After my motor swap, my car had been running fine for a week. Now when I try and start it when the motor's warm/hot, it's so rich it won't start (i.e.: flooded motor, carburetor style)! I'm running 9:1 SRPs, stock head, stock ecu. I have to yank the ECU fuse, dry crank it for 10 seconds, replace fuse, and quickly turn the key to start before the fuel pump gets to prime. Then and only then MIGHT it work. If not, I'll have to do it again until it starts. Starting in the morning is OK though. Plugs out of cyls #2 and #4 are drenched in fuel, but is pretty black overall. Vacuum lines are OK. Once the car get started though, it runs like a champ! Any idea what's causing this?

 

Try starting it with the throttle to the floor instead of pulling the fuse out. As soon as it starts to catch, let up on the throttle.


[Modified by Mover, 3:08 PM 8/30/2002]

 

No CEL? Anyway, I would suspect the TW sensor is flakey. It's telling the ECU the engine is cold, causing the fuel mix to be too rich. This situation is more of an intermittent thing, though, but it might be worth checking out.

 

Arugh... Perfectionist, you're right... I just remembered... I've had a CEL for the water temp sensor and the IAT sensor because of some wiring that went bad that's connected to my Greddy black box (yeah, old skool, eh?)... I've been putting it off until the next week when my buddy's back from outta town so he can assist in identifying wires... soooo... yeah, ECU's prolly defaulting to the fail-safe mode... and since I've been running w/ this CEL for about 1500mi or so, it's prolly killed the plugs in the process... figure I'll buy a set of plugs until my bud gets back. I forgot the water temp sensor can affect the ECU! Thanks again...

 

Hmm.. Not starting like "carb" style huh?.. Hope I'm not too late to take hit at this but.. Did you check the oil?? Does it smell like gas?? If so, might be the fuel pressure regulator.. Since you did mention the spark plugs being wet. The pressure could be set too high or the vacumm diagphram might be bad. But anyhow, I hope you fixed it already..