Round 3: ATF Trick

How does engine flooding happen most of the time, and how can you fix it on a rotary? When you don’t let your RX get up to normal operating temperature before you take it for a quick spin, it might flood on you when you shut it off. There are usually 2 things you can try on a flooded RX, you can take the fuse for the fuel pump out and crank the car several times to get the gas out of the engine with the spark plugs in or with the spark plugs out. Then put the fuse back in, and start the car up. And if it is seriously flooded, you can try the ATF (Automatic Transmission Fluid) trick. After putting on the first round of mods, my car flooded on me a few times because I didn’t let it warm up before driving short distances. Most of the time, I could let it sit a few hours or overnight, and it would start in the morning.

Flooding the rotary engine this often isn’t good on the engine seals. It cleans off the oil around the Apex seals, which allow the engine to work. The walls and tips of the rotor, as seen in this moving demonstration, all have a thin layer of oil on them that allow the engine to keep a seal. When the rotary engine gets seriously flooded, you get little to no compression out of your engine. This finally happened to me, so I had to do some research and found an odd fix to try. The ATF Trick.

I’m sure everyone is wondering what the ATF Trick is by now. J The ATF trick is something I searched for and found at the rx7 club forum. The trick is to take out your spark plugs, pour ATF in the engine, and rotate the rotors to lube up everything. Then put the spark plugs back in and rotate the engine some more. You are supposed to let the car sit for a few hours, rotate the engine again, then let it sit again for a few more hours or overnight. After you let it sit some more, you can go out and see if the car will start. If it does start, get ready for a smoke show!!



It should run pretty smoky for 5-15 minutes like that, so make sure your neighbors aren’t out when you try this. :) After the smoke starts dying down, you should take your car out and run it hard for 10 minutes to get it’s natural oil coat built back up. When you are done with your test drive, you can let the car cool down, and replace the spark plugs with brand new ones. After that, your car should be running as good or better than it was. I followed the complex unflooding directions at this website.