Water in engine!!! 200tdi

Hi all,
Went for an unexpected wade today as the river at the bottom of my road burst its banks! My defender 90 coped very well but when the water got level with the top of the bonnet it cut out, i managed to restart it and drive it out.

I do have a "snorkel" fitted but seems to have been fitted more for looks than anything as the opening on the air intake isn't sealed. Also, the breather hose from the rocker cover to the air intake seems to have disconnected from the air intake end so was full of water and i can only assume that water has gotten into the top of the engine.

It still runs but it kicks out clouds of smoke, has little power and the turbo doesnt seem to be doing its job, makes a kind of "put-put" noise !

So i'm imagining that a fair amount of water has been pulled in through the air intake which of course will be contaminating the fuel and doing bad things to the turbo too no doubt, and then also water has gotten into the engine so the oil will also be contaminated... and i dread to think what else!

So... a few questions spring to mind... will it be enough to flush the oil, fuel and turbo system to get things back to normal (it did seem to improve a little just driving it), or will i have to be stripping the turbo, etc... have i caused any damage already just by driving it?!... or is it new engine time? is it possible to fully seal the air intake to the snorkel so maybe i can actually wade in deep water without getting water in the engine?

i've not long fitted a new clutch so dont like the prospect of hoisting the engine out again!!!

Anyone been in a similar situation? any advice would be welcome!

first mistake was to assume yer snorkel worked

second mistake was to try starting the engine

doubt if it's new engine time you might get away with a few bents rods etc

plenty of peeps have asked the same question so ave a search n read

Sounds like a classic case of hydraulic locking from here.
What does a set of conrods cost these days?

CharlesY

befor you get to woried about hydraulic lock and the like you may be fine.

iv seen many cars/land rover and even my bus last week get a bit of water in cut out and be fine a few min/hrs later once they have dryed out a little. ( mainly cos i drive like a dick when i see a puddle!)

id start buy emptying all the water out the air pipe work and box (may be a dry/new air filter), then if its will run give it a blast. if you have already have it running any damage you could do, will already be done.

If that fixes it then its time to sort the snorke.

Discoandy said:

befor you get to woried about hydraulic lock and the like you may be fine.

iv seen many cars/land rover and even my bus last week get a bit of water in cut out and be fine a few min/hrs later once they have dryed out a little. ( mainly cos i drive like a dick when i see a puddle!)

id start buy emptying all the water out the air pipe work and box (may be a dry/new air filter), then if its will run give it a blast. if you have already have it running any damage you could do, will already be done.

If that fixes it then its time to sort the snorke.

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are you trying to kill it for good - least you could have mentioned taking the plugs out before he turns it over

Sean said:

are you trying to kill it for good - least you could have mentioned taking the plugs out before he turns it over

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i agree completely.......having drowned my disco a couple of weeks ago......take the pluga out and fire all the water out

I would agree with you but, if he has already had it running the any thing that is going to bend will be.

"still runs but it kicks out clouds of smoke, has little power and the turbo doesnt seem to be doing its job, makes a kind of "put-put" noise"

Sound a lot like a lack of air caused by a wet air filter.

Is it on ebay yet?

Don't get too worried, I did the same to my 200tdi last month! I snapped the timing belt and bent 4 pushrods! first thing to do is to remove the air cleaner, intercooler and inlet manifold and dry/clean them out, then remove all 4 glow plugs and turn the engine over to make sure there is no water in the cylinders. Take the rocker box lid off and remove the rocker shaft checking that none of the rockers are broke! withe the rocker shaft out of the way you can now pull the push rods out, check them by rolling them on a flat surface to see if any are bent, they're less than £2 each from Paddock so I replaced all 8, good look with it fella.

Hey dudes!
thanks for all the advice... food for thought, spent most of the day trying to repair my track which got severely washed away with the flood. my neighbour has a landy too and his wife went out in it yesterday morning through the same feckin river i did! when he asked her "how deep was the water?", she said "you dont wanna know", when he asked how the landy was running she didnt answer!! so we've yet to see what state the other landy's in, if it makes it back!!

Managed to get some time to investigate just before it got dark... air filter was like a wet sock, some white gunk where the breather hose goes into the air filter housing and same at the other end where it joins to the rocker cover, whipped the rocker cover off: some droplets of water sitting in the oil, turned the engine over by hand: no visible problems all valves moving ok. could be my imagination but seems a trifle easy to turn over - lack of compression? Thats all i had time for today, will dump the oil and have the glow plugs out tomorrow - did try to get the injectors out but they're a bit of a bitch to shift!

storm99 said:

Is it on ebay yet?

