Sucked water in, seems ok

Well i've just gone and sucked some water into my engine...

Was waiting to go through a flooded road, and got ****ed off with all the idiots trying to drive down the pavement on the wrong side, so i ploughed through in the deep bit (only 1 foot max) anyhow as i came out suddenly lost power and there was steam/white smoke everywhere. The engine didn't cut out and carried on running but a bit under power, I got out of the water and carried on driving and it seems to be ok.
Just got home and stripped all the intake hoses off, there was some spots of water in them and the air cleaner was soaked, not much in the intercooler. I've dried everyting off and refitted it all and it seems to run ok, i'm going to have some tea then take it out for a run to see its all ok.

Fingers crossed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well i've been out for a good run and everythings fine. At least the wife will finnaly let me get a snorkel now

how many of the idiots drowned thur injuns??

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Point taken Slob, a bit earlier I was driving thru 2 feet of flood water (which I do in low 2) same as I have done every day this week, I just lost it a bit waiting for some muppets to go through 4 inch of water.

Just shows that you shouldn't drive through water at speed

Lucky you!

Water is essentially UN-compressible.

It seems fairly certain you sucked in a LITTLE water into the inlet manifold, and that this small amount went into the cylinders a few drops at a time, was vaporised, steamed even, and sent down the exhaust.

If that is so, then no harm will have been done. Water Injection (under control!) is yet another way of extracting some more ooomph from piston engines while at the same time reducing temperatures in the combustion chambers.

The water trouble starts (and usually ends ....) when one or more cylinders of a running engine sucks in a LOT of water in one induction stroke, and then tries to compress is twenty-to-one on the next compression stroke. It will NOT compress, so something has to yield.

The list is long ..... and very obvious.
Bent or broken conrod, snapped crankshaft, collapsed piston crown, cylinder head blown apart, cracked cylinder liners, and so on.

If the engine was running VERY slowly (hint ... hint ....) it might just stop dead, without coming to harm, but it would be ESSENTIAL to be sure the water was cleared before turning the engine over again. This you do by opening every cylinder to the atmosphere by taking either the glow plugs or injectors out, and whirling it over - bad luck on TD5 owners like me because we can't do that to No. 5 cylinder - because there's no glow plug. Grrr.......

Whatever else one does after an engine stops in water, do NOT try to tow-start it before draining the cylinders. This would practically guarantee breaking something really expensive, such as one or more of the items in the above list.

Sounds like the snorkel could be useful if you plan doing that again.

CharlesY

Excellent advice Charles .... your on my hero (reserve) list.

CharlesY said:

Water Injection (under control!) is yet another way of extracting some more ooomph from piston engines while at the same time reducing temperatures in the combustion chambers.

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Ey! now that reminds me of when i wer a lad.
i was an apprentice at ICI and one of the owld mechanical tutors made a water injection system for his engine! He reconed he could nearly half the ammount of petrol his car needed to get him to work and back

One of the little petrol station blokes, Shell or BP bought it off him and telt him to shut the f*ck up!

Cant imagin why ????

good advice thank you. like vop i too am attracted to driving through deeper water and am fitting my makeshift snorkel, lets just hope its water tight!

Quick fire round- question 1: you approach a flooded road all the idiots are taking the shallow route on the pavement do you

a: follow the rest of the idiots who don't fancy flooding their cars?

b: follow the rest of the idiots knowing you could have gone through the deepest point and be ****ed off all day just thinking why you bought a 4X4.

c: go ploughing past the idiots just becouse you've got a 4x4 then look like an idiot with white smoke pouring from the exhaust and possably some terminal damage to the engine.

d: make the doris walk in front of you just incase the flood has blown the sewer lids off if she suddenly disapears repeat with the kids till your clear of the flood.

Think i'll go for b

Well everythings fine, no damage done. Looks like it just sucked a few droplets up.

I was quite sure that no damage had been done by the way it running, i've been a passenger in a montego years ago that was hydrolocked (suprisingly that survived).

As I said earlier I regularly drive through deep water around the 2 foot mark, however this done in a sensible manner, on this occasion i've learnt my lesson that shallow water can do more damage if tackled in the wrong way (too fast). I went back down the same road to get home after trying the car that night, the water was only 8" deep, just a case of too much speed not enough sense then , The same road on friday night is under 18" of water and i'm still going that way home.

the yanks used to use water injection yrs ago on their drag racers/hot rods.
very impressive increase in power for the money.
you can also use water to decoke an engine in about 2 minutes!
the shock cooling of the water releases the carbon off the valves etc.. and it blows down the exhaust pipes.
i would imagine the amount of water is critical. ive never had the nerve to try it, yet.

ormus said:

the yanks used to use water injection yrs ago on their drag racers/hot rods.
very impressive increase in power for the money.
you can also use water to decoke an engine in about 2 minutes!
the shock cooling of the water releases the carbon off the valves etc.. and it blows down the exhaust pipes.
i would imagine the amount of water is critical. ive never had the nerve to try it, yet.

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shirley the shock cooling effect would just as likely cause rapid contraction of hot bits thereby cause shock cracks to appear on yer heid or block. bit like using hot water to thaw a frozen injun.
a more reliable and proven method is to use brake fluid.. drive to somewheres away from prying eyes...hold engine at a steadyish 2500ish revs and pour about 1/2 ltr of brake fluid in to the intake..
this will burn orf the carbon and produce a little bit of smoke as it does so.

slob said:

drive to somewheres away from prying eyes.............................and produce a little bit of smoke as it does so.

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Yeah - i shd coco!
Aint that wot warships use, to hide in?

aye you could be right daft,, ah dint ever remember having to de-coke a battleship

ok - tanks then

no need to tank me; after all thats what wur here for