Storing my Rx-8 without letting it flood
 

Hey guys, I have a 2005 Rx-8 that will flood itself within a week or so without driving it. And now that I travel for work a lot, I am not able to drive it consistently. So I think I may have a decent solution for my issue as well as maybe a product idea. My plan is to have custom threaded inserts manufactured (with the same specifications and threading as the spark plugs), remove the spark plugs from the engine, and essentially cap them off with the inserts, thus allowing no moisture to reach the engine internally. Then, when I want to drive the car again, I just blow off the excess gas in the spark plug chamber, and re-insert the spark plugs.

Would this be something others would be interested in? Or has anything thought of a better method?

Happy Holidays!

If the car is off, no flooding should take place. Flooding happens when injectors are firing but no combustion is taking place. What you ascribe to flooding could be a different issue altogether. Could you outline the symptoms?

Cars that have difficulty starting after a long sit often have coolant seal failure, which allows coolant to fill the combustion chamber. You'll know you have this if there is a cloud of sweet-smelling white steam from the tailpipes when you start it up?

I'm sure there are some people who do this already.

Though I don't understand why storing it for long periods causes it to flood? Do you have leaking fuel injectors? Or weak ignition components? Bad compression?

ive had an 8 more than 8 years and only drove them a few monnts a year, they got stored for the winter. i only flooded one once when i took it out of winter storage cause the battery was weak. even with a small batt tender it wasnt enough cca. ignition components, shit/weak batt or slow starter are the cause of flooding unless you have comp issues

I have about 120k miles on it, I bought it used when it had 25k miles, and as far as I know, ever since I bought the car, it would what I would call "flood itself" if it sat for more than 4 or 5 days without being run. I have not had it compression tested, and I have not specifically looked for the white steam, but that seems about right from what I can remember seeing. I've replaced coils, plugs, wires, all the basics a couple of times throughout its life. The coolant leak issue seems plausible. Any recommendations from here?

Before I knew how to fix it myself, I would just take it to my local shop and they would remove the plugs, blow them out, and repeat until it started. But after watching a deflooding procedure I have been successful in starting the car after flooding. That just consisted of removing the fuel pump fuse, cranking it, re-inserting fuse, try starting, and repeat. Usually takes about five tries or so. Other than that, I just thought the issue I had was a flooding issue and that it was common with an older 8.

could be comp. do you have a cat? if your ignition is good look at your batt/starter/and fuel pump if it was never replaced

I have the RP Supercat.

This has to be a coolant leak. That's the only thing I can think of. Does your coolant level drop over time? You say you can't start it if you leave it for 5 days. What if you started it after 3 days? Does it start have a rough idle for a few seconds?

Next time you start it, watch for white smoke from the exhaust.

My engine coolant light comes on and off randomly when driving (has been for a couple of months), however, I constantly check my coolant fluid level, and it does not change. A local shop said it is probably just a grounding issue on the coolant sensor that is tripping the light.

In addition, the "flooding" issue has been prevalent long before my coolant light started popping up.

Have you read about the coolant light being a common issue?

Now I have. ha. Yeah, that seems to be consistent. But that still leaves me with the flooding issue. I think I'll just have to have it compression tested, and if that yields positive results, I'll think about upgrading the battery and the starter.

And instead of letting it sit an entire week start and run it to operating temp a couple of times per week rather then going through the process of de-flooding every week.

If you read through my original post, you would understand why I can't run it for long periods of time. I work abroad, a lot. I have my buddies run it sometimes when I'm gone, but paying for gas for that is just dumb when the car shouldn't flood itself in the first place. In the end, I'm parking her for a long time now and taking it off my insurance. I'm buying a 2014 GT-R. :)

Ok sorry I missed that, what's your address? Maybe I can run by and run it for ya! :ylsuper::smoker:

Make sure to post some pics of the GT-R parked next to the RX-8! :)