Life after hydrolock?

Ok, yes I searched and found lots of hydrolock info. It was all bad. But mine is still running, and pretty well (I think).
Quick background: 99 4.0, 120K, owned since new. Always good about oil changes and and maint., so engine is (was?) healthy.
So it got a drink of water in a freshwater puddle out on the OuterBanks of NC. No mud. Engine shut of as I rolled out the other side of puddle. Tried the starter once, wouldn't turn at all. Got out, pulled plugs, and could see water in some of the cylinders. opened airbox, removed wet filter. pulled airtube off TB. Opened throttle to find water standing in intake. I sucked the water out of intake with hose from rear wiper (creative huh?) Put it all back together and after a few minutes of trying, it started!
I drove it the mile or so back to beach house and shut it down. Oil looked like milkshake at this point. got a ride to nearest napa and got everything I needed to do a double oil change. Second batch of clean oil stayed clean. Ran fine until tps died. replaced that and drove it 9.5 hours home.
Two weeks later now, it's still running. I did another oil change, oil that came out still transparent. Seems to be okay but now that I am super paranoid about engine I am noticing some things. At startup, I don't think oil pressure goes up as fast as it did (bosch filter not fram). Also seems to idle alittle rough sometimes. I may be imagining this though, like I said I'm paraniod.

So do you guys think It's a time bomb now? I don't hear any knocks. been shopping for a low mile junkyard engine in the meantime...

thanks,
-mike

The 4.0 usually survives this kind of thing in my experience. Sounds as if you have done the right thing and saved the motor to fight another day. Perhaps a snorkel might be an appropriate next purchase.

If you drove it 9.5 hours home and have been driving it since dont worry about it! Drive er til she dies! The problems you are starting to experiacnce may be due to the water damage but you also may have some corriosion starting on some of the components. Just deal with them as they come and dont get to worried about it. Good Luck!

Could also be the brand of the oil filter and the anti-drainback valve causing the slow pressure build up. As for your 'steps', boy, once it dies don't ever even try to turn it over until after you pull the plugs, then spin it, it will save you having to suck the water out with a hose. The pistons will shoot it out. Also a good reason to carry an oil 6 pack, filter and drain pan in the back...
If it's running ok then go ahead and drive it, any damage has already been done and there is nothing to do but grin and bear it... My money is still on the filter though..

the other thing with having a rough idle could be any thing from the MAP sensor to O2 sensor they do not like water.you might want to check the codes even though the check engine light isn't lite it could be having codes come up .

i put my motor under twice in 20 minutes trying to make a crossing .the first time i pulled the plugs got the water out.nothing in oil everything esle ok.second time took water hard .had to change oil,plugs,filter,MAP ,and O2 .did everything right then and there but the two sensors.i have put atleast 20,000 miles since then .

the pic just doesn't do it justice.the water came halfway up the hood

I have been though a very simular situation. I have 166,000 miles on my XJ. I went into a creek that was a little deeper than I thought. It dropped like 4 ft deep within 3 ft. I stopped as soon as i could but the front was already under water up to the top of the hood. It was still running and it wasnt missing so I left it idle. As I was getting pulled out the front started to sink a little and it started to miss. I shut it off right away and when I got pulled out i open the hood and saw my air filter was soaked(and it was dirty, muddy water). I took off the t.b. air tube and the intake didnt have any water in it so I cranked it over. It cranked slow but it wasnt locked up. When it started, about 2 gallons of water came out of the tail pipe. The oil was a little milky. I flushed the oil three times and its never missed a beat since. For a week or two it did seem to idle a little ruff, but its fine now. That was atleast 3,000 miles ago. I think 4.0's are bullet proof and yours will be fine.

RichP,

Yea, hydrolock didn't occur to me when it first shut down. I just automatically went for the starter...I forgot to mention that I did spin the motor once I had the plugs out and had sucked the water out of the intake. Actually I was standing on the pass side front tire and instructed my patient wife (who told me not to cross the puddle in the first place) to hit the key. I then got hot, oily water in the face as my reward for being a bonehead.

Another question: Apparently the bottom end survived, but what if I tweaked a pushrod? Is there any way to tell other than pulling them out?

You're at the 'grin n bear it' stage, it will either continue to be fine or start blowing smoke, oil and other stuff. If you had done a rod I think it would have been evident by now and be sticking out of a hole in the block.
Like you I neglected to move fast enough to get out of the way, luckily I had sunglasses on. It for sure comes out of those little plug holes pretty quick...

sounds like you dodged the bullet, but might have gotten nicked.

