Sunk my jeep, dirt in engine, now what?

Today I went off roading with my Dad which was only going to play in the sand and puddle hop then home. Well the woods was a flooded a lot more then I was expecting. Long story short I got stuck with no turn around and had to go through a puddle (lake-ish) I shouldn't have. Jeep got stuck, ruined my come a long, had to call a friend to tow me out.

This is the first time I have ever got my jeep stuck in water, let along deep water up to the intake. Engine did stall a few times, cleaned the distributor cap on the trial. On the way home jeep didn't really want to go over 3K RPMs so I didn't floor it to force it, runs pretty rough. Check engine light is on (its a 1994 OBD1 too). Tranny fluid looks good but engine has some dirt/mud looking on the inside of the oil cap, the dip stick oil is super nasty light brown. Looks like there maybe oil/water mix also on the dip stick. Luckly engine does run so didn't hydrolock it out on the trail as I made it home (20 miles)

I need sugestions on how to clean this mess up and the maintenance I should do now to the jeep. With real help on what to do about the engine oil that bad. Should I pull the valve cover and clean all of that and just change the oil or is there more I should do like a tune up now? Plus I guess change the differentials gear oil and transfer case fluid?

Thanks for any help!

First things first don't run it any more i blew my second engine that way, i had water in my number 6 cylinder and ended up with allot of shiny metal pieces in my oil pan.

Is there water in the air box?? If not then no water or dirt in the engine. Most probably water in the distributor. If you drove it home and it didnot blow up you should be ok. Pull the dist. cap and dry the insides with a hair dryer.
With sinking it its a good time to change the motor oil,trans oil and both diffs for a good margin of safety.

Ron

Clean out the distributor really good. Change your oil immediately

MAY POP said:

Is there water in the air box?? If not then no water or dirt in the engine. Most probably water in the distributor. If you drove it home and it didnot blow up you should be ok. Pull the dist. cap and dry the insides with a hair dryer.
With sinking it its a good time to change the motor oil,trans oil and both diffs for a good margin of safety.

Ron

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The water got to the bottom of the air box but not as high as the air filter. Yes I did drive it home about 20 miles and didnt blow up lol. The oil is nasty looking. I have had jeep sitting since Saturday letting it air out. I did just buy today oil, gear oil, plugs, and wires to all change.

So you are saying that the air filter stayed dry? If not, you probably got water in the engine. If so, you are living on borrowed time.

Look at the oil you drain. If it is milky or has any water in it, you have problems. I would pull the plugs, then do a complete compression check.

Even if everything else looks good, I would probably pull the oil pan and give the crank, rods, and pistons a good going over. What normally happens is that a rod gets bent. Over time it gets worse, ending up with it breaking and cratering the engine.

If you have a bent rod, I would replace it, along with the piston and all the bearings. That might get you a year or so on the engine, but I don't think I have ever seen an engine that got flooded that lasted more than 18 months.

old_man said:

So you are saying that the air filter stayed dry? If not, you probably got water in the engine. If so, you are living on borrowed time.

Look at the oil you drain. If it is milky or has any water in it, you have problems. I would pull the plugs, then do a complete compression check.

Even if everything else looks good, I would probably pull the oil pan and give the crank, rods, and pistons a good going over. What normally happens is that a rod gets bent. Over time it gets worse, ending up with it breaking and cratering the engine.

If you have a bent rod, I would replace it, along with the piston and all the bearings. That might get you a year or so on the engine, but I don't think I have ever seen an engine that got flooded that lasted more than 18 months.

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I drained the oil and I got out like 9 quarts. I can post a pick but its milky and nasty. I pulled the valve cover and the rockers ars all milky and the valve cover under is has a milky coating. I cleaned it up with brake/part cleaner. I havent pulled the plugs yet and crank it over yet to try get rest of junk out

Honestly, I have said to others. Start looking for a used motor. A 4.0 with a bent rod will run for a bit, but not before it ventilates the block. If you didn't hydrolock it you might be ok, if you did, start looking.

