Why does my 1991 honda civic 1.5 lsi auto run at higher revs but dies out at low revs?

Question

i had the head gasket changed and had the head skimmed then i had the idle control valve go so i replaced that and now if it is on any more 1500 revs its runs sweet as a nut but as soon as the revs drop it just backfires a little bit then dies

Answer 1

it needs a tune... really easy to do.... but you need the proper equipment such as a timing light.  I reckon that whoever did all your other work just didn't tune it properly (or more likely the timing advnace has gone out of whack...), .. so just go to your mechanic, and him or her should be able to easily sort  it out... and it shouldn't cost more than $50 (or at least wouldn't where I am).

Answer 2

I used to have a Honda van (the Hovis tin model) and had the same problem.

There's a thin wire that travels over the engine which sometimes breaks and it causes this problem. Re-connecting the two ends of the wire cures it!

Answer 3

When you had the head skimmed did you have the car serviced? Often with the slightly higher compression that the engine has you need to play around with the timing etc.

Also when you had the work done its also possible that one or more vacuum leaks have developed either by one of the vacuum pipe being forgotten or a leak on a gasket.

Ja.

Answer 4

I used to have that car then some moron bought it of me for £3000 :-P well anyway it is just the way the engine is designed. If you keep you cluth dipped just a wee bit then it should be fine. Or you could just get you clutch wound up!