Hydro lock can definately damage internal engine parts. Remember, air is compressable, but water is NOT. If he knew that water got into the engine, and he tried to start it anyway, that was very unwise of him to do that, and it was likely an expensive mistake for him to make.

However, diagnosing possible engine damage through the internet is a guessing game at best, so I have to tell you that we shouldn't automatically assume the worst here. I suppose it can be possible that the engine doesn't run well at high RPM simply because parts of the ignition got wet also, and it needs to dry out more. Hopefully for your "friend's" sake that is exactly the case, but ofcourse you cannot count on that.

He can try spraying the inside of the distributor cap with a moisture dispersing subtance such as WD-40 and then just run it at a fast idle for 20-30 minutes, and then take it out for a ten minute drive and then shut it down with the hood on to allow the engine heat to further dry everything out. Then, start it up an hour later, and take it out for a good drive again, and rev it up under load to see what happens. Good luck, and let us know how it turns out!!

 

Thanx for your info and advise. He did not open the distributor yet. The motor and others (externally) are more than dry already. Let me tell him to check it as it is an HEI, which I hope that the module is not burned or something..

So far, the motor does idle, runs, and revvs good and as usual till it gets into high rev and/or at full throttle, it hesitates and pops.

I will let him open up the distributor and see whats up there.

 

I agree that it may be an ignition problem; I don't know that a starter develops enough torque to bend the internals, especially if it didn't even make a full revolution.

I'd simply pop the distributor cap and blast everything out with compressed air, rather than doing all that spraying and running and driving and idling.

 

Yep, using compressed air is a good idea as long as he has a compressor. If not, the WD works wonders to drive out moisture under the cap.

 

I was telling him as he attempted to start yanking out the motor about that the starter motor will not have enough power to bend a rod. unless otherwise the valves might of got little off as when he cranked it to gush out the water inside the cylinder through the spark plug hole, which I doubt it will..

But let me tell him to check his ignition (HEI Summit & new...) on its condition and try it dry.

I will update soon what happened. Thanx.

 

I just bent a rod by cranking, but the engine did start for just a moment and then locked up. I didn't know it, but my head gasket leaked internally and filled up the cylinder. So...hydrolocking can do major damage!

 

I think that having one or more cylinders fire is the key to having some internal damage. If his was as full of water as it sounds, I doubt it fired. And, the way it sounds, it only turned over a fraction of a revolution, so no momentum and only the torque of the starter motor applied.

But yes, I have heard of hydrolocking damage on startup.

 

Yep. It did not start nor spun the motor. Only a click or a very mini-mini move and did not move any more as if the battery was weak, locked right there before it had the chance to do so...

The thing is that after firing it up, the motor did run, no vibrations or un-usual sounds, knock, shake, or related. Revvs smooth but pops (like backfire) on high rev or at full throttle like at 5000rpm.

It looks like as mentioned above that the ignition or the distributor is at the cause. Its an HEI (Summit) so I hope that his module did not burn. Lets see as that part haven't been checked yet. Only did changed oil, plugs, and carb..... : (

 

Change the plugs,i think water got deep into the insulator area causing some rust which could ground/flash over to the sparkplug body at high rpms/high load situations in a high comp motor.

Also,check the cap/rotor for rust & condensation too since things got wet and check & dry the plug wires,coil and ign module too if your running HEI/elec ign.

I really doubt the motor was damaged from the hydrolock because it hardly even turned over so you should be ok there.

scott

 

motors are routinely damaged by cranking the starter with water in the cylinders. here's how: if the cylinder has just enough water in it to stop the piston a few degrees before TDC it will bend rods, crack blocks, all that jazz. if the cylinder has a lot of water in it it will stop the piston say half way up. at that point the crank doesn't have much leverage and it will just stop. might be damage to starter or flywheel bot likely not the rest of the engine. in the first example where is has just enough water to stop the piston approaching TDC the crank has huge leverage (or mechanical advantage) and it will go on to TDC and down, breaking pistons, bending rods, cracking cranks and main webs, etc.

Too bad this guy didn't know better than to keep hammering the starter when the engine wasn't turning. as mentioned above, this can be a very expensive lesson. usually only needs to be learned once though.

how does he know the high RPM misfiring started at the time of the hydro-lock? might have been doing that before or maybe it's been awhile since it was run that hard?

>>>"unless otherwise the valves might of got little off as when he cranked it to gush out the water inside the cylinder through the spark plug hole"

forget this, it's meaningless.

 

His car (Toyota p/up Chevy 350) was running great. Hits easy 6000rpm where he shifts at times on runs flawlessly.

We just found out that it did that (popping with little hesitation on full throttle or at high revv above 5000rpm) after clearing, drying it, then fired it up.

The motor does start easy, idles and revvs smooth, sounds as usual. Except when gunning it at high revvs. Just a thought that he might of bent a valve or something. But I hope that its only the ignition and the module of the HEI is causing that..

Just curious too, as for bending a rod or related area, if so, it should do a rough, shaky, and obviously unbalanced while running, huh. Which it is very smooth so far and runs as usual.. What do you guys think?

 

I think that you should eliminate a really really simple thing to check. Just take 5 minutes and throw a timing light on the thing and see where it's at. It's probably fine, but takes so little time to do that it's worth it.

 

Update:

Everything turned out okey.

After properly drying and inspecting everything, the HEI and fine tuning, including the timing, which was a little off, fortunately everything went okey. Nothing broke or was messed up mechanically. We both were off and had the chance to go through it.

Lucky..

 

Update:

Everything turned out okey.

After properly drying and inspecting everything, the HEI and fine tuning, including the timing, which was a little off, fortunately everything went okey. Nothing broke or was messed up mechanically. We both were off and had the chance to go through it.

Lucky..

Hey that's great news..... I'm glad everything worked out.

 

Thanx!

It was a good lesson for him to always cover the carb. Always running open hood and been warning him to expect the un-expected.

 

Thanx!

It was a good lesson for him to always cover the carb. Always running open hood and been warning him to expect the un-expected.

I had the exact same thing happen to my 78 Cutlass 305 except the water got in differently.Freak rain that was coming down sideways cause of the heavy winds.I suspected the rain got past the cowl seal.I'm positive it puddled on the air cleaner lid and ran down to the cylinders with open valves.When I went to start it,the motor locked up darn near instantly.Hit the key again and I knew something was wrong.All I had to do was pull the plugs and dry it out,put the same plugs back in and go.I used a product called wire drier to dry out the dist cap.This happened as I was trying to go home after work,lucky for me I caught the boss as he was locking up the shop so I could go grab a spark plug socket and ratchet.
Oh yeah,I solved this problem by using a rubber coated washer under the wing nut and "tightening up" the cowl seal.

 

Wow. Especially after all day at work..

But really. Thinking about the rain or water, sipping through the carb, intake manifold, through the head & valves, and then some into the block scares me enough. Lets all be careful.