In 1997, I purchased a Civic Sedan 1.3L. It had some loss of speed on hills on the highway, about 5 MPH. The foothills of Appalachia. It got worse after that. A year later, I had to garage it, where it's been ever since. The body is great! I tried a head from the junk yard --it checked out asgood as I worked at a Detroit Diesel Reman plant in head teardown. It will crank (need a new battery now), but no complete start. Could it be vac hoses,rings (or other internal compression prob), firing (which looked good 7 yrs ago)? I've replaced about half the vac hoses. I rebuilt the carb, but no difference. Plugs look good -- first thing I tried was a newset. Haven't done compression test yet, as I just got a vac/comp tester and the weather has been unexpectedlycold thelast month. I just go married a year ago, and moved it from unheatedgarage of 7 yrs to my house, where it's outside.

 

So what is your next step there member, what'a next?

 

JMan321 are you sure you have a 1.3 and not a 1.6 in your 97, and does it not have fuel injection sys instead of a carb? but the lost of power might be the timing belt not set correctly per crank to cam pully. may be off a tooth. Recheck your timing and congrad on getting married, hope you two have a long lasting one.

 

It's an '85 that Ipurchased in '97...and it isdefinitely carbed as I rebuiltthe carbmyself. But, will double-check that cam timing. I was thinking that was a probability. That's next on my list for tomorrow, or the next day it doesn't rain.[:'(] Sure miss the garage!

Thnx on the congrats toward marriage. It's my third and her second...both our last were abusive partners.We are getting along swimmingly, though.

 

Double-check the camtiming. Then, check compression for signs of internal damage. If compression is bad, then prob go to yard and get awrecked one for the engine. Can't afford the mechanic, nor tools, and partsfor a bore job.

 

JMan321 you can also get some info from autozone.comregister for free and go to repair, naviagate to the info you need for your engine. also dap.com has some engine info.