Ok, now I'm getting annoyed...

Made the mistake of starting the car and cutting it off after moving it out of the driveway. Car's flooded, won't start. I've tried every trick in the book including:

*Pedal to the floor, crank 15 sec, pedal released, crank, repeat.
*Pedal to the floor, crank 15 sec 3 times, start like normal
*Same thing as above with EGI and Fuel pump fuses pulled.
*Same thing as above, with the WD40
*Pulled plugs, cleaed, cranked with plugs out 3 times, observed crap (fuel/oil/WD40 remains) spit out, plugs back in, crank like normal.
*same as above, except pedal to the floor when cranking
*New plugs - even though plugs in it have less than 1000 miles. (NGK 9EQPs and standard NGK7, 9s)
*Same as above, except 6 cranks for 15 secs on clear **** out.
*Variations of the above multiple times.

By the last time I pulled the plugs, basically, they were pretty clean and not really wet anymore. Still no damn start.

Once in a while you get a little cough here and there like it's wanting to do something, but nothing.

You would guess, ****, mabe it's not getting fuel, or spark - but it's been starting and running no problems.

Short of trying to pull start, any ideas?

Thanks!

 

Throw a littl ATF in the bottom spark plug holes to help build compression. About 1 ounce per chamber

 

i had the same problem a few months back, i tried everything you listed. the problem was that the battery was not fully charged(from repeated cranking). cold cranking amps was low. the spark was not strong enough. i pulled both relays, cranked the engine over without the plugs. installed new plugs. i pulled the battery from by honda and used it to start the car.

 

Oh yeah, forgot - tried ATF as well.
Battery is new, trickle charged continuously with battery tender over the past few days of all this...

 

bump

 

Try the ATF again. You don't need to remove the spark plug, just pump a little down the BOV & boost gauge nipple on the upper manifold. Use about a 6"-8" vacuum hose and dip it in the ATF bottle and then put your thumb over the top end of the hose (like a straw). Then let it flow into the manifold. This should work better since you will be getting the ATF in before the compression stroke, which should build better compression.
It is unlikely that your ignition whent bad, but who knows, it could happen. .

 

Also, try jumping the battery with another car running while you start it. Batteries do go bad even if they say they are fully charged.

 

....and even if your battery is perfect, having another battery that is being charged in parallel will give you significantly more cranking voltage, and that may do the trick.

 

Make sure you didn't bump or disconnect something else in the process - like the MAP sensor vacuum hose or the like.

Sometimes you REALLY have to crank on the car for a while and pump the pedal while cranking to get it to fire back up.

Can you hear compression pulses as it cranks, or does it sound "smooth"?

Dale

 

I'll try ATF again, and double check MAP, etc... - yeah, there are definite pulses (the engine is recently rebuilt, about 700 miles on it). It coughes every once in a while when turning over, like it wants to do something....
thanks!

 

All these posts are pretty spot on...

When this exact same thing happened to me, I found that openig the throttle made it worse unless you have disconnected the injection..You should attempt the cleanout portion making sure no more fluid is getting into the chambers. Make sure if you pull the plugs to crank with WOT with the relayed pulled.

Also be prepared to try more than once. Crank with BOTH the ignition and fuel injection disconnected (plugs removed). You don't want any sparks with all that fuel in the air. When I first cranked it, there was a cloud of gas vapor in the garage. I didn't figure that to be very safe.

Also, I used ATF... It was clearly noticeable that a weak battery will prevent it from starting.

When it did start, there was an enormous amount of smoke....If it is coughing, you are close... Just don't push it if the battery dies off ...and be careful with too much throttle when you attempt the start.

 

Same problem recently.
I cranked it with the peddle floored 3 times, waiting a minute or two between each, then cranked it without touching the gas peddle. Did this process 3 times a day (4 cranks each time, 3 times a day), and on the 7th day it fired. A jumper pack helped too. Keep cranking it with the peddle floored till there is little or no gas smell from the tail pipe, then crank it without touching the peddle. At first mine smoked out the tail pipe just cranking, and the "smoke" reaked of gas, when it stopped, she fired up, ran rough, but ran.
Dear Maz,
IOU 1 set of plugs

 

Are you sure that it is flooded? Try getting a fuel pressure gauge and seeing what is happening.

 

Nearly every rotary owner goes thru this and learns the hard way.
Everything you have been doing is the routine way to get the flooded engine to re-start. Keep in mind that you have screwed up the air-fuel mixture in the combustion chamber and this is why it will not start. Remove the plugs, remove the fuel pump fuse and crank the motor -a lot- to get as much of the residual fuel out of the combustion chambers. You need to do this a couple of times, letting it sit for a while in between. If you have compressed air, blow air into the spark plug holes, also. Careful you do not make any sparks while you are venting off the residual fuel vapor. Ideally, you want to get the chambers bone dry of fuel- like they would be after combustion.
After you get the chambers dry, squirt about 1 oz of ATF into each chamber, thru the spark plug hole. Crank the engine for about 15 seconds to distribute the oil and re-seal the seals. Then make sure you have a fully charged battery, so all of your hard work will not be lost if the battery dies while you are re-starting. If you have a second vehicle to use to jump start, use that to boost your cranking power. Put the plugs back in, replace your fuel pump fuse and crank the engine, using your jumper cables and the other car- with its engine running to give you as much voltage as possible. Initially, start it like normal- do not floor the accelerator. Should make much smoke when it starts! Good luck.

 

I'll try the ATF again, and also check the fuel pressure (just in case). Thanks for all the advice!

 

How did you get on silver93?

I wonder if you had done something to upset the air/fuel ratio!

I have a '95 which I have just changed air filters on and now have the 'flooded engine syndrome'. I changed from the K&N pods back to the standard just for comparision purposes but I couldn't get the car to start. I'm guessing the more restrictive standard box filter doesn't allow as much air to be sucked into the engine, causing the mixture to be too rich for igniting.

BTW has anyone used just regular engine oil rather than ATF? I would figure it would be enough to build compression though not as much compression as ATF. Think also it would be more 'motor friendly'.

 

Here's what I tried after all the BS - got it to the top of a hill and let it roll down for a roll start.
Didn't work.

Rollback brought it back to the house. As he's offloading, with the rear of the car angled down, about 2 cups of mainly coolant, some fuel and a bit of ATF mixed in, slowly comes out of the tailpipe.

So, engine has been pulled and sent out for overhaul. When pulling the exhaust off, Another cup or so of the same came out from the pipes.

General opinion is there is a cracked rotor housing. Oh well, it's being rebuilt....

 

Cracked rotor housing? It's more likely a poorly installed/blown coolant seal. Your better off upgrading to the teflon encapsolated coolant seals for the rebuild.