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actually got it from ebay originally and so far its had a new chassis, new gearbox, new clutch, had to have all the wiring apart to get it working to some degree.... and the list is growing... so would feel a bit of a cxnt putting it back on ebay!!

dazzx10r said:

Don't get too worried, I did the same to my 200tdi last month! I snapped the timing belt and bent 4 pushrods! first thing to do is to remove the air cleaner, intercooler and inlet manifold and dry/clean them out, then remove all 4 glow plugs and turn the engine over to make sure there is no water in the cylinders. Take the rocker box lid off and remove the rocker shaft checking that none of the rockers are broke! withe the rocker shaft out of the way you can now pull the push rods out, check them by rolling them on a flat surface to see if any are bent, they're less than £2 each from Paddock so I replaced all 8, good look with it fella.

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how come you snapped the timing belt? did water get in there? my neighbour was saying something about a drain plug or something in the timing belt cover, maybe i should have it out just in case any water's gotten in there althouhg i'm not sure how it could!?

will deffi ately have the shaft off so i can check the rods (are push rods the same thing as con rods by the way?!) ... the only other thing i'm a bit worried about is any damage to the pistons or rings... wouldn't know how to check for that without a serious amount of work!

IrieLandy said:

Hey dudes!
thanks for all the advice... food for thought, spent most of the day trying to repair my track which got severely washed away with the flood. my neighbour has a landy too and his wife went out in it yesterday morning through the same feckin river i did! when he asked her "how deep was the water?", she said "you dont wanna know", when he asked how the landy was running she didnt answer!! so we've yet to see what state the other landy's in, if it makes it back!!

Managed to get some time to investigate just before it got dark... air filter was like a wet sock, some white gunk where the breather hose goes into the air filter housing and same at the other end where it joins to the rocker cover, whipped the rocker cover off: some droplets of water sitting in the oil, turned the engine over by hand: no visible problems all valves moving ok. could be my imagination but seems a trifle easy to turn over - lack of compression? Thats all i had time for today, will dump the oil and have the glow plugs out tomorrow - did try to get the injectors out but they're a bit of a bitch to shift!


actually got it from ebay originally and so far its had a new chassis, new gearbox, new clutch, had to have all the wiring apart to get it working to some degree.... and the list is growing... so would feel a bit of a cxnt putting it back on ebay!!

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The injectors are an absolute bitch to get out, luckily I made a fitting to screw onto the injector and onto my slide hammer, this made it easy to remove them. If you have no compression then you may have bent the push rods or valves, but I have been told off many people that the push rods bend before the valves. The 200tdi engine is incredibly strong so don't get too worried. Get a welding rod or something similar and when you get the injectors out push the rod down inside the cylinder and carefully turn the engine over, use the rod to measure the stroke on the pistons, obviously they should all be the same.

con rods ARE NOT the same as push rods....

iannotts said:

con rods ARE NOT the same as push rods....

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I was'nt implying that they were???

IrieLandy said:

how come you snapped the timing belt? did water get in there? my neighbour was saying something about a drain plug or something in the timing belt cover, maybe i should have it out just in case any water's gotten in there althouhg i'm not sure how it could!?

will deffi ately have the shaft off so i can check the rods (are push rods the same thing as con rods by the way?!) ... the only other thing i'm a bit worried about is any damage to the pistons or rings... wouldn't know how to check for that without a serious amount of work!

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No disrespect meant but if you have to ask "are push rods the same thing as con rods?" then I'd get somebody else to check your engine over or at the very least to help and advise you how and what needs doing.
Good luck and here's hoping its not as bad as it could be.

sounds like it may be worth getting a compression test done.

ratty said:

sounds like it may be worth getting a compression test done.

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perhaps a comprehension test too?

CharlesY

CharlesY said:

perhaps a comprehension test too?

CharlesY

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Are you gonna be doing the marking?

dazzx10r said:

I was'nt implying that they were???

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did i quote you

Well folks... i now have the head off... couple of pushrods on piston 4 slightly bent otherwise looks ok on 1st inspection. rotated engine... no.4 piston is only coming up to bout 1/4 inch BELOW the top of the piston bore! so today though i'd try and have a look at piston 4... refer to the Paynes-in-the-arse manual which says that it is POSSIBLE to take the pistons out with the engine in the vehicle, removed sump ok, removed oil pump ok.. then tried to remove ladder frame "remove the ten securing bolts" says the manual... i find only 9! it seems the 10th is under the flywheel housing somewhere, which means i have to take the engine off the gearbox! Then had a look at my neighbours land rover workshop manual (the actual one written by land rover!) and it clearly says its impossible to take the ladder frame off without taking the engine out first, thanks Haynes!

So there you go, time to borrow a scaffold and hook up my engine hoist!

couple of things have been niggling me... have heard folks saying that disco 200tdi's and defender 200tdi's are different, is this true? i'm assuming mines a disco since its a replacement (vehicle is '84 originally) and yet someone was saying on another forum that if its a disco 200tdi should be possible to take ladder frame out with the engine in situ?!

and other thing was, although the haynes says "insert a knife to break the seal" it says nothing about replacing the seal between the ladder frame and the cylinder block on refitting... would i get away with liquid gasket or is there a specific gasket for this job?

all the very best!