Okay. I replaced my coolant thermosensor (top sensor on the coolant fill neck) last night. After putting everything back together, my car started up just fine, although it was running extremely rich and had bad idle. This morning I pulled everything apart again, checked the thermosensor, and a few vacuum lines that were involved in the install. I filled up the coolant at the coolant neck, put everything together again, then started the car back up. Perhaps it was too full on coolant, but it had great difficulty starting up and made a single clank noise somewhere on the passenger side of the engine bay. I got out, drained a bit of the coolant and then took everything apart again. Then I remembered these symptoms were similar to what I had last time when the MAP sensor was off, checked it, and lo and behold the line was off. Plugged it back in, put everything together, and started it..

Cranked strong, smelled fuel, but didn't start. I tried the unflooding tricks (15 sec throttle, 15 sec no throttle, as well as the EGI fuse) but nothing. It wanted to start up for about a second, but then just dies. I don't know if it's a connector I forgot somewhere (I've checked four times), a vacuum hose left unplugged, or a fuse that burnt out. I'm starting to run out of ideas.

Cliff notes:
- Replacing water thermosensor
- 1st startup ok, running very rich and bad idle
- Checked hoses/connectors/etc and added (too much) coolant
- 2nd startup difficult to start, drained excess coolant
- Remembered MAP sensor, plugged it in, that would solve the running rich but:
- Will not start up anymore. Wants to start for a second, then dies. Cranks strong.

 

Hey, stating the obvious is better than not saying anything at all

Anyways it doesn't seem to fire anymore. I'm not very sure that it is flooded because all the other times this has happened the unflooding procedures worked pretty well. I was so close to getting everything working at 100% I'm kicking myself for pulling everything apart again and messing with it and not remembering to just connect the MAP.

 

A few hours later, I tried starting it up again, nada. Did the 15 sec WOT, 15 sec normal trick to no avail. I am starting to think it may not be flooding after all. I double checked all my lines and connectors, this is the only one that I don't remember:









Is this supposed to lead somewhere? I can't find it on my vacuum diagram.
http://www.turborx7.com/images/Techn...e_diagram2.jpg

 

I drained it to about half an inch above the coolant sensor. I recognize that it should be at the very top, but I just wanted to return it to where it was before this startup difficulty, as the problems seem to began when I filled the coolant all the way up.

Thanks everyone for replying, I guess the plugged line was just a shot in the dark. I'm still trying the EGI trick to clear out the fuel, I will tell you how that goes. If it doesnt work I will try the ATF suggestion. My plugs are a few months old, and I really don't want to pull everything apart again to get them out, but I will use that as a last resort.

Thank all. Any other suggestions appreciated too

 

Got it started up

Just for archival purposes for anyone else who finds this thread:

Symptoms: Cranks strong, initially starts up briefly (for a second maybe) but dies, subsequent startups do not fire. Exhaust pipe and general engine bay smells heavily of gasoline.

Cause: Engine flooded with gasoline

Fix: Read the above responses. Then here's what I did: I took out the EGI fuse and EGI main relay (both in fuse boxes near the battery) and then cranked the car under WOT (wide open throttle ie gas pedal all the way down). This helps clear the combustion chambers of fuel. Since my spark plugs were fairly new (less than a year old) I did not want to hassle with them. I replace the fuses after cranking for two ten second intervals and then crank it up normally. It didn't go the first five times, so I repeated the process, waiting about fifteen minutes between each trial. All the while the battery was under charging. Finally the last try it started up, I thought it was a fluke, but I hit the gas pedal to keep it from dying and it kept running. As everyone described above and in other flooding threads there was a large amount of fuel/smoke and it was very rough the first five-ten minutes. There was backfire coming from the exhaust until I revved it to 6k RPMs about twelve minutes into it. That cleared the exhaust of high fuel exhaust and smoothed everything off.

Conclusion: The process would have probably taken much less time if I had done some of the plug and ATF suggestions, but I didn't want to bother with those at all, especially since it was getting dark. The cooler air from the night (it's about 8:30pm right now) probably helped in a small way.

Overall lesson: Check your MAP sensor always if you are running rich, even if you didn't have to touch that area doing whatever it is you were doing

Thank you everyone for your help.