Hi guys

Almost reached 2000 kms. Have done about 10 cold starts, without any problem.

Yesterday, however, after a long drive I stopped for about half an hour, and when I restarted the engine, it took about two seconds to fire up, whereas, before, it always fired up at the first turn of the key, even with cold starts.

So what I am asking is this: Could flooding be caused due to a long-term effect - because I have done many cold starts - irrespective of whether you are starting cold or not at the specific moment?

Thanks in advance for your wisdom

 

Hmmmmmm, that's a good question. IMO the only cumulative effect might be gradual spark plug fouling or carbon build up. But if you push the car to redline fairly frequently, it should help minimize both of those factors. If you are experiencing "hard starts" (i.e., extended cranking before start) with a warm engine, that is probably unrelated to a flooding condition.

 

the exact same thing happened to me . and it has only happened when the engine is either fully warm or fairly warm. it usually starts right up in the morning when it is around 45-50 degrees. however, i took it to the gym today, went in for about 30 minutes, came out and it took about 2-3 seconds for it to start going.other times itll start right up the second i turn the key. but i always let mine warm up for 2-3 minutes if im starting from a cold engine. if its already heated up, i just plug in my ipod and turn on my radar and go.

 

The flooding is caused by excess liquid fuel in the engine. Once it starts and runs that is gone. So that wouldn't be likely to be cumulative. Hard starts are usually caused by one of a few things:
1. Fouled plugs as mentioned above. Drive slowly for a while or let it idle for an excessive amount of time and you could end up with fouled plugs. They will usually clean after a few minutes of high power use (highway for example).
2. Stuck injector. They can stick even when quite new. There are six in this rotary engine, so the chances of one sticking is greater than previous engines that had four. When they stick open, a small amount of fuel will dribble into the engine. When they get old, you will find more than one will dribble, and flooding will result. There is an easy fix for this, but we will not need it for a few years. The injector/fuel pump system in the RX-8 is pretty much the same as previous engines (except you now have six injectors instead of four). On second gen. RX-7s we just put a switch in the fuel pump power line. When you were about to shut down, you shut off the switch first, then when the engine began to die shut it off. When starting, you start cranking the engine and turn on the fuel pump switch. Clearly, the switch should be mounted on the left so you can operate the keyswitch and fuel pump switch at the same time. If you install the switch and hide it you also have additional security.
3. Nearly dead battery. This will result in lower cranking RPM, therefore poorer apex seal operation. This will in turn result in poor engine breathing, and poor cleanout of any liquid fuel in the engine. Poor starting.
I'm sure most of you by now realize it doesn't take much power to turn over the rotary engine, so a poor battery will be less noticeable, as the engine appears to still turn over well. The cranking RPM just drops a bit. To test a battery, connect a voltmeter to it such that you can see the readout and crank the engine. The voltage shouldn't drop below about 11V. If it goes to 10V or less, you have lost a cell and it's time for a new battery.

 

There is a TBS for crank engine no start and battery replacement. Your battery may be failing. If so it could cause a flooded engine. It happened to me and was repaired under the TBS. They replaced the battery, put in the new plugs and cleared the flooded engine. It starts first crank now. I'm happy.

 

Thanks for your contribution guys. Could it be the fuel quality?

 

Don't worry too much. Two seconds is a pretty good start time.