drown my jeep in a water hole!! what to do???

I was wheeling the other day and I drove my 89 jeep cherokee into a really deep water whole..got half way through, it was deep to the top of the hood at the depest and just died on me in the middle of the water..i got towed out, and towed home, i pulled the spark plugs not really sure what else to do?

im scared to start it, not sure if the lights or anything even work?

what could be wrong and what should i do ??

thanks

You are going to have water in all the fluids. Change all them out.

ok was planning on doing that anyways..

after that should i just try and start it?

should it start?

you'll have to dry everything out really good....distributor, TPS, IACV, you probably sucked water into your intake...hopefully you didnt hydrolock your engine (which, if it just died, you probably did)

unless you had everything sealed and had a snorkle, you should have shut your engine off as soon as you realized you were in deep water"...

Did you turn it over with the plugs out? If not, do that before starting to make sure there is no water in the cylinders.

Start shopping for a motor to swap, period.

911xj/tj said:

You are going to have water in all the fluids. Change all them out.

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This includes differentials, transmission and transfer case. I would also pour a quart through the engine and trans to help flush a bit of the moisture out.

ia green96 said:

Start shopping for a motor to swap, period.

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Why? Depending on exactly what happened he could be fine.I stalled mine out twice in 30 minutes going through a water hole.Granted I know it was most likely going to happen and was idling through it.So when it sucked water it just stalled.I pulled the plugs pumped out the water and tried again.The second time I got it bad and had to change the oil as well as the power steering fluid.Emptied it out and ran the motor for another year and a half before killing the Jeep by accidentally losing all coolant and over heating it badly.

So if he wasn't revving it to badly when it sucked in water he could be fine.If he had the revs up and hit the water then ya chances are he has a bent connecting rod,valve,or possible a wounded wrist pin.Which will cause it to take a dump and puke some guts .

When I sank my Blazer I had it towed in gear so it would blow the water out of the engine and exhaust. Worked fine after a couple of weeks

Wil Badger said:

Why? Depending on exactly what happened he could be fine.I stalled mine out twice in 30 minutes going through a water hole.Granted I know it was most likely going to happen and was idling through it.So when it sucked water it just stalled.I pulled the plugs pumped out the water and tried again.The second time I got it bad and had to change the oil as well as the power steering fluid.Emptied it out and ran the motor for another year and a half before killing the Jeep by accidentally losing all coolant and over heating it badly.

So if he wasn't revving it to badly when it sucked in water he could be fine.If he had the revs up and hit the water then ya chances are he has a bent connecting rod,valve,or possible a wounded wrist pin.Which will cause it to take a dump and puke some guts .

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IT wasn't too long ago, that a guy on here started a similer thread , and after he got it running for a few weeks, he posted the carnage. 4.0 WILL NOT tolerate water in the combustion chamber, period. You will bend a rod, in a heartbeat.

Yea I think that he is going to be in for a engine. Maybe not but it sounds bad. If you got the $$ laying around then just do a swap before you cause more problems

blazinjames said:

I was wheeling the other day and I drove my 89 jeep cherokee into a really deep water whole..got half way through, it was deep to the top of the hood at the depest and just died on me in the middle of the water..i got towed out, and towed home, i pulled the spark plugs not really sure what else to do?

im scared to start it, not sure if the lights or anything even work?

what could be wrong and what should i do ??

thanks

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every situation is different. my yj stalled after i slid into a pretty big water hole,and heres what i did. now im not saying its the right thing to do, but based on personal experience it worked for me.

first i took out the wet air filter and cleaned out the throttle body.
then i took off the distributor cap and sprayed it with wd-40 to displace the moisture.
took out the spark plugs and sprayed some combustion chamber cleaner in.
then i disabled the fuel pump and jumped the starter, the starter spun so i cranked the engine a few times to spit the water out .
changed the oil.
put in new spark plugs.
tried my best to dry out every electrical connection.
then i tried the key, it cranked but wouldn't fire, so i re connected the fuel and tried again. it kept cranking and stumbling but wouldn't run i checked for spark and fuel which were ok. then i pulled the now fouled spark plugs(fouled from the cleaner i think) and put in the old ones. it finally started and ran really crappy for a while with tons of smoke out the exhaust. i didn't hear a knock or anything so i changed the rest of the fluids and did a compression test. then i changed the oxygen sensor and it ran decent. i might have missed a few things but thats the idea. better than replacing an engine.

