Anyone use clear flood mode option?

[GTsleeper]

Just wonder if anyone out there does use it or not. ive done it on most of my cars in the past-- that were F.I. fuel system.

 

If u dont no what it is...... it shuts off the injectors, so the engine it will crank but no fuel will enter & not start. it was for flood situations & diagnostic testing & im sure other things. it derived from the carb days when flooding was rather common.

 

ive done/do this at cold start situations. get the oil starting to move through the system, heads,crank, TURBO,ect before it starts running. like they say there is really nothing worse for a engine then a cold start. with the turbo now i, myself feel this is even more important.

 

u can do this by putting the gas pedal to the floor before u turn the key to 'on' or 'crank' postions.

then crank away while holding the pedal to the floor. let off the pedal when u feel fit while still cranking.

if u feel u didnt do it right then turn key off & try again. this is to help the engine last longer not shorter--rev cold

 

WARNING: 1. if u havent done this before, try it when engine is warm. just in case u didnt do it right.... the engine will start & rev. please practice.

 

2. if u dont have the pedal to the floor before the turn of ignition key-on or crank positions, it most likly will start. re-do steps

 

3. make sure the pedal is all the way to the floor, not just all the way down. mats & stuff that are in the way. again this can cause it to start & rev

 

4. I have noticed that if i crank it longer then i usually do(15 secondish) & let ur foot off it will not start right up or start well.

solution-- is uve cranked enough( get oil moving) just turn key off, not just to 'on' postion all the way off with foot off pedal & then back to crank- it will start right up.

 

I hope this will help in someway, somehow. im sure ppl will say/flame something about a starter overheating & other stuff.

well, one- all the cars ive done this ive never replaced a starter.

two- i dont do this on warm/hot engines.

three- i will sacrifice wear & tear on the starter the on the engine & turbo.

[rallispec]

i've never heard this before..

 

so as long as you're pressing the gas pedal down, the engine should not start while cranking?

 

 

and you're saying this helps lubricate everything? but doesnt isnt it killing your starter or anything else?

[mbacis]

Aren't cold starts bad because the oil is cold and too thick to really lubricate well/get into all the right places? You may be able to get the oil moving around this way, but you won't warm it up without combustion.....or an oil pan heater.

 

And are you sure the auxiliary equipment (i.e. oil pump) will run when just turning over the engine like that? Is the oil pump belt driven or electric?

 

Not trying to question your methods, I'm just a little ignorant about some of this.

[GTsleeper]

 

so as long as you're pressing the gas pedal down, the engine should not start while cranking?

 

yes, as long as u push down the pedal before key 'on' or 'crank'

 

 

and you're saying this helps lubricate everything? but doesnt isnt it killing your starter or anything else?

 

it will help to get the oil moving in the right direction:icon_bigg im sure it will put more wear & tear on the starter, but for me a starter cost less.

[GTsleeper]

Aren't cold starts bad because the oil is cold and too thick to really lubricate well/get into all the right places? You may be able to get the oil moving around this way, but you won't warm it up without combustion.....or an oil pan heater.

 

And are you sure the auxiliary equipment (i.e. oil pump) will run when just turning over the engine like that? Is the oil pump belt driven or electric?

 

Not trying to question your methods, I'm just a little ignorant about some of this.

 

oil is very slow to get anywhere, this is to help prime the oil system if u will.

 

our oil pump is 'pumping' when it cranks or running. its not electric

[legacy_y_tu]

Yeah well I've used this mode on the wife's Altima after I pulled it into the garage from the driveway. The next day it wouldn't start. So I used this mode to get it going and it worked flawlessly.

 

What I figured happened is when I moved it it had been sitting outside in the cold all day. I started it, moved it ten feet, then shut it off still bone cold. I figure there was a crapload of fuel still in the cylinders.

 

Is this documented in the manual? It's been a while since I opened it.

[Jedi Pimp]

This makes no sense to me at all. The oil is still in the pan when you crank it over whether you have ignition or not. The starter still moves the piston heads and valvetrain as well so you get the same startup wear even without having spark. This is the dumbest thing I have ever heard frankly.

[GTsleeper]

Yeah well I've used this mode on the wife's Altima after I pulled it into the garage from the driveway. The next day it wouldn't start. So I used this mode to get it going and it worked flawlessly.

 

What I figured happened is when I moved it it had been sitting outside in the cold all day. I started it, moved it ten feet, then shut it off still bone cold. I figure there was a crapload of fuel still in the cylinders.

 

Is this documented in the manual? It's been a while since I opened it.

 

 

i dont know, nissians have a terrible problem with no starts cold. from '92 & up to now. 3-4 cars get towed in with no-start situations in the cold seasons but get them in a shop or reg. temp place & it will start right up. it has to do with the maf & iac. i no they(nissian) dosnt know what to do/fix the problem.

[bdisco]

I turn the key on but not to full crank you can hear fuel pumps and injectors prime takes about 5 sec., then I start it. I don't pump the go pedal though.

[kamishki]

This makes no sense to me at all. The oil is still in the pan when you crank it over whether you have ignition or not. The starter still moves the piston heads and valvetrain as well so you get the same startup wear even without having spark. This is the dumbest thing I have ever heard frankly.

I don't buy this either. Although I am a long time believer that some sort of pre-oiling would be a good thing, It's hard to believe that cranking the engine with the starter will build enough oil pressure to really get the oil where it needs to go anyway.

 

This seems like a waste of the starter and precious cold cranking amps in the winter. Now...an aux electric oil pump could have some benefits but they never became popular.

