Howdy all, this is gonna be my first post on here because I have researched the net til my fingers are sore, so now I'm turning to you for some help.

I have a 1995 honda civic cx, 207k miles..
Edit to add: The honda is a 1.5L, manual transmission
The last month or so, my car has been idling funky - not rough per se, but having the occasional 'skip' as it idled - but otherwise ran fine.
Fast forward to 2 weeks ago, my car is still running ok, but sputters once in a while when I give it gas and loses power but picks right back up again.
Last week, it was sputtering worse and losing power -romping on the gas out of frustration cured it for a short time, but it eventually went back to sputtering with all the power of a moped.
A few days ago, it sputtered on the way to the store. After I got out of the store, it started and idled fine, but lost massive power when I tried to leave, bogging down to almost dying when I tried to give it gas..so I pulled into the lot again to see what the problem was.
After letting it rest for about 10 minutes, it started up again and I was able to feather it most of the way home before my beloved white turtle breathed her last and died. I had her towed home and it's sitting.
My initial thought was fuel filter - changed it, no improvement.
Must be the fuel pump! (it whirred when I hit the key, but who knows right?) - nope.
Checked the main relay, resoldered all of the connections. Nope.

I'm new to hondas (this is my first time, be gentle..) and I bought it used and unknowingly abused from a used car place.
So far, Ive checked the distributor cap..rotor..(sanded all contacts to clean up any deposits)..plugs and wires for spark. All seems well, but I cant get the dang thing to take gas without dying.
It idles fine when I get it started, but peters out when I give it gas, then goes back to idling fine. I can feather it and get it to rev, but otherwise it sputters out.
When it sputters, it clouds up a lot of blue smoke from the tailpipe..however the rings in it are bad, so it smokes pretty much all the time. This smoke is different though, it's almost like it's running rich.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'm at the point where I'm willing to hike my insurance and just set the bloody thing on fire.

 

Bump
Still needing help with this, it's my daily driver back and forth for work, and the weekend is quickly running out..
Posted a video of the problem, hopefully it might help better than a bad description:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C68S...ature=youtu.be

 

When did you do a tune up to it ?

 

Haven't done a tune up to it yet - I just changed the PCV valve today along with the plug wires - new distributor, rotor and ignition plug are coming in on Tuesday.
I can get the car to idle but it seems like it's in a constant state of air starvation. When I finally get it to start, the smell of gas is strong around the car, and the exhaust is blue and smells like it's running rich.
I took off the air cleaner hose and wiped out the throttle body (that was a pitiful oily wreck) and that's when I read that the PCV valve could be a culprit - which for 3 bucks, why not change it? Still didn't change.
When I first get the thing running, the throttle body has some very good suction, but after I goose it to make it stutter the vacuum drops off like it's choking out - and I don't figure the belt skipped a tooth because it idles like a champ and it came on over the period of a month, not just suddenly out of the blue.
I've also had it stutter as it was trying to start and poof white smoke out of the throttle body while it sounded like a small animal dying.
The only other course of action that I can think of (in my limited non-mechanical knowledge) is to take off the throttle body and clean it along with the AICV.
As a note, I have gotten no CEL and after jumping the OBDI I haven't gotten any codes to pop up - so this thing is a total mystery to me so far.
I also unplugged the MAP sensor and it killed the vehicle right away. (it's late, I'm brainstorming my checks as I type) AFAIK it doesn't have a MAF sensor so I haven't checked anything there...and I have no clue how to check the throttle position sensor (but I did figure out what it looked like and it's general location so I have that going for me, which is nice..)
I'm just looking for general ideas as where to look next, this is my daily work driver so not having it is making me nuts.
Cat converter sounds clear when I whack it, and I haven't noticed any vacuum lines that are off or out of place (again, not a sudden occurrence like that would signal)
I'm just out of ideas on what to do next.

 

Go rent a compression tester make sure that there is no issues there

 

SHE'S ALIVE!!
Threw too many parts at it (although, it needed them bad) but the ol' honda is up and running.
Thanks to everyone that made suggestions, it really helped me get an understanding of what little attitudes these things have.

New: Fuel pump, fuel filter, plug wires, distributor cap, rotor, ignition coil, PCV valve..removed and completely cleaned the throttle body and the IACV valve and instead of having to crank it for 10 or more minutes to get it to idle, it started on the first key turn and runs like a dream plus it's got a little more power to it.
Sadly, i think it was the rotor and cap but I'm not going to kick myself - I saved a lot of money by buying parts off of amazon than my local stores (I paid less than half of what I was quote by autozone and oreilly's)
Happy days are here again

 

Welcome to the forum. and glad you got your ride fixed. Good info and trouble shooting.