Just my $0.02 worth. If the oil doesn't leak out, how is the water supposed to get in there. Sure some is likely to get in the breather holes, but in my experience it's minimal (and usually evaporates back out again). Air has moisture in it. Either the color of the oil will tip you off or the rise in fluid levels if there is much water in the fluids. If the motor and most of the vehicle sits submerged for an extended period of time, more water is likely to seep in.

I grease everything and clean out my brakes. Check the fluids.
Motor can mess up, usually happens when the motor starts missing and somebody just won't say die and shut it down. They either try to keep it running or crank it till it dies. Or drive into the water at high RPM's and the motor gets damaged before it has a chance to stall.
Like mentioned, pull the plugs and crank it over. Look in the spark plug holes with a flashlight.
I keep a couple of cans of ether around, to help get me going again and use it to spray a few spoonfuls into the cylinders (spark plug holes) then crank it over to help move any grit out (disconnect the coil leads, keep a fire extinguisher handy).
I've found the biggest pain, is to wash all the mud out, it gets in places you can't really see and causes problems years down the road. Finding and cleaning all the connectors (WD-40 isn't the best solution for connectors, but does work well in the distributor). I've found near boiling water to be the best cleaner, washes the mud film off and then heats up the connector enough that most moisture evaporates, then a shot of air.
Starter and alternator get coated on the inside with a film of mud (dried dirty water).
I keep a set of junkyard sensors, starter and alternator. Swap it out and clean up the old set for next time.
I've found bottomless mud puddles on numerous occasions, in the last 200,000 miles, haven't swapped a motor out yet. Though I did bend a valve once.
I do pressure wash, mud sand and grit away from most all the seals and the brakse front and rear, sand will eat them up quick.

it gets in through the breather tubes which are connected to the airbox. if you get water in the airbox (which you do when you hydrolock), you WILL suck up a ton of water into the oil.

drain EVERY fluid in the rig except coolant. then, run some fluid through it. you're gonna wanna change the oil and tranny fluid a few times in the ferst 25 to 50 miles, just to get moisture out. diffs will only need changed once.

chances are you didn't have any idea what you were doing, which means you were probably going fast, which means you probably have a more wrecked motor than it's worth to fix. 4.0's are a dime a dozen, start looking just in case.

get a snorkel while you're at it, and on the install, waterproof everything. don't want you doing something like this again because no offense, it's probably the dumbest thing anyone could possibly do with their jeep.

Deep water with no snorkel- Dumb idea anyways. I know that its fun and everything, but is it really worth hydro locking your engine. I mean i knew this kid that just got his jeep lifted, thought he was the shit and went out wheeling with me and my buddy, he thought he'd try and go through this deep hole, got about a 1/4 of the way in and sank, and hydro locked his engine. to me, mud sucks anyways, and if you dont have a snorkel, stay out of it.

ia green96 said:

IT wasn't too long ago, that a guy on here started a similer thread , and after he got it running for a few weeks, he posted the carnage. 4.0 WILL NOT tolerate water in the combustion chamber, period. You will bend a rod, in a heartbeat.

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Ya I know how it was or atleast somebody I know posted one on the same situation.He blasted threw a water hole at high speed water got into the air box and hydro locked it.He got it running again and a week or two later it shot a rod through the side of block .

But like I said above I did it twice in about 30 minute span and the motor ran fine for almost 2 years after that like a top.No knock not a think was wrong with it.I idled in and thats the key.the motor didn't have a problem till the heater control valve cracked bleeding the system and running it dry will I was high speed running out in the West desert of Utah.It burned the rings and no has low compression .It still runs or did when I last yanked it from the Jeep.

Wil Badger said:

Ya I know how it was or atleast somebody I know posted one on the same situation.He blasted threw a water hole at high speed water got into the air box and hydro locked it.He got it running again and a week or two later it shot a rod through the side of block .

But like I said above I did it twice in about 30 minute span and the motor ran fine for almost 2 years after that like a top.No knock not a think was wrong with it.I idled in and thats the key.the motor didn't have a problem till the heater control valve cracked bleeding the system and running it dry will I was high speed running out in the West desert of Utah.It burned the rings and no has low compression .It still runs or did when I last yanked it from the Jeep.

