Starting & turning off the 8 moter.

[rotar bones]

Originally Posted by waky racer

I have a completely original 04 RX-8. Original coils, etc. Due to my own stupidity, I flooded it twice in the early days. I cleared it by removing the spark plugs and cranking the engine until clear. I then replaced the plugs, added a second battery with jumper cables to another car and floored the accelerator. Started up fairly quickly, but that end of my neighborhood disappeared in a cloud of white smoke for a few seconds.

About a week after the second flood, I received the spark plug upgrade notice from Mazda. The hotter (leading plugs I think) combined with an Optima red top battery (1000 cranking amps or so) solved the starting problem. One piece of advice is to NEVER shut the engine off unless it is completely warmed up. That's what caused my problems.

I too rev the engine to 8000 RPM (usually in 1st or 2nd) sometime before I park it. I change oil and filter every 3000 miles and don't care what anyone says, it isn't that expensive, and I have 40,000 miles on the original engine with normal compression.

One other thing, I don't use 0W- or 5W- oil in anything. Just a premium grade of non-synthetic 10W-40 in the summer and 10W-30 in the winter. The manufacturers recommend that thinner oil to increase overall gas mileage in their whole line of cars for EPA mileage ratings more than any other reason. No pre-mix or SeaFoam to prevent carbon build up. Just common sense. I have a friend that does this with his 04 and he has over 100,000 miles on this original daily driver.

Is your 8 an auto or mt?.