After being stored for winter, RX-8 turns over fine but won't start, likely flooded?
 

Yes, another one of these threads. But my case might be different :) I have read a number of threads.

The car (2006 manual, 70k miles) was stored for six months with fuel stabilizer and the battery on a maintainer. Plugs and coils were done perhaps 5k ago.

Anyway, first I tried starting it normally. Initially it seemed like it almost caught, then nothing. I tried a few more times, just 5-10 seconds a time.

Next I tried the factory deflood procedure twice. Cranked with pedal to floor for 10-15 sec, then crank without foot on gas for 10-15. Each time it seemed to almost start at one point about 2/3 of the way through. The second time I thought I had it for a moment. The starter seems to be spinning the engine just fine.

Soooo.....

1. I didn't try enough times or long enough? I read about people going through 15-20 iterations. But I don't want to either dig a deeper hole or burn something up.

2. Try #1, but with jumper cables from a second car, in case the battery isn't doing as well as it seems to be.

3. I'm going to need an advanced de-flooding procedure, time to disconnect and remove this and that.

4. It probably isn't even flooding, since the engine was never actually running.

Also, is there anything I should have done differently when I first tried to crank it? (For next spring.)

The maintainer is hooked back up to recharge the battery while I figure out what to try next. Mostly I'm seeking guidance on how long to crank the engine on each attempt, and how many attempts are reasonable.

i think your first thing should be try with the jumper cables or a new battery...i usually just unhook my battery completely when storing but after doing this for 4 winters in a row in different forms - the best start up is if i start it once a month and drive it around the block - seems to stay the healthiest...

Got it started. What ended up working for me:

1. Hooked up another car via jumper cables, engine running.

2. Crank for about ten seconds with foot to floor.

3. Crank for about ten seconds with foot about half way to the floor

4. Break for about 30 seconds to let the starter cool

4. Repeated 2-4 three times.

Let it rev around 5k for a minute because I didn't want to risk it cutting off again, then gradually cut back to idle as the engine warmed up. Was this necessary? Some of the videos I watched said it was, but maybe not. At least all of the attempts should have circulated the engine oil pretty well.