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If YOU gotta way with it , good for you. If the OP said he was in water deep enough to hydrolock the motor, than it's nothing more than scrap.period. he may get it running, but it's still toasted.

ONCE again a 4.0 will not tolerate water thru the intake, at all. bent rods, and before you start flaming? yes a 4.0 with bent rod's will run. BUT, for how long?

I'm not flaming you and I agree with what you say to a point.Yes if he bent anything then its wasted and of story and I said that in my first post.However it all comes down to how it hydro locked.The 4.0 is not alone in it vulnerabilities any motor can get hurt just as easily.I grew up in the pines where hydro locking your motor is a standard occurrence .You quickly lean to carry spare everything .You carry a spare filter,a case of oil,spare air filters.Carry jugs to put wasted oil in.

You also learn to idle into anything you don't know.The motor is carrying just enough inertia to run.when the water hits the airbox and air filter it is normally enough to stop the motor.If it does suck some down by the time it is hitting the intake the motor is already bogging down.By the time it gets in the first cylinder there isn't enough compression on the piston the hurt anything.

I did it twice in a row and it lived because of this.The second time I was just starting to bring up the throttle to climb a ledge and it dropped off and into a deep section.That time I got water into two cylinders because it sat for a bit under water while we winched it out.It was pulled out I checked the oil and it had water in it.the reason was because the oil cap on the valve cover was also under water.So I dropped the oil,filter, and put new fluids in it right there.Pulled the plugs and shot the cylinders out.sprayed the plugs with some WD-40 ,put them back in ,and it fired right up.Ran fine for the rest of the time I had the Jeep.

So believe me when I say I have seen more then my Jeep do it and live and still run to this day.

Wil Badger said:

I'm not flaming you and I agree with what you say to a point.Yes if he bent anything then its wasted and of story and I said that in my first post.However it all comes down to how it hydro locked.The 4.0 is not alone in it vulnerabilities any motor can get hurt just as easily.I grew up in the pines where hydro locking your motor is a standard occurrence .You quickly lean to carry spare everything .You carry a spare filter,a case of oil,spare air filters.Carry jugs to put wasted oil in.

You also learn to idle into anything you don't know.The motor is carrying just enough inertia to run.when the water hits the airbox and air filter it is normally enough to stop the motor.If it does suck some down by the time it is hitting the intake the motor is already bogging down.By the time it gets in the first cylinder there isn't enough compression on the piston the hurt anything.

I did it twice in a row and it lived because of this.The second time I was just starting to bring up the throttle to climb a ledge and it dropped off and into a deep section.That time I got water into two cylinders because it sat for a bit under water while we winched it out.It was pulled out I checked the oil and it had water in it.the reason was because the oil cap on the valve cover was also under water.So I dropped the oil,filter, and put new fluids in it right there.Pulled the plugs and shot the cylinders out.sprayed the plugs with some WD-40 ,put them back in ,and it fired right up.Ran fine for the rest of the time I had the Jeep.

So believe me when I say I have seen more then my Jeep do it and live and still run to this day.

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I'm with Wil Badger, bad things can happen, but dunking your motor isn't a death sentence.

I was starter at the local Mud races, every Saturday (in the summer) for 5 years. Part of my pre race briefing, was if the motor craps out, just leave it until you can pull the plugs. I've seen numerous people actually do damage just trying to crank it over, the starter is more powerful than you'd think.
Actual serious motor damage was actually pretty rare, considering I'd see 30-40 hydrolocks a year.
Sucking water into the intake is to be avoided at all cost, but in my experience, not necessarily a death sentence.

Wil Badger said:

Why? Depending on exactly what happened he could be fine.I stalled mine out twice in 30 minutes going through a water hole.Granted I know it was most likely going to happen and was idling through it.So when it sucked water it just stalled.I pulled the plugs pumped out the water and tried again.The second time I got it bad and had to change the oil as well as the power steering fluid.Emptied it out and ran the motor for another year and a half before killing the Jeep by accidentally losing all coolant and over heating it badly.

So if he wasn't revving it to badly when it sucked in water he could be fine.If he had the revs up and hit the water then ya chances are he has a bent connecting rod,valve,or possible a wounded wrist pin.Which will cause it to take a dump and puke some guts .

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TWICE!!!................:twak: Damn dude, should have learned the first time!!