CAI sucked up water

[Nic_EclipseRs09]

so a few weeks ago my cai sucked up water after going through a huge puddle of water. After it sat for a while i was able to start it up and drive it again and it was working fine except it would idle really weird and die sometimes. if i pushed the clutch in while driving my rpm would stay between 1500 and 2000 rpm until i slowed down under 15mph where it would drop down and either stall or fluctuates from 800 to 1000 up and down. i took it to my mechanic and he told me that i had blown my head gasket. I just got finished replacing my head gasket and putting it all back together but when i started it up now it wont idle at all. it will die instantly if i dont give it gas and it sounds fine if i bring the rpm up above 3500 but below that it sounds really bad and my engine shakes a lot. is this still related to sucking up water or did i really mess up on the overhaul? Im not an expert so that is very possible but i did a lot of research before to make sure i was doing everything right i also replaced my timing belt while i was at it, could this be caused by bad timing? please help because i am lost frustrated and without a car!

 

[DSMDriver69]

Thats called hydro lock, you have water somewhere in your engine that has not drained out or evaporated. Or something other than the head gasket was damaged by the water.

 

[Nic_EclipseRs09]

well im pretty sure all the water has drained out because i took off the head there wasnt even any water in the cylinders and i dont think it was enough water to bend my pistons because the car ran fine with no ticking of weird sounds except for the idle problem

 

[jlr2196]

As stated above, you probably hydraulic'd the engine with water. Which means water entered the combustion chamber & cylinder bore and as the piston comes up on the combustion stroke it squeezed the water (which it can't ie.hydraulic lock) so something had to give..as in you probably bent a rod. Hence the rough running & vibration.

 

[Nic_EclipseRs09]

damn really? even tho it wasnt running rough before?

 

[jlr2196]

well im pretty sure all the water has drained out because i took off the head there wasnt even any water in the cylinders and i dont think it was enough water to bend my pistons because the car ran fine with no ticking of weird sounds except for the idle problem

The engine will push the water out so I'm sure you didn't find any water in it. You pretty well wrapped it up by saying, "except for the idle problem" & "my engine shakes alot (below 3500rpm)".

Do a compression test & how is your vacuum reading?

 

[Nic_EclipseRs09]

well it wasnt shaking before i replaced my head gasket it sounded perfect except it had an inconsistant idle

and that was only sometimes about half of the time it would idle like nothing had ever happened and was perfectly drivable

i dont know how to read my vaccum but ill look it up

 

[jlr2196]

Compression test & double..triple..quadruple check your timing marks.

 

[Nic_EclipseRs09]

for the timing marks i just needed to make sure that the two marks on my cam gears faced eachother while the mark on the crank wheel lined up with the mark on the engine right?

 

[jlr2196]

Sounds right but I'm not familiar with the na engines.

 

[Nic_EclipseRs09]

it just doesnt make sense to me that it would have gotten that much worse after doing the headgasket unless i messed something up thats the only reason i think its not just from hydrolock. also are there any sensors in the intake manifold that could have been fried because of the water that would cause this? map, maf, iac?

 

[jlr2196]

No sensors should have been ruined but did you change the sparkplugs? You really need to do a compression test.

 

[JayJones]

friend just went through this about 3 weeks ago. He slightly tweaked his rods (granted it was a civic with k20). Replaced head gasket ran a little rough after wards and it threw a rod driving down the road 2 days ago. Not saying this is your case, but like they said check timing compression and recheck

 

[Nic_EclipseRs09]

ok and what will the compression test tell me?

 

[nothingfiction]

My Mistake: Ok one night coming home from work driving on blacktop i couldnt see the road was flooded. it killed the motor. i rolled uphill and into a parking stall of a closed shoppe. i read on here how a lot of the time the car will be fine if you just give it some time to dry out, so i waited about 20 minutes to 45 mins. Lost track of time when i was sitting calling for a tow or friend to pick me up or whatever i could get at 3am. So... i tried starting it up again and Life!!!!! (for a split second)

My car started running, but then after a minute it shot a rod out of the block. Didn't leak oil all over or anything.Just heard a really loud clank and bang then immediately died again.

Now what i SHOULD have done (according to what my mechanic said) was if i waited at least 24 hours, 3 days would have been best, before trying to start her up... "everything would have dried out and i wouldn't need a motorswap". Oh well, you live you learn.

But don't take my word for it. This is just secondhand information from my mechanic at a reputable shoppe.

 

[JayJones]

its a good place to start. tells you which cyclinder is hurt buy the water being in it. Water doesnt compress so something had to give or bend slightly.

 

[Nic_EclipseRs09]

ok so worst case scenario i take the head off again and then open up the bottom end and buy a master rebuild kit? damn that sucks it took me so long to get the head off mainly because of the difficult side mounting bracket

is there a best case scenario? or is that really the only reason this could be happening

 

[shockracer]

just do the compression test first, it could just be a map sensor or something similar. in my 95 neon (420a) i hit a deep pudle of water and she died out, pulled the plugs off and shot water out, put the plugs back in and she ran vary slugish. when i got back home i droped the oil pan and #1 rod was so badly bent that the piston skirts had hit the crank but she still ran good above 4k. do a compression test as stated above and it will tell you if you are ok or if you slightly bent a rod. how did your oil look milky? did you get white smoke from the exaust?

Good luck, post you finds

 

[1983gsp]

Sounds like a vacuum leak...

 

[Colt4G63 also]

Sounds like too much oil in the lifters.

 

[jlr2196]

sounds like too much oil in the lifters.

wtf




compression test! Compression test! Compression test!
And get a vacuum reading with a vacuum gauge!

 

[beniger]

+1 compression test

 

[JayRolla]

Next time this happens to anyone shut the car down. Pull plugs and turn motor so It forces the water out. Let it dry and change the oil.

 

[Nic_EclipseRs09]

ok yea there was white smoke coming out of my engine after it happened. can i do a compression test myself or would i have to take it in?

my oil looked fine tho just dirty

and too much oil in the lifters? what are u talking about?

 

[beniger]

You can do it(compression) yourself, all you need is a compression gauge. What you do is take out your spark plug wires and plugs and turn the car over 2-4 seconds holding the gas pedal all the way down. then jot down the reading it'll hold the highest compression you hit. You do this for every cylinder. As long as you're over 120 you should be okay, if your engina is cold, if hot the metal should be expanded and you should be lots higher. Extra-at the end when you have them all down, do a little math, for maximum efficiency you don't want any one cylinder to be more than 5-7% lower than any other cylinders.