88 civic with b16a swap missing and surging
 

About two months ago I took my car to Mahdavi Motorsports in Atlanta. They swapped a b16a into my 88 civic hatch. They also installed a cold air intake (too small), high flow cat, DC sports header, custom piping, and a new stage 1 clutch. With high expectations I went to pick up my car. When I left it ran good for about 40 to 50 miles ( maybe less). After that it started to act funny like it was missing. I thought it might go away (ha). Now two months later the car is still missing. It spits and sputters sometimes as I'm climbing in the RPM's, then all the sudden it clears up. It seems to do this throughout the rpm range and even worse if I'm driving normal. If I gas it hard it seems to be less noticable but its still there. Its especially noticable at about 3 to 4000 RPM right before V-TEC. To try and remedy the problem I bought a fuel pressure regulator and gauge kit. I bumped the fuel up to 35 psi from about 22. It seemed a little better but not much. I'm new to imports and don't know what to do next. I was thinking about trash or rust in the fuel tank because the car set up for a while before i bought it. Or maybe its one of the sensors or something. Any help would be greatly appreciated.:bow:

take it back to that place and tell them to find the problem...make sure u tell them exactly what has happened....and what u did to try and solve it....:eek:

cant do that!!
 

I wish I could take it back to em. But its a long way to Atlanta just for them to tell me they don't know. Plus they have a start up warranty, meaning when you start it up and drive out of their drive the warranty stops. In other words I guess I have to go it alone and figure it out myself. Thats why I came to you guys.

Check the ignition
 

It doesn't sound like a mechanical problem. Its probably in the ignition or fuel. I'm willing to bet it is the ignition. Check your distributor, take the cap off and check all the contacts. If everything looks okay and you are still missing, replace the cap and rotor. Replace the spark plug wires and check the spark plugs. Just make sure they're gapped correctly. Hope this helps.

he said that he already checked that. he has another post in my car is broken forum.

You said the FP was at 22 lbs before you changed the regulator ?? The static FP should but up in the 30's stock... How many miles are on the chassis ?? You said the car sat for a while... Did you replace the fuel filter ?? What color are your plugs ??

I Think I Found It
 

I think I found something. Even if its not the real problem I know its not helping. The first thing I did when I bought the car is change the fuel pump and the filter. After all these problems that I wrote about and all of everybody suggestions I pulled out the filter again. I poured out the contents into a clean clear container. UUUGGGHH! Its dark red. I put another caontainer under the fuel line and turn on the key to cycle the pump a few times. The feul that came out is cloudy and has red deposits all in it. I don't know if this is the main problem but it can't be good. So tommorrow I'm going to pick up another tank. By the way I checked all the other stuff(plugs are properly gapped, timing is good, cap, rotor, wires all good, fuel pressure is at 35 psi. Thanks again for all the help. I' ll keep tryin anything until this works out.