What Happened??????

1fastscinpa

Registered User
Got a good story for you. Was driving home and hit a big water filled pothole, and the car just died right there...no lights, no power at all. So I got it flatbedded to a garage I do all my work at. The next morning we played with mainly wiggling some wires and got power..but still had to jumpstart the car. When it started the main bearings were out of it, made a very loud noise from the lower end. We looked under the car and nothing was damaged and yes there was oil in the car...has just over 1000 on this change. Does anyone have any idea of what happened or maybe had this happen to you....let me know....PLEASE...ordering a new reman motor tonight for it....
 
one idea

The first question I have to ask is if you have the stock intake with the air silencer still installed?
When I bought my first T-bird I was told by a very good ford mechanic to always be careful driving the birds through puddles of water. He said that due to where the intake sucks air from they are known to suck water up too. A guy I worked with proved that point with his '95 4.6 when that happened to him. He said the car just died and he ended having the engine rebuit.
Just my .02. I drive as far away as possible from puddles and I think having that air silencer removed helps from not giving the water a direct path to your filter.
Good luck.
 
re:Water filled chuckhole

The only thing I can think of is if you got a big dose of water through your intake and maybe hydrauliced your engine, bending a rod. When you pull the oilpan drainplug does water come out before the oil? (oil will float on water and maybe enough got into the pan so your pickup was pulling water instead of oil).
Chec your old engine thoroughly and maybe you can get by with an overhaul. Rebuilts go for 3K to 7K. SonySC@hotmail.com
 
Just my $0.02

If your engine mounts are shot, it is possible that the ground line from the battery (that is connected to the mount bracket) lost contact when you hit the hole. I had a similar situation with my '92SC. Every time I would drive over a rough spot in the road, I would lose all power for a few seconds. The engine, instrument panel, power steering, etc would all be dead. Most of the time it would pop back on as soon as the mount settled back down. Sometimes it would stay off until I popped the hood and wiggled the ground cable at the battery. I replaced both battery cables when I replaced the mounts and have not had the problem since.

As far as the bearings/ bottom end noise, I really couldn't say, but it may be related to slamming the block down on the frame if the mounts have collapsed.
 
I had something similar happen with a camaro many years ago. The noise coming from the bottom end, turned out to be the inspection cover plate rubbing the torque converter.

The water was deep enough to bend it. I thought it was hydralocked too...it wasn't. Check it a little closer before ordering a new engine.

David
 
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