how to do it on an accord, which is very similar to the civic:

https://home.comcast.net/~em-engineering/T2T013.pdf

After I tried cleaning the car still bogged or lugged whenever you give gas. I have also replaced the spark plugs, and Air filter and am planning to completely clean out the egr system.

could be a bad egr valve or bad vacum hoses

if the CEL comes back on, see if you notice if the car drives differently--if it bogs less--could be the o2 sensor if it stops bogging when CEL is on.

some cel lights have memory, the code could still be their. also it could be your maf sensor if it has one, Ive seen plenty of Nissan's bog out from running max lean or rich right off of idle all the way up the rpm scale. but that code should point you in the right direction

The VX doesn't have a MAF sensor but it could be a TPS sensor issue or possibly one related to the o2 sensor. Before suspecting anything else I would check the basics like the timing/spark plugs/tune-up items, and if the timing belt hasn't been replaced, it could have slipped, so I would replace that asap if you don't know when it was done last.

From my obd1 honda experience I think the code will still be stored until you clear the ecu manually. Try jumping the service connector to see if there is a code stored. Good luck.

Exactly. There are a few conditions when the CEL light will come on but not store or display a code (not sure what they are off the top of my head), but if a problem trips a diagnostic code, the ECU will store it until you pull the fuse powering its memory backup functions (generally the hazard light fuse). If your ECU isn't storing codes, you may have a wiring issue.

How do I pull the stored codes?

Too bad your car isn't OBD 2 then you can check the value of your O2 sensors like I can with my 99 HX and an Auterra Dynoscan.

Short together the 2 pins of the service check connector (a cut-off U bend from a paper clip works well). The connector should be in the passenger side footwell near the blower motor... It's blue IIRC.
If there are no codes stored, the check engine light will come on and stay on solid as long as the connector is shorted. If there are codes stored, the check engine light will start flashing them out in a repeating series. Short flashes stand for 1, long flashes stand for 10. If there are multiple trouble codes, they will be displayed in order with a short pause between them: 1st code, pause, 2nd code, pause, 3rd code, pause, 1st, pause, 2nd and so on.

I checked using a wire and the CEL just stayed solid -- no codes stored! Damn! Currently my buddy is cleaning out my egr system, hopefully that will do the trick!

It's the TPS sensor, clogged cat, or clogged fuel filter.

Check all of those. The fuel filter is a good cheap starting point.