I have a 1982 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham that I think I flooded the engine on. It started Saturday then I accidentely let it die and it wouldn't start again. I've changed the distibutor cap and wires, the spark plugs are wet, but I was wondering what is the quickest and easiest way to un-flood it. The car is sitting outside in the freezing weather, it cranks over, backfires some, but I still cannot get it to start. I have spark at the plugs. Can anyone help?

I'll check the wiring again, the distributor is new but I will check to make sure it is seated properly. How can I check the timing if I can't get the car started? I tried the pedal to the floor and that is when it back fires. If I don't touch the gas nothing happens, it just rolls over and over. The car would normally start fine if I just touched and held the gas pedal, but when driving if I was driving up a steep hill or floored it it would back fire. Thank you for the help so far!

 

Hey Fleetwood: You failed to mention which engine you have!! Is it the 6.0 or the 4.1?? Do you have the four barrel or the DFI on it. I have the same car in the 1981 model and have worked my way through some of these problems already so might be able to help you out. Talk at ya soon.

 

Hey Brougham,

Thank you for the reply! I have the 4.1 v8 with the DFI.

Some things I have found out since posting:

I have since fixed the timing issue so it should be firing the correct order now. I verified this by making sure the cylinder 1 was a little post TDC and then applied that to the wiring and distributor. But it still doesn't start.

There is gas in the oil. I pulled the dip stick out today and it was black and shiny, smelled it and sure enough, ripe with gasoline.

Tried the floor the pedal and turn ignition to clear it, it clears it but also turns my "carb" if you will even though this doesn't have one, into a flaming torch. The fire will stay lit as long as I turn the ignition and keep the pedal floored, goes away as soon as I turn of the ignition. I thought great, it's clearing stored gas. But I still get nothing, not even a sputter, when trying to start it like I normally do, which is the weight of my foot on the gas pedal and then cranking, which should spring it to life. No such luck.

Brougham, if you can help, I have been over everything I can think of just to get it to start, I figure the "carb" needs rebuilt because of the gas in the oil, but it should still start I would think. I am loosing my mind, I cannot believe flooding this thing can cause such a problem.

If it helps, when I bought it, it had been sitting for a while. It started up fine when I looked at, the guy said he didn't start it a lot, no black smoke or anything. It will not idle, you have rest your foot on the gas or it cuts out, when it was running anyway. It seemed to mis-fire, the engine would run rough, as if it wasn't fireing on all cylinders.

I am all ears Brougham!

I hope you don't mind but I will probably have a lot of questions on this car! It's a sweet ride, if I can getting it running like a caddi should I'd love it, for $400 bucks I can't complain, the interior is in awsome shape, the exterior is still in great shape too!