Hydro-locked My Sc !

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thirdbird

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Hi Fellas,

Went to meet some of my fellow SC owners on Friday, and it was great to finally meet some people and make some friends in this state!
Unfortunately, I drove my car thru some water that was DEEPER than I had judged...

Long story short, the motor is so locked now, it won't budge at the crank by wrench, (WITH ALL THE SPARK PLUGS OUT AND TRANNY IN NEUTRAL/CLUTCH IN) and the starter does not engage the flywheel to try turning-it that way, just grinds at it....
I only paid $500 for her, and drove it six weeks without any problems, so I won't be crying in my beer here.
The motor has over 175K on it, and I am posting here to find-out if we are missing something simple here regarding not being able to turn the motor by hand.
This is directed at some of you older + experienced gents, but anybody with a hydrated-motor past would be helpful too!
Thanks again you WA/PTLD guys for giving me so much help thus far!

paul:eek: :( :( :(
 
it should turn with the plugs out maybe the blower is full try taking the blower belt off
 
rlong said:
.....maybe the blower is full....
Paul, I'll pull the SC top tomorrow after work and see what is in it, but with us loosening the lower IC tube connection and all that water that came out, I'm sure it would have drained the SC. Regardless, I give it a shot.

Hey guys. Paul's SC is in my garage and we pulled all 6 spark plugs. We had all went to PIR and it was 90% flooded. You could see the paint stripes through the water and it was very dark, and didn't look that deep to me either, so this could have happened to anyone here. The water sucked up his air silencer and right into his motor. He was not romping on it and was driving at a low rpm through the water when it stalled. There was no BANG or anything. The plugs were completely soaked with water as seen in attached pictures. The air filter and intake were soaked, along with a lot of water out the bottom of the lower IC connection.

Also attached is a picture of something like a seal? It has "EVCP 6200.." on one side and "4 5 6 7 8 9" on other side. Maybe this part is irrevelant, but I found it on top of the K member. Maybe it washed up there from Lake PIR, dun-no.

If all the spark plugs are out, and with a socket on the center pulley bolt and main serpentine belt off, this motor will not budge, period! What could have happened? Broke piston, rod, something jammed in the flywheel keeping it from turning? Oh, and the dipstick says oil is at normal level with a tad bit of moisture in it.
 

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BobGPz said:
Paul, I'll pull the SC top tomorrow after work and see what is in it, but with us loosening the lower IC tube connection and all that water that came out, I'm sure it would have drained the SC. Regardless, I give it a shot.

Hey guys. Paul's SC is in my garage and we pulled all 6 spark plugs. We had all went to PIR and it was 90% flooded. You could see the paint stripes through the water and it was very dark, and didn't look that deep to me either, so this could have happened to anyone here. The water sucked up his air silencer and right into his motor. He was not romping on it and was driving at a low rpm through the water when it stalled. There was no BANG or anything. The plugs were completely soaked with water as seen in attached pictures. The air filter and intake were soaked, along with a lot of water out the bottom of the lower IC connection.

Also attached is a picture of something like a seal? It has "EVCP 6200.." on one side and "4 5 6 7 8 9" on other side. Maybe this part is irrevelant, but I found it on top of the K member. Maybe it washed up there from Lake PIR, dun-no.

If all the spark plugs are out, and with a socket on the center pulley bolt and main serpentine belt off, this motor will not budge, period! What could have happened? Broke piston, rod, something jammed in the flywheel keeping it from turning? Oh, and the dipstick says oil is at normal level with a tad bit of moisture in it.

idk if you have to much water in your motor your pistons can't go up and down. It has happened in the past when pple blow their headgaskets
 
If you got that much water in it (filled the IC pipes) you probably bent at least 1 rod. When water gets in the chamber, the piston comes up but can't compress the liquid like it could air/fuel, so the rod bends like a banana.

I highly doubt you'll get it to run. Actually, if you try, you could do more damage than has already been done. Pull it out, take the oil pan out and look for bent rods. If you fire it up with them bent, it could be very very bad.

Good luck,
Steve
 
A rod likely bent and if you can't move it now, that points to either the bent rod interfering with the weights on the crank, or a piston ring popped out and is jammed the piston against the wall of the cylinder.

Insurance may cover something like that if you have comprehensive coverage.
 
Mike8675309 said:
...Insurance may cover something like that if you have comprehensive coverage.

You mean if your a defensive driver, that auto insurance is good for something after all?:D
 
Man, that sux ! In your case I would THINK of doing the following...

From the above threads i would say you have a good chance of needing a rebuild bc of the bent rods...so you already have the cost of a rebuild in your shoulders. BUT...and thats just hoping you're a very lucky person...if you try to drain the cylinders by taking off the heads, visually inspect stuff and try to start it hoping you are the receiver of some sort of divine light. Would this be too nuts? I mean, whats the worst that can happen that cant be fixed with the rebuild anyways? Nothing to loose....right? I could be wrong ....:confused: :confused:
 
I just know a guy that hydrolocked is 4.6 in his t-bird due to a deep puddle and an in the fender cold air intake. It was convered on his comprehensive policy. He ended up swapping in a Lincoln dual cam 4.6 into it.
 
wish I had insurance....
even if I did, I would not have had adequate coverage on it for this incident.....
Bob, talk to you tonight.....

paul
 
been there ... tried towing a seized engine and then dumping the clutch to break it free.............. what a mess,,, 200 feet of locked up tires and god knows the mess inside that engine and tranny... next stop ..junk yard
 
Usually when you hydrolock badly your crank twists like rubber band and throws the stroke way out of wack ..thus frozen motor:mad:
 
The glass is half-full so don't bet the farm on a bent rod but if there is it's because it lodged against the pan rail. Doubt it went sideways and hit the crank.
If the blower took water, the lower IC havin' water in it is a sign, then there's still water in it. The bottom of the blower has no drain, you'll hafta remove the blower/plenum as a unit and then seperate the inlet plenum from the back and drain it out the back of the blower.

Read all the posts but don't see where ya pulled the blower belt yet?

'bird
 
hey paul,sorry to hear the sc is still down.IF you need any help this weekend give me a call.Bob and jim have my # if you don't.I'm sure between all of us we can get it back on the road.:eek: talk to you later,shamus
 
I had the same thing happen to my old 89 5 speed. We took off the top of the sc, pulled the plugs, and tried turning at the crank. It would go almost all the way around, but then it would hit a wall and not budge at all. We thought we had a bent rod. Then, just out of sheer desperation, I turned the key, and water came shooting out of one of the plug holes. End result was that I had no damage internally--talk about lucky.

In either case, if you get it freed up and it runs ok, be sure to change out the oil in your sc after this--I know you did not pay much for it, but dont let it go to crap because of something that small. I would definitely check out the inside of the sc itself--we pulled off the lower IC connection and water came out, but then we opened up the sc and it too was full of water. You might have done more damage trying to start it now than you did when you originally hit the water. Good luck.
 
tbird88 said:
..If the blower took water, the lower IC havin' water in it is a sign, then there's still water in it. The bottom of the blower has no drain...

Paul, when you get it home pull the two top IC Tube nuts and four blower top bolts and look inside. You will need to pull it towards the drivers side about 1 inch, then straight up. There's is no nut on that bracket-head by the P/S Pump.
We never did take the Blower Belt off, and it is worth a shot before you totaly write it off..
 
turbospeed said:
i agree , it could become a 2000dlls fix for a 500dls car

dont you guys at least think pulling the top off the SC is in order before you write this one off? It could be nothing more than being full of water, and that will not cost $2K to fix. It's at least worth finding out if this is a big money problem or not.
 
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