Com's Trail Fixes; What to do After You Hydro-locked a Gas Fired Motor.......
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Hey Guy's, How about if I give you a check list of what you should do, if you should lose fire while wheeling in water, from Com in the SunShine State, with lot's of Water to ford and Hydro-Lock in.......
1) Do not start your engine get someone that your with to pull you out.
2) Check your Air Box to see if it has water in it, and if your Air Filter is wet. If it is, go to step three.
Now would be a good time to check your motor oil, ATF transmission fluid, and differentials. The best way to do this is via their respective dip sticks pull each one of them dry the areas around each of them, then wipe the dip stick off place it back into the tube, now pull it back out and run the oil and/or fluid between your fingers, if there are pearls of water in the fluids then you have got water there also.
Now is the time to drain & replace it and/or separate the water from the fluid. This is a simple procedure slowly pore the fluids from one plastic container into another plastic container, using the largest funnel and coffee filers, wipe the funnel and change the coffee filter with every container back and forth movement. It should take about ten minutes per fluid working it back and forth several times.
3) Pull your plugs wires and then remove the spark plugs, then crank your engine by hand (with a socket & ratchet and/or wrench on the nut and/or bolt of the crank shaft and balance dampener), it will be very hard at first, this is caused by the water in the cylinders, that compress's at a different rate then air & fuel.
Once all of the water is out of your cylinders, you can bump your key once or twice with your coil wire removed.
Now spray some WD40 and/or another lubricant (i.e., ATF, Motor Oil, ect...), pour about a 1/2 ounce of lubricant into each of the cylinders via the spark plug opening's, you can now bump the key several times while the coil wire is still pulled, (watch out for the spray from the spark plug opening's). This will re-coat your cylinder wall and will give you a vacuum once again, reinstall your plugs now. (If you have some Brake Cleaner, spray each of the plugs off and/or until clean, then wipe them all off, after the above procedures are completed you then can wipe the spark plug opening's and cylinder head to remove any debris and/or foreign matter)
4) Remove your throttle body and/or carburetor, clean all of the water and debris out of your intake manifold, make sure you check the rear of it that's the area by your back cylinder's (4 on 2.5L-I4's, and 5 & 6 on I6's) on V configure motors make sure that you swab out all of the intake runners prior to starting your motor.
5) Take your distributor cap off and check for water, if there is water in it remove your rotor carefully and dry the distributor body out with a clean dry towel and/or paper towels, spray the inside of your cap with Electrical Contact Cleaner then wipe dry, now spray some Wire Dryer in it, if you do not have any of this, then use some more WD40 here, now reinstall your rotor and cap. Reinstall your coil wire and start your engine.
Note: All of this will be the same for all I4's, I6's, V6's, V8's and V10's that are gas fired also. I do realize that it will take a little time to do all of this but the other option is a little more expensive. I also know that some of these procedures may seam a little anal to some of you old timer's and motor head's out there, but this was written for some of those new to this sport, and are a little intimidated by what has just happened to them. Since not many of you run Diesel fire rig's I'll write another on these type of motor later.......
It will smoke and sputter also a little at first, but it will be OK after it warms-up to get you home, make sure that you change your plugs and filter's once your there, clean and/or replace your air cleaner element also. That's the way you do it after you hydro-locked it. Many Happy Day's of Wheeling.......
Now, for items that a well prepared Wheeler should keep in their Rig for when you get Hydro-locked:
A) WD40 large can or several smaller ones
B) Wire Dryer in a can
C) Electric Contact Cleaner in a can
D) Starting Fluid
E) Brake Parts Cleaner, (do not use this on any electrical components)
F) Motor Oil at least 5 to 6 Quarts and/or an oil change amount, a
oil drain pan w/a screw on lid or an old dish pan to catch your
fluids in.
G) ATF if you have an automatic transmission at least 3 to 4 Quarts.
or Gear Oil if you have a manual transmission, or carry several
empty plastic jugs and/or bottles to separate the water from the
fluids with a funnel and several coffee filter, also you will need to
do this a couple of times to remove the water.
H) Several Quarts of Gear Oil for your differentials.
I) Several size's of Funnels (1) to pour oil in your motor, (1) to put
ATF in the filler tube and 2 dozen coffee filters.
J) A socket and ratchet to fit your spark plugs, several extensions &
universal joint to match the drive (3/8").
K) A Multi screw driver and Torx drives (1/4") for removal of your
throttle body & distributor cap.
L) Empty plastic bottles to carry your spent fluids away with old 2
Liter Soda bottle is what I carry, but I take them filled with
potable H2O and if I not should need it, I just pour out the H2O,
one never knows when one will need clean H2O, (and I even carry
one with dish soap and H2O for cleaning things up with).
M) Plastic electrical tape, duct tape, 12" Zip ties
N) A Waterproof Tool Box with the Basic necessary mechanical tools
in it (i.e., SAE & Metric wrenches, sockets, Torx inside & outside
types, screw drivers straight blade stubby, 6", 8" narrow, 12" &
Philips #1, #2, #3, vice grips, different size strap wrench's,
hacksaw & extra blades, strap type tail pipe cutter, nut splitter,
nut & bolt extractors, pneumatic wrenches if you have an on board
air compressor (what can I say, Chewy really spoiled me, you
should have seen the tools and spare parts that I carried, that's
why he weight in around 5.5kLbs) ect. ect. ect......
This list could go on and on with things that you could use out there,
now where to carry all of these items, I use plastic milk crates that I
purchased from Lowe's, three of them fit nicely in the XJ......
Later
Mark......
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Originally Posted by ComChewy
