My SC is in trouble!

Bshaw5

Registered User
I was driving at night down some road and all of a sudden I am hydroplaneing and my MAC cold air intake, which is in the fender well, sucked in all the water. My check engine lights came on and i pulled over to turn my car off. When I tried starting it back up all I hear is a loud thunking noise and smoke comes out from my exhaust. I am usually very carefull about driving in the rain with this kind on intake but it wasn't even raining out there must have been a sewer overflow or something. I need to know what to do immediatley!!!
 
Sounds like you sucked in water and hydrolocked the engine. Water can not compress, like air. You probably did internal engine damage(bent rods).

I'd pull the spark plugs, crank it over to blow out the water. Pull the dipstick and look for water or over fill. Correct as needed. Reinstall plugs and see if it will run.
 
i sucked up a ~~~~load of water in my 89 bird lx enough that it actually killed the engine, just cranked it a few times , put a new filter in and didnt have any problems, i did go to valvoline a few days later and had them do the engine cleaner ~~~~ , but thats all i did and it ran fine after that, so maybe i was lucky but i would think you willl be fine
 
Would the water get past the piston rings? I just looked under my car today and I have a pretty big size oil spot i dont know where it is leaking from tho
 
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I didn't know that you can get your engine hydrolocked with MAC. I thought that they are pretty much safe in the fender well:eek:
 
I had a friend who sucked in water with his Toyota truck and BAM!!!! put a hole in his block, needless to say he was towed home. Although he was asking for it he tried crossing a puddle that went way over his hood :D
 
hydro-locked.

pull the spark plugs, and crank the engine over a little bit. At least some water has probably seeped down throught the rings. The one vehicle that I worked on that did this, ended up not breaking or bending any internal parts. I did have to change the oil several times, run it for a minute then change it again and again to get all the water out. The main thing is that you get all the water out of the bottom end if you havent bent a rod or anything and you should be ok. Be very liberal with re-changing the oil several times.

good luck
chris
 
hg

if you guys think about it, you could have blown the head gaskets. those are supposed to go before anything else. check out what color is the smoke? blue then you blow a ring, white then you blow hg!
 
water woes

Yes it is very easy to get water past the piston rings. Bear in mind that your engine probably was turning at least 2000 rpm, and then a sizeable amount of water was sucked in through your intake. it will disperse through all cylinders of your engine with the bulk of it going into the cylinder that was going through the intake stroke first and then the next cylinder and so on the problem when you suck in water is that it is so dense, it basically turns your cylinder into a hydraulic pump. Here is the major problem, THE WATER IN THE CYLINDER HAS NOWHERE TO GO! The water is going to push past your rings, & your valves, if they do not seat properly, Your pistons and connecting rods were not designed to sustain the pressure created from trying to condense water, Which is why you will most likely have a broken piston, a bent rod, or even both It doesnt take very much water to do alot of damage, a pint of water sucked in all at once will destroy an engine easily. Pull your plugs, turn it over, even if your engine is damged, turn it over, rust will form inside your cylinders very quickly, DO NOT LET IT SIT THINKING I WILL FIX IT LATER!!!!!!
 
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