1998 Honda Accord EX F23A1, 5speed – Stalls

First – I’ve been a watcher of ETCG vids for some time. A wealth of info. It is great that he can take the time to record, explain and upload all of this information for the everyday person.

Ok, so last week (1/20/14) I picked up a 1998 Honda Accord EX 4cyl F23A1 manual trans.
Some history on it, the previous owner made a living as a mechanic. He had owned it about a year, during that time he experienced misfire conditions on a road trip. Turned out to be burnt valves and a couple bad fuel injectors. He ended rebuilding the top end with new valve guides and seats, replacing the head gasket, timing belt, (the other belt there with the timing belt, tensioner’s, etc..) cap, rotor, plugs, etc…

It looked ok, drove ok, although at this point I wished I had done a more adequate test drive before purchasing.

on Tuesday, 1/21/14, I drove the car to work which is about a 35 mile commute. While on the freeway going about 70mph, the car stalls. gauges, lights, everything shuts off, but being manual, it kicked back on and continued running. This freaked me out, so I got to work and began some research.. I found there is a common issue with starter switch getting worn on these. Right after work, I hit the auto store, picked up a new switch and installed it. Never had an issue until today on my way home from work, it happened to stall a second time.

Other symptoms I’ve experienced… Acceleration seems pretty poor after around 3000rpm and beyond. Not much get up an go. There is a clunk when it starts up.. something I would think might be a motor mount. I replaced the front motor mount but still clunks on startup.
I had a leaky seal around a fuel injector. I replaced that fuel injector completely which fixed the leak.
I replaced air filter and drive belts. (belts just because they were old)
I checked spark plugs and they appeared white. a couple appeared VERY white with a crusty white coating. I checked online for this condition and saw mixed results saying this was “normal” to this is a “lean condition”.

I don’t know if the poor/gutless acceleration and the stalling is related, but both sure are annoying.

I know cap, rotor, wires and plugs were replaced recently, because I have receipts from previous owner. Timing belt was done 10/2013 with head gasket.

I’m not sure where else to go from here. Maybe check my main relay for potential short? I’ve never experienced a no-start situation, just stalling… in the highway… with lots of traffic at high speeds… which can get hairy..

Do white plugs indicate lean condition? Could it be poor fuel delivery? Maybe I need a fuel pressure test? How would one test fuel pressure on this fuel rail without a valve? Tap into the banjo nut? Could it be possible filter on fuel pump assembly clogged.

The plugs are NGK iridium’s, which I’ve been told is overkill for this F23A1. Should I replace with the plain nickel/copper NGK spec’d for this engine? Does it matter?

Also, the clutch seems like I need to push pretty close to floor in order to shift. Seems like I don’t get much up-travel before it will kill on me. Could that be related or just separate issue of worn clutch. I found I get a bit of bounce when I let off the clutch pedal after shifting gears.

Well, seems like I covered the majority.
In closing, just interested in causes to:
1. poor acceleration >3k rpm
2. clunky start up (could be other engine mounts? or clutch?)
3. stalling in the middle of driving.

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance!!