Dude, Find a motor fast!

There was a guy on here that few years back sunk his motor. He got pulled out, pulled plugs to clear the cylinders & he thought everything was good to go. We all told him to start looking & he ignored us all. He posted the pic's of the hole in has block a few months later. 4.0's are a great motor till you do something stupid. Not calling you stupid, but If it stalled out while taking in water, start looking now, It's just a matter of time.

nick86 said:

There was a guy on here that few years back sunk his motor. He got pulled out, pulled plugs to clear the cylinders & he thought everything was good to go. We all told him to start looking & he ignored us all. He posted the pic's of the hole in has block a few months later. 4.0's are a great motor till you do something stupid. Not calling you stupid, but If it stalled out while taking in water, start looking now, It's just a matter of time.

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I understand, it was stupid. I knew better then go into that water. It stalled about 3-4 times when in the water. Started back up each time when I cranked it over.

Get a boat?

Well after you change the oil let us know how it runs:roll:

RaptorXJ said:

I understand, it was stupid. I knew better then go into that water. It stalled about 3-4 times when in the water. Started back up each time when I cranked it over.

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No, biggy bro, take our advice now or post picks of the bent rods later, just saying.

As long as you didnt do any damage the motor should be ok if you get all the water out of there ASAP

Done it before like you. Pull the plugs and blow gun the water out with a compressor out of each cylinder. Put some cheap oil and a quart of marvel mystery oil and let it idle for 15 min. Drain. Fill up again with oil. Run for 5 min at idle and check what the oil looks like. Repeat if you need to. Ive seen 4.0 with worse junk in em than milky water run. I got lucky. But stack away some dough for a rebuild just in case. 4.0's are tough and they can deal with alot. Cross your fingers and hope for the best.

mate thats rubbish, boat motors sometimes get sunk, had a friend who pulled one a GM 454 out of a sunk boat soaked it all in oil and stripped it down cleaned everything and put it back together, then ran it in a ski boat with twin holleys on a tunnel ram for years.

its only a real drama if its salt water and let sit.

so pull all the spark plugs and squirt oil in the bores change the engine oil and then run it, change out the oil again a couple of times and see how you go. same with diffs and gearbox/transfer case


whoops wot he said above

old_man said:

So you are saying that the air filter stayed dry? If not, you probably got water in the engine. If so, you are living on borrowed time.

Look at the oil you drain. If it is milky or has any water in it, you have problems. I would pull the plugs, then do a complete compression check.

Even if everything else looks good, I would probably pull the oil pan and give the crank, rods, and pistons a good going over. What normally happens is that a rod gets bent. Over time it gets worse, ending up with it breaking and cratering the engine.

If you have a bent rod, I would replace it, along with the piston and all the bearings. That might get you a year or so on the engine, but I don't think I have ever seen an engine that got flooded that lasted more than 18 months.

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I'm jynxing myself here, but mine's been hydrolocked by me once bad enough that it wouldn't turn over, twice fairly gently (cleared up after cranking for a while, only heard a slight *thunk* once) and it's got a year and a few more thousand miles on it now. I have a slight bottom end knock but I'm honestly not sure if I had it before the hydrolock or not.

It's a $160 engine I've already run for 15k miles or so, and I have two spares on hand (one I have to throw a new gasket and new head bolts in... no big deal) so I'm not really sweating it. Oil pressure is good, it runs great, I've beat the hell out of it and revved it pretty good many times since the first hydrolock and it hasn't popped... yet...

If I get to it before it blows, I'll probably swap one of my known good spares in, then throw a new set of pistons, rods, and conrod bearings in this one and keep it as an emergency spare.


OP - you need to drain and refill your oil IMMEDIATELY, run for a short period, if it's still not showing clean, repeat. Also check your power steering fluid and differentials, especially the diffs. You really don't want to wipe those, they get expensive fast if you have a non factory gear ratio.