Paybax said:
How do I know?? Because my car was the same way, didn’t you read that above?
Was your car a DSM? What if I told you that several of my and our customers DSMs were the same way and they never were flooded?
Paybax said:
How can anyone say for sure what the problem is?
Knowledge and experience
. One can analyse the symptoms an eliminate possibilities 'til he narrows the cause of the problem down. That's why I said that the car would flood even when cold. The engine may flood only for two reasons: too much fuel (= stuck injectors, mulfunctioning FPR, etc.) or weak or no spark (= ignition problem). In both cases, the temperature of the engine would not affect the results in any way and the flooding problem would exist even with the engine running (= the injectors wouldn't be somehow mysteriously stuck open or the ignition wouldn't work only during start-up when the engine is warm). Since the engine idles and runs fine once started even when warm, the problem is obviously in the events occuring during start-up. Since we can eliminate any ignition issues (since they would persist even after the engine would start) the problem is obviously fuel related and the only thing related to fuel that's happening during start-up is that the FPS closes the vacuum signal to the FPR to prevent fuel pressure decrease and fuel evaporation in the hot fuel rail - which consequently makes the car easier to start when the engine is hot. Once started, the FPS opens and the fuel pressure is regulated by the pressure in the intake manifold. It's easy to check by disconnecting the FPS line from the intake manifold and plugging the nipple on the intake manifold prior to trying to start the engine.
It's just a simple elimination process...
There's an easy way to check if the engine's flooding: Pull the spark plugs and see if they're soaked with gas.
You can't always base every advice on "my car was the same way" (especially if it even wasn't a DSM), otherwise you could be telling people that their cars don't start because they bent valves and now have to pull the head - because your car didn't start either when you bent your valves - and their problem could be in their fuel pump or CAS.
Paybax said:
Have you ever tried to start a flood car? Some cars have an automatic fuel cut switch installed by the owner or by the factory. If you crank the engine with your foot to the floor it will not let any more fuel into the engine. So you engine will no longer be flooded when you take your foot off the pedal and just crank it over normally. So the end result is an engine that isn’t flooded anymore. But if you don’t even try to do that then try push starting it because it will force the extra fuel out and you will see black/blue smoke. If you just keep cranking the engine it won’t burn the fuel off but you will just smell all the gas out your tail pipe.
Yes, I think I've tried to start a few flooded DSMs in the 12 years I've owned and worked on them
. Unfortunately, DSMs don't have any automatic fuel cut switch you're talking about as some other cars might have. The only way to force the fuel out of the cylinders (if flooded) is by removing the MPI fuse (to prevent the ECU and fuel pump from turning on) and cranking the engine over. It's much easier and less time consuming than pushing the car in gear and the key OFF down the street. Even if you do so - and the engine is no longer flooded, you haven't fixed the cause of the problem - and there's no point to pushing the car down the street if the engine starts on its own after being flooded - as you think it's happening in m[ohio]'s case. :dunno:
