Date:         Mon, 14 Jul 1997 19:27:06 -0400
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         SStones <sstones@idirect.com>
Subject:      Re: '85 GL won't start

At 22:46 7/13/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Phil, I'm not an expert, but I believe depressing the accelator to the
>floor is only used for a flooded, carborated engine. With fuel injection,
>you want to keep your foot off the gas pedal. At any rate there is a
>problem that I'm sure some one on the list can explain in detail.

Oh ooooh...  Pick me!

Flooring a carbureted engine while cranking it will of course open the
throttle wide and provide the greatest flow volume of air at a very lean
mix, therefore it is a good way to 'dry out' a flooded engine.

Due to the widespread knowledge of this effective way to start a flooded
engine, many fuel injection systems (I know Fords are) are in fact
programmed to shut off the injectors while cranking at wide open throttle,
but even if they weren't, the air passing through the combustion chambers
would not be losing much of it's oxygen (if it were igniting the engine
would be running) and the lambda switch (O2 sensor) would be leaning out the
mixture which would have started out extremely lean in the first place (it's
hard to pass enough gasoline through the fuel injectors to keep the kind of
air flow volume rich at full throttle).

So, in short, yes.  If it's flooded crank it for 12-13 seconds at wide open
throttle, if it hasn't started up by then just let it sit for 20 seconds and
start it up normally (no throttle).



Cheers,
SStones     
Toronto Ont.      <sstones@idirect.com>