The 4.0L is pretty stout and does have a history of surviving a drowning. It sounds like there was no major damage but there is still the possiblity of a bent rod or less noticable damage. I would check the compression and piston travel. If that checks out get a full driveability diag done at the stealership to detect any faulty sensors. I dont think you'll have an issue with the valvetrain, unless the water/oil mix caused a lifter to go or too much metal to metal contact. Of course you could have worn some nickle off the bearings, which could take days to years to show.

You may have shaved some miles off the end of the life of your 4.0L, but not killed it.

i know somebody that hit a puddle a bit fast .it wasn't deep or big but enough water hit the airbox that it ingested water.he restarted it after checking everything .it seemed fine drove good for 3 months after that.then outof the blue it developed a knock then threw a rod out the side and zippered the oil pan.









did i mention it continued to run even after all this

Geez Will,
Did you have to post those pics? Now I'm gonna have nightmares. Hope it knocks or something before that happens.

-mike

DriverX said:

Geez Will,
Did you have to post those pics? Now I'm gonna have nightmares. Hope it knocks or something before that happens.

-mike

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Yes, he's like the corpsman we had lecture us on the evils of the overseas bars in various ports we visited. The one with the pics of rotted off peckers and such....and the horrors of the short arm check... :wave:

RichP said:

Yes, he's like the corpsman we had lecture us on the evils of the overseas bars in various ports we visited. The one with the pics of rotted off peckers and such....and the horrors of the short arm check... :wave:

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I think they do that so that we(Marines) do give em any comeptition when tryin to score some foreign poon.I lost count of they whorror stories ive heard from corpsman over the last 10 years.

The number one piston takes the brunt of the water. I had 2 engines let loose after a dunking. Problem was that it ran fine for a few weeks then bam the #1 piston and rod went around and around. Both looked exactly like the pics. One i drove 8 hours home from big bear to Santa anna Ca no problems. ( i drove across a creek at lake arrow head and it was spring time). The next week wife drove to work no problems. Then while idling at stop light the rod came out. 2nd time a big rain came and i was washing the underside doing about 25mph and the water got deep near a drain hole and the engine stopped. pushed it to a dry spot took spark plugs out and water shot every where. Ran great after. Got up early one morning and was idling waiting on brother to get in and bam. I dont know where people get that the 4.0 will live though water dunkings. Jeep even had to redesign the intake inlet from under the headlight to up in the engine compartment on the TJ, because of the water destroyed engines. Donavee Jeep service Guy told me they where replacing about 1 engine a week at one time due to the water and #1 rod.

Jeepsr4me said:

The number one piston takes the brunt of the water. I had 2 engines let loose after a dunking. Problem was that it ran fine for a few weeks then bam the #1 piston and rod went around and around. Both looked exactly like the pics. One i drove 8 hours home from big bear to Santa anna Ca no problems. ( i drove across a creek at lake arrow head and it was spring time). The next week wife drove to work no problems. Then while idling at stop light the rod came out. 2nd time a big rain came and i was washing the underside doing about 25mph and the water got deep near a drain hole and the engine stopped. pushed it to a dry spot took spark plugs out and water shot every where. Ran great after. Got up early one morning and was idling waiting on brother to get in and bam. I dont know where people get that the 4.0 will live though water dunkings. Jeep even had to redesign the intake inlet from under the headlight to up in the engine compartment on the TJ, because of the water destroyed engines. Donavee Jeep service Guy told me they where replacing about 1 engine a week at one time due to the water and #1 rod.

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Crap, that's what I was afraid of. I hope it's sooner rather than later because I'd like to take it into the woods again someday without worrying about being stranded. The more I think about it, I should probably just replace the motor now before it comes apart a long way from home and I have to pay to get it towed.
When I originally did some searches here about hydrolock and engine replacement, I came across a link to a web site that searched inventories of auto recyclers everywhere. I cannot seem to find that site again. Anyone know what it is?

DriverX said:

When I originally did some searches here about hydrolock and engine replacement, I came across a link to a web site that searched inventories of auto recyclers everywhere. I cannot seem to find that site again. Anyone know what it is?

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Nevermind, I found it. car-part.com

Another freaking corpsman, just drive it, if it dies worry about it then. Course if you have the pockets pick up a long block and put it in the garage for a rainy day.