Ah dang...i think I F*ed up: Water in engine (not hydrolocked). What can I do?

CaifanSC

SCCoA Member
So my 89 is on ramps waiting for header install among several other things including a supercharger. I had teh cowling off and the supercharger off with the lower intake hole just covered with a rag. Ofcourse, I forgot to cover my car and we got TONS of rain with whats left of hurracaine Ernesto passing thorugh here. I noticed that there's water in my lower intake and God knows how much seeped down into the engine.

What are my options right now? Im doing a spark plug change before I put the headers on so I was thinking of turning the crank with all the spark plugs out to see if I can squeeze any possible water out. Also, i Know a few oil changes are in order. Anything else to assure the safety of my engine?? Thanx!
 
If you have compressed air, blow as much water out of the manifold and spark plug holes, as you can. Spray the wet areas wet WD40, including cylinders. Change engine oil. Crank it over with plugs out. Wd40 cylinders again, assemble and fire it up. Change oil and filter soon.
 
as stated above, if there is alot of water Alcohol the hee-haw out of it. It mixes with water, remove plugs & get to cranking......ASAP ! follow up with a light oil then rest about it! :)
 
Very important....remove all the spark plugs before cranking it over. As was mentioned earlier, spray WD40 or some other rust inhibitor into the spark plug holes and crank the motor a few more times to coat the cylinder walls.

A little water in the exhaust won't hurt anything.

David
 
David Neibert said:
Very important....remove all the spark plugs before cranking it over. As was mentioned earlier, spray WD40 or some other rust inhibitor into the spark plug holes and crank the motor a few more times to coat the cylinder walls.

A little water in the exhaust won't hurt anything.

David
i would turn the crank till each cylinder was as high as possible with the exhaust valve open and blow compressed air in through the spark plug ghoe. then i would start then engine ASAP.
 
If there is a lot of water in the oil pan it will separate out from the oil after it sits for a while. So the FIRST thing I would do is drain the oil. MOST of the water will come out first. Then get a couple cheep oil filters and some cheep motor oil, doesn't matter what brand - - and refill it and crank it over with the starter until no water is coming out of the spark plug holes. Then drain the oil and change the filter again before you ever start it. If theres still any sign of water in the oil pan or any 'milky' looking stuff, do this flush procedure again. Only after you get no sign of any water in the flush oil should you finally refil with good oil and a quality (not fram!) oil filter and start the engine.

I hydrolocked the 454 chevy in my boat a couple years ago and was convinced I'd destroyed my engine; luckily for me it was SO badly hydrolocked that when I tried to restart it, it would not even turn over enough to fire and bend a rod. About a week after it happend I finally got motivated to pull the engine out (had to just walk away for awhile, I was so sick about it) and when I pulled the drain plug on the oil pan, I must have gotten a full quart of clean, pure water before any sign of oil came out! Since I already had the engine out I pulled the pan and intake manifold and was able to inspect the cylinder walls and rod and main bearings. Everything was fine, all I had to do was flush it as I mentioned before and buy a few gaskets. You should be fine as well as long as you flush all the water out before you start it.
 
Did you take a good look at how deep the water was on the floor of the manifold that you could see through the intake hole? The reason I ask is because the intake runners are raised up from the manifold floor by about 1/2inch. So if the water was only about 1/4 inch deep I don't think it could get into the cylinder. Also, if the front of the car was raised on stands only the rear cylinders would probably be affected. Good luck John
 
Oh, so you guys are saying crank the engine w/o plugs but as 'normal'...meaning, get inside, and turn the key? I was just going to get a socket in the harmonic balancer and turn it manually, but if I can do it with the key everything will go much faster.
 
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