I was stupid, and chanced it with a short 3-block drive without letting the engine warm up completely. I know I've only got myself to blame. But now it WILL NOT unflood. I've pulled the EGI fuse and cranked it on with the gas pedal floored for several minutes (and I'm getting a strong smell of gas at first, so I know it's moving vapors out). When I stop smelling gas, I put the fuse back in, and do NOT touch the gas pedal, and it just won't start. It'll pop a few times and die, and go back to just staying dead.
Last time, I ended up buying brand new plugs ($8 a pop, *ouch*!), and after another minute or so of cranking, it fired up. The old plugs were pretty blackened, and were soaked in gas.
Swapped the old plugs in, taking the new ones out. Now the new ones don't look so hot. Is this how plugs only one week old should look?

http://jiki.pbase.com/u17/waldowin/m...8365.plugs.jpg

These also reek of gas, and so I'm going to let them sit out for a few hours to dry off. Is there any way to clean these things up so they're guaranteed to fire strong when I try to start the car in the morning? I NEED the car to work in the morning, this isn't optional.

Any other sure-fire ways of getting these things to start when flooded would be great.

 

Few sure fire, take the plugs out.. spray some starter fluid in the engine.. spin to get the starter fluid and gas out... clean the plugs up with a wire brush.,. spray them with carb clearner or starterfluid as well.. dry them out.. blow on them a few times.. watch your eyes.. Put the plugs back in and should fire right up.

If still fails.. try adding a bit of motor oil into the trailing spark plug.. crank it a few times with the plugs out to help build comression.. and then just fire it up.

Also when replacing plugs form a flooded engine.. you could just by two leadings and that should get the engine fired up.. once your plugs heats up your trailing shoul be working fine.. if there not worn of course.

And your picture doesn't work.

 

Fixed picture link, sorry.
http://www.pbase.com/waldowin/wth

The plugs look MUCH cleaner now, however. Soaked them in hot water and this orange spray-cleaner I've got sitting around. Scoured with a brass brush, and it came out nice and shiny.

 

I put the pedal to the floor whenver I start it and it hasnt flooded since, this is an S4 BTW.

 

Unplugging the fuel pump relay under the dash usually worked for me.. Gives you a spark while cranking.

 

where exactly is that? i know its around the steering column release...i think

 

Unplugging the fuel pump relay sounds like the way to go. Where can I find it at? (The interior of this car was stripped down pretty heavily for weight reduction, so most of the wires/fuses are easily gotten to.

 

Its easy to find..

Follow the steering column down the right side.. You will find a yellow connector and a relay. Once that is unplugged the fuel pump is disabled.

This allows you to unflood from the comfort of your own automobile. I never understood why all of you insist on pulling those damn fuses all the time.

 

OK, I've done all of this. I've pulled the plugs and EGI, spun it around, watched the wonderful gasoline cloud come out. Plugs cleaned off, dried, put back in, and it *almost* starts. It'll catch a few times, and die. Even tried the fuel pump relay trick, no go.
One thing I noticed about the plugs that I bought for the car was that they *all* have the blue banding around the top. Would this cause problems?

 

try unplugging the CAS with the plugs out. this will cut the fuel pump completly along wit the spark and possibly the injectors. Leave the trailing plugs in but remove the leading plugs. Hold the pedal to the floor and crank the engine. Make sure you have good charge in your battery. Crank the engine a few times till you see no more fuel coming out.

After that. charge up the battery or put jumpers on so you have a nice strong charge and put everything back together and try starting it while you hold the pedal about 1/2 way down.

 

are u able to take a pic of the spark plugs with the blue band you are talking about? in the other pic looks like u have the same plugs as me but the way u made it sound, it sounds like you have 4 of the same plugs. 2 plugs should have T and 2 plugs should have L. I had same problem as you, i ended up getting new plugs and it started right up.

 

dude, i've heard changing the oil will help with the unflooding. i need to do that on mine

 

changing the oil wont do anything to unflood the engine. You need to get the gas OUT of the chambers to get it to unflood

 

if u have one of those small torches that use that small blue bottle just put that to the plugs for em to dry, i did that to mine and dryed them really good

 

I heard that checking the tire pressure on your car may help unflooding :-)

Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

 

wouldnt hurt to change the oil.....if u check the dip stick..its probably pretty thinned out.....i cleaned my plugs out with some carb cleaner then roasted them on the stove to make sure they were bone dry.....

i think eventually.......u'll want to have ur injector cleaned....so u dont have to go through this process on a daily basis

 

have you tried what I said? That has never faild me.. might also want to check compresion.. maybe engine is blown.

 

I've done everything you recommended except putting oil in the lower spark plug holes. Going to the store to buy new plugs and a baster to inject the oil with, and maybe that will do the trick.
Man, I hope the engine's not blown. I just bought this thing, and it's an absolute blast.

 

well u can check if it has some compression, have a friend crank the motor while u put ur finger over the spark plug hole, pull out the egi fuse tho or however u do it and see if there is a lot of little compression if u cant hold ur finger over it really good then ur good

 

God-damn. Took a closer look at the plugs I pulled from the car...they're amazingly worn down. Yanked the old ones, tossed some oil in the engine, spun it, put some new plugs in, and it fired right up.
Now I need to fix the pinhole leak between the radiator cap and the resevoir (it won't draw from the resevoir, and it has a new radiator cap). Slightly overheated the car before I realized it was low (needle about 4/5 of the way up the gauge).
Hopefully THAT didn't kill it now (damnit). Seems to run fine though, I'll know more when it cools enough to dump coolant into.