went for a swim...

well long story short, after some wicked snow wheeling I went a little too far out onto the ice and ended up breaking through. The entire front end of my 96 was submerged under icy water for about 2 hours. Needless to say it was quite the extraction to get it out. Got it back to the driveway and drained the block - there was ALOT of water. Tried turning it over but she was locked up. Temps about -10 deg C overnight. Next morning went out to assess the damage. Pulled the plugs and electrodes on 2 of the 6 were bent. Luckily it warmed up a bit yesterday and I was able to drain the tranny and t-case.

Need to know what I should do next....here is what I've done so far:

-drained block, have replaced oil and filter
-pulled plugs
-drained some sludge out of front diff
-drained tranny and t-case
-sucked about half a litre of water out of intake manifold

I can turn her over by hand and I think I have pushed all the water and ice out of the cylinders. I shot a bit of ATF down the spark plug holes to lube things up a bit.

Tried turning the key but starter motor is just spinning???

Any thoughts on what to do next? This isn't my daily driver so I'm not in a huge rush to get her back on the road, but I do realize time is of the essence here.

Thanks in advance!

BTW - its a 1996 Cherokee Sport, 4.0L, AX-15, stock

Doesn't sound good if 2 of the electrodes are bent. Is it getting spark when you turn it over?

not sure yet, I'm not able to turn it over - starter motor is just spinning. I'm hoping it was just the ice expanding in the cylinder that crunched the electrodes.

Did you try cranking it while it still had water in the block? Could have damaged the gear on the starter...

yes did try cranking so thats a possibility

You screwed up big time turning it over at all with the plugs in.

OK whats done is done, what do you think I should do next? Or am I just fighting a losing battle???

Check the starter, never know you might have gotten really lucky. But I wouldn't bet a lot on it.

Replace the starter, then do a compression test to see if you bent any valves. If you have no compression on one cyl the valves are toast and the head will need to come off. You could have also bent a connecting rod while trying to turn it over. First step, get it spinning on the starter and go from there.

Man I bet that was SCARY when that nose dropped through!! What a way to go.

And leave the plugs out for now.

I'll pull the starter and give that a try. Thanks for the advice, this is my first water experience.

And yes, going through the ice was freaky, even though it was only about 4 feet deep. Definitely wont be doing any more ventures out on the ice!

I've pretty much come to the conclusion that I likely have some engine damage....well maybe this jeep gets retired to "parts" status. The wife has been bugging me to get a four door anyways!

Keep the advice coming, as I said this is all new to me!!!

I understand why the connecting rods would bend, but why would the valves bend? Sorry, I'm not up-to-speed on pushrod motors...