Hi everyone, I'm a proud new owner of a 91 Series V FC3S from Malaysia. Having just gotten the car for a week, I am totally satisfied with the car other than a few minor issues. I've found that after a hard drive, if I restart the engine after turning off for about 20minutes, the engine s very hard to crank and seems to be flooded. Starter is strong and plugs only have about 1000km on them (so the previous owner says). But during cold start in the morning, the car will crank into life on the first try within 2 seconds! Which tells me that it is not a compression problem.. Anyone have such experience with this engine? Also, it gets 'flooded' too sometimes after a short drive then restarting...

Please advice! Cheers.

 

Always let your FC warm up completely before you shut it off. This will prevent flooding. Another way to discourage flooding is to get your injectors serviced. Another way to prevent it is to get a fuel cut switch installed.

The hard starting when the car is cooling off is common as well. I just got good at starting mine. What I do is: When you turn the key the engine will fire for a split second then die, right as the engine fires blip the throttle and it starts right up.

 

THanks for the quick reply.

I was very tempted to give it a bit of gas but to my knowledge wouldn't that give a detrimental effect on EFI cars? Certain EFI cars when hard to crank the factory manual actually suggest to open the throttle fully instead of blipping or pumping the throttle. I think the reason behind is not to foul the throttle position sensor's zero calibration.. Just my 2 cents.

I've tried ur technique last night out of desperation and it worked! Was actually at this illegal race gathering and a cop turned up, everyone jumped into their cars and sped off except me...

 

Oh noooo.. I just read from somewhere that hot start problem could be due to low compression! How can I confirm that other than a typical compression test? Seems a bit tricky for this kind of engine.

 

You say that after the car has been driven, and sits for 20 minutes, it's hard to start. That's very typical of a flooding problem, and on our cars, it's a common problem due to leaking injectors. Do a search for it, and you'll find several "cures," some permanent, some less so. The easiest method to prevent flooding on a hot restart is to install a kill switch on the fuel pump, and use that to shut off the engine. That way, there is no fuel remaining in the lines to leak into the engine. You'll find the wiring for it in the archives.

 

You're right, though. Warm start problems CAN be caused by low compression. When the engine is cold, the lubrication on the seals is thicker, resulting in higher compression/quick starts. Warm, lube is thinner, harder to make compression. I'd go ahead and check the compression to be sure, but there's just as good a chance that it's fine.
Congrats on the ride, you're in for a lot of fun!

 

on a series 5 car, holding the throttle pedal at wide open throttle (all the way down on the floor) cuts the fuel so that you can start it when it is flooded.

 

Thanks for all the advice guys! We'll wait for the next flooding and I'll give the full throttle a go, else if its a compression prob, I might just buy another spare engine and get it ported and wait till the existing one KO.