Snow in the head

[M4s73r]

So its snowing. I'm in the middle of changing out some cams and i took the VC in last night to paint it. Threw a old one on i had laying around. I didnt get the hood all the way latched and this morning my engine bay and head is full of snow. Scooped out as much as i could. dumped oil in the head over the cams and threw some plastic over the head and put the VC back on.
Any thought on what i should do to make sure that the motor isnt completely ####ed?

 

[awdtalon4451]

Just curious but how did snow get IN the head with the hood semi closed and a VC on it? :what: I would drain the oil, leave the plug out and run a few quarts of oil through it to see if its still pulling water out of the galleys and pan.

 

[WES_393]

Just flush the head and engine with oil. Get all of the snow/moisture out of the head, and then change the oil. But 1 gallon of snow only makes one cup of water, so it's not like your engine has been flooded with water.

 

[TSITurbo95]

Just curious but how did snow get IN the head with the hood semi closed and a VC on it?

I am curious of this as well. . .

 

[M4s73r]

The valve cover wasent seated all the way down on the head apparently. and with 45 mph winds it blew snow into it.

 

[born2tune]

Just flush the head and engine with oil. Get all of the snow/moisture out of the head, and then change the oil. But 1 gallon of snow only makes one cup of water, so it's not like your engine has been flooded with water.

I laughed at the way you stated that. I get what you said but the gallon thing is a measurement of weight not volume. so a gallon of water weights in at 8.32pounds. and a cup of water weighs 8oz. so reverse math brings the volume of snow in a gallon to 8oz according to your statement since we are talking weight not volume.

but for the sake of talking about volume, 10 cubic inches of snow is about 1 cubic inch of water and there is 1.8 cubic inches of water in one fluid ounce so there is 14.4375 cubic inches of snow for every cup of water. Which brings your volume of snow to 231 cubic inches of snow.

So in mathematical terms (more accurate) 20 feet of snow would make a gallon of water and 14 inches of snow would make about 1 cup of water. So your statement of the gallon resembles the volume of 14 inches kind of close so to speak, I would say you are mostly correct! and everything I posted took me about 30 minutes of math to prove nothing but a grammatical mistake .

 

[crimsondragon]

You're an engineer aren't you?

 

[gprix1]

I laughed at the way you stated that. I get what you said but the gallon thing is a measurement of weight not volume. so a gallon of water weights in at 8.32pounds. and a cup of water weighs 8oz. so reverse math brings the volume of snow in a gallon to 8oz according to your statement since we are talking weight not volume.

but for the sake of talking about volume, 10 cubic inches of snow is about 1 cubic inch of water and there is 1.8 cubic inches of water in one fluid ounce so there is 14.4375 cubic inches of snow for every cup of water. Which brings your volume of snow to 231 cubic inches of snow.

So in mathematical terms (more accurate) 20 feet of snow would make a gallon of water and 14 inches of snow would make about 1 cup of water. So your statement of the gallon resembles the volume of 14 inches kind of close so to speak, I would say you are mostly correct! and everything I posted took me about 30 minutes of math to prove nothing but a grammatical mistake .

^^^ This was awesome

 

[WES_393]

I get what you said but the gallon thing is a measurement of weight not volume.

Since when is a gallon a measurement of weight? WTF

Yes, water has a specific gravity of 8.32 lbs/gal at room temperature. But does that mean 1 gallon of air weighs 8.32lbs? According to the ideal gas law pv=mrt, air (at atmospheric pressure and room temperature) weighs roughly 1.2 kg/m^3 which equates to .01 lbs/gal. So you see how using a gallon, a standard measurement of volume, to measure weight is wrong.

So I fail to see my grammatical error. But, um, thanks for proving me right?

 

[born2tune]

Since when is a gallon a measurement of weight? WTF

Yes, water has a specific gravity of 8.32 lbs/gal at room temperature. But does that mean 1 gallon of air weighs 8.32lbs? According to the ideal gas law pv=mrt, air (at atmospheric pressure and room temperature) weighs roughly 1.2 kg/m^3 which equates to .01 lbs/gal. So you see how using a gallon, a standard measurement of volume, to measure weight is wrong.

So I fail to see my grammatical error. But, um, thanks for proving me right?

WES, I dont want to hi jack this thread, like I said you were in the ball park of being right but what you said above doesnt make sense. I respect you and all the forum members equal but if you wish to battle this out we can make a thread talking about this all day!

And just for the record I didnt mean to be offensive, so Im sorry if it came out wrong because it was merely a joke, I think you are awesome!

I was wrong all along!

 

[Oldsid]

WES, I dont want to hi jack this thread, like I said you were in the ball park of being right but what you said above doesnt make sense. I respect you and all the forum members equal but if you wish to battle this out we can make a thread talking about this all day!

And just for the record I didnt mean to be offensive, so Im sorry if it came out wrong because it was merely a joke, I think you are awesome!

I was wrong all along!

This requires the input of a Canadian! We now snow!

OK, back to the problem. There is no way to really know how much water got into the engine just by looking at what was accumulated on top of cylinder head. I would definitely recommend the following:
1) Use a shop vac to remove any visible snow
2) Put the car in a warm place ( don't start the engine, just wait it over or push it inside a garage) first to allow all the snow/ice to melt. Add a liter or two of oil and then drain all engine oil.
3) Fill the engine with with oil again and warm up the engine long enough to reach normal operating temperature then let it cool down.
4) When the car is completely cold, if there was any water in the oil, it will settle at the bottom of the crankcase.
5) Open the drain plug slowly and see if water start draining first. If no water is present, drain completely and put you regular engine oil.

I know that what I am saying may seem very drastic, but it pays to be prudent.
By the way, a gallon of snow is about a 1/3 of gallon of water when it melts depending on the consistency of the snow so you may a have a lot of water mixed with the oil. To show you the proof, I have made a simple experiment that proves that. Just see the pictures below of what a gallon of snow is when it melts. That's natural not compacted snow that is in the pan.

 

[turbotom]

Oooooo That's not good, just drain the oil, flush it with cheap engine oil. Add fresh oil and had either lucas, Mystery Oil, or STP oil treatment (my favorite), you should be ok. You didn't start it or anything like that so it didn't go threw the bearings and everything, so nothing should happen. Change the filter too just in case and go from there. Lesson learned next time

 

[NHerron]

If you can let it sit somewhere warm, room temperature, do that. Just enough to let any frozen water/snow to melt and settle at the bottom of the pan (oil settles above water) When it's warm, pull the drain plug for a minute and see what comes out. When that's done just start it up and cruise around.

It seems people have forgotten what condensation is and how it naturally gets into the oil every cold day. That's a good reason to let the engine warm up, to let the engine warm up to operating temperature and the water gets boiled off.