water logged engine!! Whoops

Richard Beckett · Apr 20, 2010

:doh: Recently whilst at a pay and play day I managed to get very stuck in a water hole, no supprise it took a good 15mins to pull me out. The problem is that the water managed to make its way into the air filter, which in turn has sucked it into the intercooler/ turbo, the air filter, the oil, the cylinders, pretty much every where. On site I removed the glow plugs and spun the engine over for about 2mins to clear the cylinders, I removed the intercooler and flushed that out, then after a very smokey trip to motor serve (only about 2miles) an oil change with an engine flush + new oil and air filters. The problem is that the engine is still miss firing/ under powered (dirty injectors?) and smoking lots (water in oil?)! Any advice in what to do next? I was thinking injector cleaner and another oil change? Its my first Landrover and im a bit new to this sort of damage, help would be brilliant

ratty · Apr 20, 2010

Did it cut out in the water? Could be that you've bent a valve.

pos · Apr 21, 2010

When your engine drew in water it will have created a hydraulic lock between the piston crowns and the cylinder head, ultimately damaging the components of at least one cylinder. Your lumpy running may well be the result of a bent con rod which is preventing that cylinder from reaching its optimum compression level, if it's achieving any compression at all. It may also be a cracked piston crown which is allowing compression to escape immediately into the crank case, rendering the combustion in that cylinder incomplete hence the white smoke that you see (partially burned / atomised diesel). Sometimes you can get lucky and snap a timing belt and bend a push rod which is a much easier and much cheaper job to fix. Considering your engine is running however, all be it rather poorley, I'd put my money on you having a bent con rod in at least one of your cylinders unfortunately. The first and most sensible thing to do is take the rocker cover off and check that when the engine is running, all eight rocker arms are rocking (opening and closing intake and exhaust valves). If you have one that isn't budging or which isn't travelling far enough - you may have a bent push rod. If all is fine on top, it's a head off job. A compression or cylinder leakage test should single out the damaged cylinder. If it does come down to the piston / con rod, it can be sorted for well under £100 if you do it yourself. A garage will charge you anything between half a day and a full days labour though I'd imagine.

Hope you get it sorted.
-Pos

defcrazy · Apr 21, 2010

pos said:
When your engine drew in water it will have created a hydraulic lock between the piston crowns and the cylinder head, ultimately damaging the components of at least one cylinder. Your lumpy running may well be the result of a bent con rod which is preventing that cylinder from reaching its optimum compression level, if it's achieving any compression at all. It may also be a cracked piston crown which is allowing compression to escape immediately into the crank case, rendering the combustion in that cylinder incomplete hence the white smoke that you see (partially burned / atomised diesel). Sometimes you can get lucky and snap a timing belt and bend a push rod which is a much easier and much cheaper job to fix. Considering your engine is running however, all be it rather poorley, I'd put my money on you having a bent con rod in at least one of your cylinders unfortunately. The first and most sensible thing to do is take the rocker cover off and check that when the engine is running, all eight rocker arms are rocking (opening and closing intake and exhaust valves). If you have one that isn't budging or which isn't travelling far enough - you may have a bent push rod. If all is fine on top, it's a head off job. A compression or cylinder leakage test should single out the damaged cylinder. If it does come down to the piston / con rod, it can be sorted for well under £100 if you do it yourself. A garage will charge you anything between half a day and a full days labour though I'd imagine.

Hope you get it sorted.
-Pos

well said, thats all you need to know to get it sorted

Richard Beckett · Apr 21, 2010

Cheers pos. I will get the rocker cover off tonight and take a look. Right, please forgive my lack of knowledge in this area, but when I took out the glow plugs and spun it over all four pistons seemed to be going fine, if it was a connecting rod problem would they still do this? Thanks all for you input, looks like my weekends for the next couple of weeks are spoken for lol

BasilSeal · Apr 21, 2010

Richard Beckett said:
Cheers pos. I will get the rocker cover off tonight and take a look. Right, please forgive my lack of knowledge in this area, but when I took out the glow plugs and spun it over all four pistons seemed to be going fine, if it was a connecting rod problem would they still do this? Thanks all for you input, looks like my weekends for the next couple of weeks are spoken for lol

The pistons will still go up and down, but if you drew water into the combustion chamber instead of air and fuel, as the piston came up it would try to compress the water, but liquids don't compress in the same way gasses do, something has to give and it's usually the conrod, which bends under pressure.

Richard Beckett · Apr 22, 2010

update: its not the push rods, had the rocker cover off and the rocker mechanism, all the push rods are fine and when running they all travel fine :-(. Backed off the top bolts of the injectors and isolated one of the cylinders which isnt efected by fuel starvation, so con rod change! Going to have a go this weekend! Any advice, can I do it with the engine in?

water logged engine!! Whoops

Richard Beckett

New Member

ratty

I'm not special I'm limited edition

pos

Well-Known Member

defcrazy

Active Member

Richard Beckett

New Member

BasilSeal

Active Member

Richard Beckett

New Member

Similar threads