[warteaufmich]

I think the idea is that you don't have the combustion forces to the "dry" main and rod bearings if you crank it with no fuel. Of course you still have the compression forces, so if you're serious about this method you should remove the spark plugs too. (If you care that much about reducing wear on startup, just install an accusump or something similar, which actually gets the oil flowing before you even crank the engine.)

[GTsleeper]

its not the best thing since sliced bread, i know that. but take a car that knocks on start up, u know the lower half is going. so u do this method when u go to start it & it wont knock when it starts.

this something i just put on the table, not saying its good/bad. just put it out there.

u will see the oil light go out.

u also notice the engine will crank faster.

[deneb]

I'm not convinced this is worth doing. How many Subies have well over 200K miles on them just starting it up conventionally? IOW I'm not sure you gain anything by doing this, unless you're talking about cold starts where the outside temp is consistently under about -20 F, but then you'd want a block heater anyways.

[outahere]

This is a solution looking for a problem. Subaru motors do not have a reputation for wearing out prematurely, do they?. If you are still worried about start up wear, a better solution is a pressurized pre-oiler. The pre-oiler does not wear out your battery, starter motor, and flywheel gear.

[AWD_Rules3830]

Subaru engines and the cars in general are known for lasting forever, as long as you change the fluids when you are suppose to, i dont think this would help much, i might try it cus im kinda curious about it lol. the 'flood clear' procedure is in the manual i believe. My mom (read this part to me) was worried when i started driving it, i didn't have much experience with a clutch, and that i would kill it and eventually flood it, well i didnt, so take that mom hahaha. But yea ... how could someone flood the car?

[mwiener2]

There are only two meathods of 'pre-oiling' an engine and this is not one of them.

 

Meathod 1: An oil canister with a valve on it. When the engine is running and the oil system is under the pressure, the valve is closed. Prior to starting the engine, the valve is opened and the pressure inside the canister releases the oil into the oil system where it 'pre-oils' the engine. The valve is then closed again once pressure is built up. Mostly founf on purpose built race cars and monster trucks.

 

Meathod 2: An electric oil pump which can be activated before cranking engine.

 

 

The meathod described in this thread is casuing much more wear to your engine, electrical, and starting system than just starting it normally would.

[PhilT]

There are only two meathods of 'pre-oiling' an engine and this is not one of them.

 

Meathod 1: An oil canister with a valve on it. When the engine is running and the oil system is under the pressure, the valve is closed. Prior to starting the engine, the valve is opened and the pressure inside the canister releases the oil into the oil system where it 'pre-oils' the engine. The valve is then closed again once pressure is built up. Mostly founf on purpose built race cars and monster trucks.

 

Meathod 2: An electric oil pump which can be activated before cranking engine.

 

 

The meathod described in this thread is casuing much more wear to your engine, electrical, and starting system than just starting it normally would.

 

 

There's actually a few more, including hand pumps and pnuematic accummulators, but I agree, this doesn't sound like the sort of thing anyone should be doing.

[mwiener2]

oops, meant to say "That I know of" but i thought faster than I typed

[Xenonk]

15 seconds cranking motor and pumping cold oil doesnt do anything from what I know. You can barely get 25 full revolutions of the motor by doing that. What's the point in this again?

 

It's and F.I. car, not a Carb'd car.. Engine flooding only happens nowadays if you are fully pressed on the throttle prior to shutting off the motor or that one of your injectors failed from closing.

 

What's the point of all this again? And where did get this information of "injectors shutting off when the throttle (or TPS for that matter at 100%) that the ECU knows that it's a procedure for clearing out a flooded motor???

 

A better question that you have a chance of defending is: by doing this method, how much "longer" did the turbo and motor last you compared to someone that never does this? My 89 BMW is still on the stock motor and it has well over 160,000 miles, of which at least 30,000 of it is on hard-track miles. From all the days of cars that track and have a happy life, a good warm-up at idle to bring the oil to temperature and timely/knowledgeable oil changes is far off better than a procedure to clear a flooded motor which was never flooded in the first place.

[Xenonk]

i dont know, nissians have a terrible problem with no starts cold. from '92 & up to now. 3-4 cars get towed in with no-start situations in the cold seasons but get them in a shop or reg. temp place & it will start right up. it has to do with the maf & iac. i no they(nissian) dosnt know what to do/fix the problem.

 

 

that's because they are still using low CCA batteries (not MAF & IAC issues).... it's like auto electronics 101.

[PhilT]

oops, meant to say "That I know of" but i thought faster than I typed

 

You must have had other things on your mind "meathods" perhaps

[mwiener2]

hehe...yeah, i guess I should lay off the meath....oops

[GTsleeper]

that's because they are still using low CCA batteries (not MAF & IAC issues).... it's like auto electronics 101.

 

thats weird cause all the nissian techs say different. oh well

[Slickvic]

This may be appropriate if you flood the rotary engine in an RX-8, but it doesn't apply here.

[GTsleeper]

all good info & flame!! flood mode-ecm sees that the tps is floored- shuts injector pulse off thats it.

 

point of this-- their really isnt one, free flame section i guess, or maybe just to give knowledge(as crappy as it is from everyones insit)-- which it seems most didnt even know what it is, or what it does.

 

oh well, like i said before, im not saying its the best thing, i just put it out there.

 

a few cold mornings ive went out started my car to warm, & i noticed some noises coming from the heads(was not injectors). so i tried the flood mode for the hell of it on a cold start & didnt make any noises. thats all thats it.

im not advertizing or recommending this.