Well not really, but it feels like it. After 76063 miles of abuse, I accidentally flooded Ruby's engine. Road with my folks out to Ocean Shores on the fourth, so I moved Ruby to the garage. I would have sworn I reved her up before shutting her down, but regardless, as I was leaving for my cousin's wedding Saturday, she wouldn't start. Ran out to flag down my folks and road with them.

Tried the Owners Manual Procedure
BTW, it's just like on any other car. Stomp on the gas while cranking the engine over and the ECU replicates the auto-choke on carb'd cars. Do this for up to ten seconds. Then let the starter cool, and try to start her up.

No Dice.

Tried pulling spark plugs to pump the fuel out, no Dice.

Finally had my Dad tow the car in gear and... sputter, cough, vroom!

After a few minutes of pumping out white smoke, she drives like new. I hadn't realized how much performance she'd lost. The tail end kicks out easy enough now that I'm having to readjust my driving style to compensate.

Gotta pick up some seafoam or Mazda Zoom Engine cleaner and do a proper de-carb, but it turns out maybe an occasional flooding is a good thing.

Note, I haven't done a proper compression test, but the puff-puff-puff on both rotors sounded strong and even on all three rotor faces.

Getting on the freeway this morning, I stomped the gas to move into the left lane and actually had to back out of it. The entire time I've been working at MS I've been doing the same manuever and had plenty of room to spare. This time, same situation, same maneuver, I nearly got into the back of the car whizzing by in the left lane. And this is all on the MM Stage 1 map. I need to go back to the tuned map and see how things are.

 

I doesn't sound like you need a new engine. Congratulations on your new found power.

 

I didn't say I needed a new engine. I said it feels like I have a new engine.

 

Wow... congrats... I think. I can't recall anyone saying something like this after they flooded their 8. But then again, I can't recall anyone saying they did a restart procedure like you did

 

Thanks. I think it's that all the fuel may have partially de-carbed the engine.

 

When you pulled the spark plugs, did you pull the fuel injector fuse, too? If you don't, it won't make an ounce of difference. Also - one thing when you start a flooded engine like you did, you may have had a lot of gas sitting in your cat, and when you started it up it's possible (unlikely, but possible) that that gas was ignited, and torched your cat into tiny chunks.

Congrats on the newfound power, though

 

Yes, I pulled the fuel injector fuse.

 

 

what gear are you in when your tail kicks out? I have a hard time doing that with mine.....wonder if I need to do a decarb procedure. I haven't felt any power loss or anything--feels the same since I got it. Maybe it's just been running crappy the whole time.

edit: I just realized maybe its my plugs and coils.....I have 20K Miles on the car now...never know what the previous owner did to it tho...


--Jonathan

 

What? The previous owner of the one I have now flooded it and did the "deathcon 5" method to unflood it (pullstart), and it torched the cat just like I described.

 

She gets lose in 2nd consistantly, and and pretty readily in 3rd. I haven't had the pleasure of squeazing on throttle in 4th at corner exit since this happened. I'll be out playing this weekend some and will probably have a chance to test it out then.

 

wow, my car must be way down on power then......I got an appointment with mazda friday to see whats up. I'll keep you guys updated!

--Jonathan

 

Oh great. Like you're not hard enough to keep up with on the drives...

 

I still need to retune the suspension and tire pressures. Previously, she was pretty sticky even in 2nd. Plus, I'm growing less happy with my current set of tires by the day.

The biggest indicator is that she does push me back in the seat a bit again, and she wasn't doing that before. I wouldn't have believed she was lacking power before hand, but after the fact, it's definitely better.

 

I'm also considering getting "Summer" tires, and I'm back on the MM 1.0 Map, too.

Chris (S2000Junky) was right on my rear-bumper all day in June. Can't let that stand.

 

That's it! I'm Getting Racing Slicks!!

 

Just add Smoothness, and get the "Oh S***" delete flash for the integrated vehicle dynamics manager. :D

 

 

I've got an extra pair of summers if you want to take a look at them. I haven't compared them to the tread left on my original summers. They came on the extra set of rims I bought. I still haven't taken the rims to see if the cardboard "etching" pattern from shipping can be buffed out or repaired. You're welcome to take a look if you want.

 

So what did your exhaust tips look like before and after the new found power? Mine are always caked in carbon after a couple hundred miles. Nonetheless, good work getting it started again, sounds like it was a pain.

^What are the tire specs?

 

What kind of tires are those?

Exhaust tips are always coated in crap. I need to pull the exhaust down and take the polishing wheel to them to get them back to anything resembling shiny.

Unfortunately I drive Ruby hard all the time, and as much as I'd like her to constantly sparkling clean, I never have more than a few hours at time to work on that. Plush, after a wash and wax, and maybe a quick tip polish, I need to go for a drive.

 

[QUOTE=kristopher_d;2542397].

Unfortunately I drive Ruby hard all the timeQUOTE]

yeah 90 on a gravel road, I believe you do

How's that tranny still? When mine went out I droped it off at the dealership and they said they couldn't get it into first gear and were shocked I drove it so far (spokane). I hope yours doesn't turn out like that.

 

I didn't look closely at the tires because I really just wanted the wheels, but I think they are the stock Potenzas. I can't remember how many miles they have on them, but I can try to find the notes from Rocky and see if he mentioned it. I figured I would just compare them to my stock summers, which I only used for 7-8 months.

Did you try Eagle 1 "Never Dull" yet? At the recommendation of a couple people here - I think Ireland got recommended it - I bought some, but haven't used it. I don't really need it yet though.

 

[QUOTE=fahrfegneugen;2542405]Did you just lose your tranny after driving here?

 

^haha, yeah you pushed me too hard I actually think it shifts smoother after that drive, jk.

Nah, it went out in February after I got the car, wasn't my fault . It first started grinding on downshifts to second going about 20-25 and then fowled on some 7k plus upshifts and got increasingly worse and worse. I don't know though, I could drive it for a while, it was that whole thing about "knowing your car" lol. I dropped the fluid and it was pure metal with little chunks, lol.