Another flooded engine for me
 

Well my catalytic converter went for the 3rd time since i purchased the car. I lost power and couldn't go over 40 miles an hour. I purchased a cat delete pipe for it and installed it yesterday. I got it towed to my garage and had to start it up to put it in a position so the tow truck driver could pick it up. It stalled on me when I put it in 1st gear. After I installed the pipe and did an oil change, it won't start up. I tried to put my feet on the clutch and the gas pedal to try and deflood it, but that didn't work. Does anyone have any suggestions? :wallbash:

If it's flooded real bad (i.e., you have a lot of gasoline in the combustion chambers), you might have to try the full deflood procedure according to the Mazda bulletin where you take the lower spark plugs out, disconnect the ESPS and disconnect the air pump, and crank engine to purge gasoline out of the combustion chambers. The full procedure is a bit of a pain, especially getting under the car to somehow magically disconnect the ESPS with only one hand. But like everything else, when you've done it once successfully, it's much easier for the future. And yes I've done it myself.

Whether or not it's flooded too bad, I would first try the shortcut method, which I also recently did successfully. Leave ESPS alone and spark plugs alone. Disconnect the air pump. Open up the fuse box under the hood (driver side near the front bumper) and remove the fuel pump fuse (20A in 2004 cars, but regardless look at the diagram under the fuse box lid that you remove). This will prevent fuel injection so you don't even need to press the accelerator down when cranking.

Then start cranking procedure. I cranked for 10 sec 4 separate times. The bulletin says to wait about 5 sec between cranking if you crank for more than 10 sec, but I purposely waited longer, more like 30 sec, and did not crank for more than 10 sec. Better to play it safe with regard to saving the starter, right? I then went inside the house and relaxed for 20 min. Then went back out and put fuel pump fuse back in and got ready to crank engine. This time I put accelerator all the way down before cranking. As I start cranking, I let the accelerator pedal up gradually (to allow fuel injection). Engine started on first cranking try!

BTW, the Mazda bulletin does not mention anything about taking out the fuel pump fuse, which is a procedure tried by someone on this forum. I think it's a great idea. Also, the shortcut method doesn't purge the combustion chambers or let air in to allow fuel to evaporate, so it may not work for really bad flooding. But It's far more convenient and takes less time, so I'd try it first.

I would like to know from someone on this forum what is the difference between taking the fuel pump fuse out vs. disconnecting the ESPS?