Running Problems - Need Help

[civic88_1.5]

Hey Guys,
I've got a 88 Honda Civic with some issues that are causing me quite an amount of grief.
About two weeks ago it started to play up especially first thing in the morning or late in the afternoon (going home from work). It was sputtering a bit and sounded like a cylinder wasn't firing.
I got the spark plugs, leads and the rotor cap replaced which seemed to stop the problems I was having.
The next day the car died on me after having driven it for about 5 minutes and wouldn't start.
It had to be towed and then I found out the Distributor needed to be completely replaced, which it was and I got it back last Tuesday.
About a day later the problem reappeared but this time not only was it running rough in the morning but there was a heap of sooty black crap sputtering out of the exhaust especially if I put the car into drive from park (while sitting in my garage).
I took it back to my mechanic and he found out that the Distributor that had been replaced (by another mechanic) incorrectly or that they had replaced the Distributor with a wrong type/size. There were a heap of metal fillings/shavings inside the Distributor Cap and he ordered it to be fixed.
Fast forward to yesterday and I finally got my car back, but the problem still persists.
This morning it had great difficulties driving up my driveway (it's quite steep) and I noticed it had lost power driving up the hill near my home yesterday afternoon. In particular the car loses power when it changes into 3rd gear, once it does it loses half of it's guts.
Does anyone know what could be causing these issues?
The sputtering is still happening, there is still black sooty crap coming out of the exhaust and it has no power on hills, what's the deal???
The muffler does have a small hole in it and does need to be fixed/replaced could this have something to do with it?
Anyhelp would be greatly appreciated as I'm still getting used to this whole car business.

Regards