Ok guys i flooded out tonight *grumble* anyway after siting in the car trying to remember witch plug i need to pull under the dash i remembered that there is a plug for the fuel pump right on the drivers side shock tower...
so i went whiped out the pocket knife (remeber boys and girls Always be Prepaird 'Mr Boy Scout') and unscrewed the speaker cover pulled back the molding and the carpit and disconnected power to the fuel pump.

why hasent anyone talked about this before? this is a hella lot easyer then the ATF pull fuse crank engine thing... and works quicker..

Jess

(88' Turbo II)

 

woops misred.....mabye you should find the problem of the flooding..could be a leaky injector...

 

or just pull the EGI fuse? :P

 

or just crimp the fuel line.

 

I heard that the problem was really something to do with a problem with the ECU

 

Ohhh and i've never had the EGI fuse work :-P

 

or just put the gas pedal to the floor.

 

isn't the gas pedal thing for s5 rx7s?

 

Maybe. I have heard it works on the S4's as well. Dunno for sure, I don't own an S4.

 

can you pull the EGI fuse while it is running, or do you have to cut power directly from the fuel pump?

 

That's one way to do it, but it's still more work than you need to do. The fuel pump relay under the dash (which a fuel pump kill switch can be wired into) can be reached while sitting in the drivers seat. Just reach under and unplug it to disable the pump.

BTW, this isn't a "fix for flooding", it's simply an unflooding method. If you fix the cause of the flooding (usually dirty injectors), you won't need to unflood it...

 

I remember when my friend first got his 89' rx7 awhile back (I have one too now of course), before either of us knew anything about the car, it would flood occasionally. We weren't sure why it wouldn't turn over. It would crank crank and crank but wouldnt start. Anyway, i'm not sure why...but push starting the car would get it going after which I later recalled the heavy smell of unburnt fuel when it got going. I'm pretty sure we did that at least twice before he learned that it was flooding and holding the gas pedal at wot would fuel cut the car and let it start. If anyone knows why that worked i wouldnt mind knowing.

 

You can also take a handpump (if you are using ATF) and pump it into the nipple on the passenger side of an intake. Much easier than pulling plugs, although it isn't as effective. It works well for me though

 

Some thoughts on flooding -

First off, there are MANY things that can cause an RX-7 to flood. More common than leaky injectors are worn motors with worn apex seals. The engine will still idle smooth, not smoke, and make good power, but it will flood during a hot start.

Leaky injectors IMHO are just a contributor to a weak motor having hot start problems, not the cause. Hell, my '86 base has 180,000 mile injectors that have NEVER been professionally cleaned, and it NEVER floods. Reason being the motor pulls 20+ inches of vacuum at idle with the 6-ports open - it's tight as a drum.

Other factors will contribute greatly to a worn motor starting or flooding, and taking care of them will help out. Here's the hit list -

- Worn spark plugs
- Worn plug wires
- Bad battery/starter - you need nice, quick cranking
- Bad/misadjusted TPS
- Leaky fuel injectors
- Bad water temp sensor

Anything that causes the car to crank slower, have weaker spark, or put too much fuel in at cranking will contribute to the problem.

It still amazes me that no one can seem to figure out the fuel pump relay under the dash. It's super easy to get to - heck, you can even reach it sitting in the driver's seat while cranking on the car! There's no good reason to screw around with the EGI fuse, the fuel pump electrical connector, what have you.

On cars that routinely flood, install a fuel pump switch. It takes all of 10 minutes and $3 in parts. If you go to start the car and it isn't starting, stop cranking, flip the switch, crank again, it will start, then flip the switch back. Super easy. Hell, it's a good idea to have a fuel pump switch on a car that doesn't flood - if you have to move the car out of the garage or something, you can shut it down with the fuel pump switch and not worry about it flooding from a cold start.

The ATF trick is only a last resort. A relatively healthy motor WILL start by shutting off the fuel pump, starting the motor on residual fuel, then turning the pump back on. Hell, my last motor had a broken apex seal, a broken side seal, 2 broken corner seals, a street port, and pulled 10" of vacuum, and would start every time with the fuel pump switch.

Anyhow, if you have to put oil/ATF in the combustion chamber to start the car, there's something really wrong - that is one worn out or blown motor. A weak motor that's flooded badly from a cold start will probably need oil/ATF to get going, but judicious use of the fuel pump switch (shut it off with the switch) will keep this problem from happening.

BTW, I prefer using oil to start a badly flooded car with - ATF is only good on cars that are carbon locked, been sitting for a long time, etc. - the rationale is the detergents in ATF will help break down the carbon deposits. Oil is usually more plentiful in my garage than ATF, and is quite a bit thicker.

Anyhow, I'm 5-starring this thread in hopes that this writeup goes in the archive .

Dale

 

Pull the plug from under the steering column down by the gas pedal.

 

It's part of the ECU's programming on Series 5 cars. It the ECU sees WOT and a start signal (i.e. cranking), it stops opening the injectors. This allows you to easily clear a flooded engine. Series 4's won't do this.

 

Oh kay i dident expect a super big responce.. BTW i found that the plu under the dash is easy to get too but it has 3 clips on it that make it a pain in the *** to pull out..i was going to give her a ATF bath as i've heard good things about it bit. she has 164K on her and i want to try and make her happy *IE full tune up*

 

This is true, but it's a lot cheaper to get the injectors cleaned than it is to rebuild the motor. In many, many cases having the injectors cleaned has cured a flooding problem, or at least made it occur less often. Fixing the simple easy things you mentioned to ensure good cranking speed, strong spark, etc, as well as cleaning the injectors, should fix the problem. As a bonus you'll get a better running car, because no engine with dirty injectors will be running as well as it could.

 

thats true.. *starts looking in the fac service manual on removing the injectors*

 

Jason - could you please dumb it down for me a bit, flooding has only happened to me twice in a year - but i would still like to know where the relay is to save me trouble of popping the hood and removing the the under bonnet relay.

Remember i am right hand drive like yourself - so can we reach from the drivers seat???

Is this a simple kill/security measure as well?? Ie remove the relay and walk away - will the car start and die with this removed??

Cheers

 

The fuel pump relay (or circuit opening relay to give its correct name) is under the steering column on both LHD and RHD cars, so you can reach it from the seat once you know where to feel. Stick you head down into the footwell and follow the steering column. The plug is bright yellow so you can't miss it. Unplugging the relay will completely disable the fuel pump, so the engine might start and run briefly on the first attampt, but not after that since all the fuel's been used up. The relay's bolted in place, so you can't just pull it out and replace it without tools. But leaving the relay unplugged would effectively disable the car until a thief had a good look around, saw the loose plug and figured it out. If he finds it and if he plugs it back in, the pump will work again. But it will definitely slow him down, hopefully long enough to make him give up and move on.

 

How bout this PUSH START THE CAR you push it ten feet with even just you pushing if your not a tellitubby and pop the clutch wow it works