I am trying to start a rather new LA 46 inverted in a Vector. The engine may be unused. The seller didn't think it had ever been run but didn't know for sure. Sometimes it gets flooded, so much so that I couldn't turn it over. It did start once and ran the flood out. Now suddenly my Kwik Start glow batter, has no charge.
When you flood it to the point of a hydraulic lock, it cools the plug and draws massively more current.
Starting it with the cylinder down should be easier, and it should be much easier to get it choked without overdoing it. I have much more trouble with them with the cylinder up, because you have to get so much fuel in it before it will fire, it all pools in the crankcase, and then causes it to quit as soon as it sucks it all up.
There are many threads about how to start engines with the cylinder down, I hesitate to belabor it yet again, but from dry, pull it through a few times (2-3) with your finger over the venturi, immediately flip it forward a few times, then attach battery and back-bump. If you don't flip forward immediately, you will lose all the choke since it runs out on the ground, then you will try to choke it many more times, and eventually you will get so much fuel that it fills the intake stack, spills over, and then it hydraulic locks.
Brett
p.s. if you do get it flooded, remove the plug, flip it over through compression a bunch of times, put the plug back in, then back-bump and it's likely to fire off immediately, or at least clear the rest of the fuel, then start again. You *can* take it out of the stooge and flip the airplane over, unfortunately, you have a full tank of fuel, so you are then stuck trying to hook it to the stooge with the engine running, which is highly dangerous (although I have done it, although not with a powerful engine).