d15b2 idling/running problems

Got an 88 civic, d15b2 engine

Last 2 days, its started having very lumpy running. Its shakey at
idle, and feels like its missing yet the check engine doesn't come on
(as it does usually when it misfires)

it appears to have a loss of power, and be rough accelerating, unless
when going, you ease off the accelerator, where it smooths down, and
if you gently ease the accelerator down, it runs fairly smooth. goes
back to lumpy if its pressed down harder. It also seems to be a lot
smoother at higher engine revs.

Happened only about 2 days ago, during a run down a country road,
stopped at a railroad corssing, and it was suddenly like this.

hope someone can give me some hints
thx.

 

Update - I started the engine, and pulled the plug wires out one by
one - seems to be something with cyl2

 

When is the last time the ignition wires and plugs were
replaced? Are the current ones OEM? If it's been awhile,
replace with OEM. Also replace the distributor cap and
rotor, and check the timing. One of the most common
solutions here for rough running is simply a basic tuneup
with OEM parts. The OEM parts here BTW do pay for themselves
in longevity.

You could do a resistance check of all wires and report
back. Maybe it is indeed #2 wire that's bad (or particularly
bad)?

Next I would suspect the O2 sensor. For the d15b2 (which my
Civic has), IIRC a malfunctioning O2 sensor does not
necessarily set off the CEL etc. The O2 sensor is cheap
enough for this engine that a pre-emptive replacement is not
a bad idea at all.

See http://home.earthlink.net/~honda.lioness/id11.html for
more discussion of the above and some other tips.

Elle
Original owner, 1991 Civic LX (engine d15b2), 200k miles

 

yeah, spark's good, as are the wires

i've just pulled the plugs and #2's black, carbon fouling. I put new
plugs in 2 weeks ago, when i changed the timing belt, its since done
1000 until this problem showed up 2 days ago (we had a lot of places
to go, and we live in a rural area - going to walmart's a 55 mile
roundtrip)

its an 88 civic, and 255k miles on it.

 

Another followup - looks like compression

I've no compression tester, but when i pulled the #2 wire, with it
running, it was blowing out of the hole - the plug was still in. 3 and
4 aren't, but 1 is not as much, and yet 1 is still running/firing

 

blowing out of what hole?

seriously dude, it's impossible to offer advice if you're not describing
the symptoms properly and just guessing possible causes.

 

I'm not sure how your engine is designed, but generally, when I pull a
spark plug wire out of an engine, thats about the only 'hole' there
is, that being the hole the spark plug wire goes into. If you have
additional holes in your engine, Maybe you should seek another engine.

 

finally, you have revealed information that clues in exactly what the
problem is. if only you'd have done that before being such a jackass.