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Hey guys, first post ever for me. 100% new to everything about cars but I'm eager to learn.

I just bought a 98 civic EX 5 speed. It's the car I learned to drive stick in.

Anyway, I noticed that in 2nd gear I hit 3000 rpm at like 25mph then when I shift to 3rd my rpm drops down like 1500. So in 3rd gear my car has no power whatsoever.

Any suggestions on why this is and/or how to fix it?

 
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I have a feeling that is a characteristic of the SOHC engine, at low rpm's there is a dead zone and it feels like no power.

Overall, how does the car run?

 
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Well, it runs relatively well for having 240,000 miles on it.

I was making pretty good money when I bought it and I had planned on swapping the engine and transmission ASAP once I saved the money. I bought the car so I could learn how to do everything myself. Unfortunately, I lost my job almost exactly 2 months from buying it.

Sometimes I can't put it directly into 1st from a stop. I have to put it in second then first. But that's maybe once every other week. Not a huge problem.

Other than that just the RPM issue worried me a bit. It makes it especially hard to accelerate up hills. I have to stay in 2nd till about 4000 rpm so i can be above 2000 when I shift to 3rd. Or else I'm crawling up the hill.

 
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Age might be another problem, the engine with that much mileage will not run like a top, unless you were the original owner and knew for sure how it was maintained.

As for not being able to put it into 1st I wonder if that is a clutch issue, I am not super familar with manual trans.

 
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Yeah, hopefully I can get a decent new job and be able to start swapping old parts for new parts before all the little problems start becoming big problems.

Does anyone know of a place that I can get information on swapping my engine and still passing California smog standards?

Like is there a site that I input the year, make, and model of my car and it will give me a list of all the engines I can put in?