Flood Mode: How often

[Yourrealdad]

How often do people use flood mode to start their trucks? Every morning? Only when it is cold? After sitting for 2-3 days, etc.?

Does it end up ruining the starter and battery?

Anything else I should be doing to help the engine and turbos?

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[fordtruckman2003]

The best thing to do for any vehicle is drive it.

I've never heard of flood mode.

 

[Yourrealdad]

Mostly bike to work. For instance it just sat for three days with no driving.

Look up flood mode if you don’t know.

 

[fordtruckman2003]

Me too and it can sit for a week for all I care it never bothered my old first generation Ecoboost. Everything goes to sleep so I don't expect battery issues but that would be the concern more than anything with motor.

 

[Snakebitten]

Floodstart, aka coldstart oil pressure priming

 

[fordtruckman2003]

Floodstart, aka coldstart oil pressure priming

Yeah I looked it up and it's deemed pointless by many but I suppose if it makes one feel better go for it. Oil will get where it needs to be in the same fraction of cranks if you turn motor with starter or just let it start normally. Purpose is to fix a flooded engine pumping air. Did it on my 2003 Ranger couple times in it's life. I can't remember what dumb thing I did to flood a fuel injected engine but I was young. ?‍

 

[Snakebitten]

Those with Gen2 3.5 Ecoboost noisy phasers will try anything to get some additional life out of them.
Pre-oilers are a real thing.
This is just a poor man's Pre-oiler.

Specifically regarding those phasers, getting some oil up on top and building pressure on those lock pins to lock, before the pcm starts "running the engine", is logical too me.
Fair number of mechanics that know the motor support the concept.

 

[Eskram]

Seems pointless to me. ??‍ I can maybe understand after an oil change, but otherwise no. I used to pull the fuel pump fuse on my Subaru after an oil change to prime the oil system.

I'm sure the smart people that engineered the engine thought about cold starts, along with the accountants overseeing warranty repairs.

 

[Snakebitten]

The same smart people who designed those phasers. Then redesigned. Then redesigned.

Our Gen14 3.5 Ecoboost have the 4th version, I believe. So far so good, thankfully.

And the Powerboost doesn't support the floodstart procedure.

 

[JExpedition07]

My boat engine sits about 5-6 days between use, and then 5 months when it’s laid up. Oil pressure rolls up as soon as it catches and fires. I wouldn’t sweat it too much. If you are really worried about wear I’d turn off start/stop…that’s doing way more damage to your engine over time than an occasional dry crank. Your oil pump should still be primed.

When I replaced the oil pump and timing chains/phasers on my 5.4 3V I put the pedal to the floor and let it crank for 30 seconds to prime the pump. That action did not allow spark (so it would just crank until the gauge rose up) If the gerator gears are full of oil she will pull from the pan immediately. You only need to flood start if you just replaced the oil pump really. Even when you change the oil the pump is still full of oil.

 

[Yourrealdad]

Luckily my truck came without start stop. Seems like a real dumb thing to me but haven’t looked into it to much.

 

[jeffcrum]

Mostly bike to work. For instance it just sat for three days with no driving.

Look up flood mode if you don’t know.

I have also never heard of flood mode.

If you want others to help, maybe it would be better to explain it than to tell people to look it up. Just saying.

They might know it by another name and might have info.

 

[Calson]

With the defective wiper motor on my 2022 F-150 the truck sits for months parked in the driveway and I have never had a problem starting the engine when I do drive it.

I had problems starting inititally as the factory battery was defective and needed to be replaced. With new battey no more issues starting the engine after the truck has been sitting for many weeks.

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