[patrickt]

If the engine has not been running, I give it two pumps and then crank the key. It will fire right up and then I just lightly feather the pedal until it warms enough to idle smoothly. If the engine has been running, never, never, never pump the pedal before cranking. Instead, just crank the key and lightly feather the pedal once it fires. If you flood your engine, leave it alone for a while -- the worst thing you can do is keep punching the throttle. In fact, we had a member of our local Cobra club have his engine catch on fire because he flooded a hot engine, kept pushing the throttle, and squirted gas on to a hot manifold. You do have a fire extinguisher on board, right?