Deep water = wet engine

Hi folks first post and it's a biggie! :-(

The story goes...

Driving home at night, round blind corner around 50 mph, spot 'flood' sign in large puddle 10 feet in front of me, panic, splash, splutter, splutter, coast to layby, stall, the end!

After later inspection found the puddle to be about a foot deep!

Anyway got car home, stripped and dried the induction system, dried off the electrics, removed the plugs and switched off the fuel and crancked the engine over to expell water from the cylinders and then put everything back together with new plugs and air filter. The car started and runs well now. There is a small amount of water in the oil which I will change out tonight, I think it got sucked in through a breather pipe.

Two questions...

1. How do I make sure all of the water is out of the engine when I change the oil

2. Is there likely to be any lasting damage

The car is a 52 plate 1.7 puma, no mods, 20,100 miles, serviced every 3000 miles and is totally mint so I really hope it will be OK.

Cheers

Greg

Woah sorry to hear about that! Think yourself lucky though, last time I got stuck between a flood and an icy bridge I met the owner of a Fiesta ZS that had attempted to drive through the lake. The engine completely seized and the car was written off by the insurers!

There's lots of suggestions around.

Most just say drain the oil, replace the filter and turn it over without the spark plugs in.

I can't be much more help tough as i've not experienced it.

Nasty, yeah I was expecting it to be fooked! Hopefully once the oil is changed that will be that.

You may need to replace your MAF, but if it runs ok, then you have probably gotten away with it.

A few years ago I did something similar with my E30, took two oil changes to get the water out, but aside from an occasionally dodgy idle (assumed to be the MAF) it was fine. I did get some water inside, which took some drying, but I ran it for another 12 months before selling it.

Good news, cheers for that FlashBastd. Rating your project thread by the way you seem to be making a very thorough job of it!

Thanks!

Welcome to the forums. Hope the water is cleared soon.

A little update.

Oil changed last night and I have driven the car about 50 miles since, no sign of water in the oil or major electrical faults. Not sure if the fan is working though, it wasn't running when I got to work today. Sounds daft but what is the best way to test the fan?

After the fresh filters, plugs and oil I swear the car is running better than it did before! It feels sharper and sounds far better around 3000 rpm, old air filter must have been filthy!

Cheers for the help and if anyone can help me with the fan that would be awesome!

Good to hear its ok I think the best way is just to leave the engine running while stationary that's when mine tends to kick in after a few minutes. If driving without stopping then the fan never comes on as it's getting enough cool air.

only problem iv had with deep water is the clutch sticking to the flywheel....good yank on the gear stick sorted it tho....

but that was after water had got inbetween & on accleration the water was turning to steam & firing the friction pads off the flywheel etc & causing juddering clutch slip....

Cheers, I'll try that for the fan tonight.

Still no dodgy symtoms of other problems so fingers crossed all is well!

Driving to ford fair involved the heaviest rain ive ever experienced. It resulted in some serious loss of power for a good while. so far have changed spark plugs, igntion leads, coil pack and maf, its got better but not 100%. Going to do the oil this weekend in the hopes of sorting it fully.

Probably your lambda, have you got a 4-2-1 mani? If so, the lambda is a bit vulnerable to standing water, and will have a marked impact on performance.

Yeah got a 421, tbh sick of trying to sort it.

It was a particuarly rainy day that finished off my previous lambda, it had been on the way out for a while though.

Are they much to replace?

About £65. Don't go genuine Ford, they are just an NTK in a Ford box. I got mine from Andrew Page, it was about £50+VAT trade, so probably about £65 retail. Definately worth a try. Check your local motor factors for any that supply NTK, and can supply one with the correct plug for a Puma of your model year. They changed plug around 2000 from square to round.

Just a quick note, if water gets into your induction, and into your engine, enough of it will damage your piston rings, and con rods, because water wont compress like the air does, and if there is enough of it in 1 or more of your cylinders, when the piston tries to compress it, , somethings gotta give, so its probly worth checking compression in all 4 cylinders, not sure how much it costs, but that should give you a good indication if there has been any damage caused. If a con rod had bent, youd probly hear a tapping noise as it hit the crankshaft after every rotation, unless its only slightly bent, but that will show up on a compression test. Another indicator, is to take out your spark plugs, and use something thin to measure down to the pistons. The 2 outer pistons should be exactly the same depth, and the 2 middle should be exactly the same, to the mm, if not, then a rod is bent. You dont seem to have any of these problems though, as you said the car runs fine, but id have thought some damage could have been caused, as there is oil in the water, so its obviusly got past your pistons and piston rings, and not even air is supposed to get past there, so its worth checking out!

Cool man, thats a fair point never thought about the compression, I will get that checked. I think that the oil got in through a breather pipe, the one that goes to the air box has a foam filter and it was soaked.

It wouldn't have gone in through the breather, more likely through the inlet. The reason the foam is damp is probably due to the amount of water sucked up into your airbox.

Not good news, but so long as the car drives ok, and you have changed the oil & filter enough times to get rid of any emulsion, I wouldn't worry about it too much.