alk4life

Hi everyone, I've been lurking around these forums since I got my 1984 928 s recently, and now need some help.

Today I decided to wash the engine, bay, and underside of the car to get it ready for some other maintenance work I have planned. I took off the air intake tubes and loosened the air filter box so I could fit plastic bags around it. Well, like an idiot I forgot to reattach the box to the intake hole on the engine. When I went to take the bags off the air cleaner box after washing I noticed that I had filled the engine with water!

I removed the spark plugs and sprayed a little wd40 in there, but it was getting dark, so I couldn't do much else. Also, while trying to get the plugs out I broke a hose. Can someone help me identify the part number? I believe it is a coolant hose as it is connected to the upper radiator hose. Here is a picture:



Is this the heater return line?

Tomorrow morning I will crank the engine by hand to hopefully get the water out, then change the oil and filter. Where will the water go? Into the oil pan? Out the exhaust? I've never cranked an engine by hand before. I assume I'll need a big socket and a breaker bar. If this is correct, what size socket do I need? Could I just pull on one of the belts instead or will it be too difficult? Is there anything else I'm forgetting or need to do? Thanks in advance!

heinrich

get the water out immediately. Determine if it went into the cylinders or worse the crankcase. Get it out! Open all cylinders (remove plugs), vacuum the water out right away, and if there is any in the crankcase, drain immediately!

heinrich

you may have filled only the intake / throttle body .. but start by checking the cylinders also. As for the intake etc, vacuum them out. Water in the motor will rust fast. DO NOT CRANK IT OVER IF THERE IS A REMOTE CHANCE OF WATER IN THE OIL.

alk4life

I don't have a shop vac so I did the best I could reaching a towel as far in there as I could. How can I tell if the water made it into the crankcase? The dipstick doesn't show any water, but the car hasn't ran since I flooded it so it shouldn't have mixed enough to tell right?

alk4life

Can someone tell me what the air intake tunnel looks like in the top of the engine? from reaching inside it feels like a U. It feels like it goes down slightly after the opening then up to where it splits off to each cylinder. Is this the case? This would be good news as it would mean the water that got in wouldn't have gotten past the bottom of the U. Is this at all accurate or is there somewhere the water could have gotten into the cylinders/crankcase?

Mike Frye

Hey man. Don't panic, I think you're OK.
************************************************************************ ********
Do NOT crank it until you get all of the water out and confirm that there is NO water in the crankcase or cylinders.
************************************************************************ ********

I'm not familiar with the 16v setup, but I think you're right. It looks like the section that is full of water is the lower air guide. It goes down and then above it (before the top center of the 'spider') is the throttle body.

It looks like you filled the bottom of the air guide but the water shouldn't have gotten past the throttle and into the actual engine (unless you cranked it over).

Did you turn the engine over at all?

If not, then you just have to get all of the water out of that lower air guide tube, then fix that hose (sorry, no help there) and you *should* be OK.

linderpat

Don't try to turn it or crank it until you do as Heinrich says. If $50 for a shop vac is too much, you've got the wrong car. I would vacume it all out at once, and drain the oil too.

Giovanni

Can't you just remove the plugs and turn the engine, it will push all the water out and then pour a little bit of oil and repeat. Do the same for 3-4 times. I know that is what we used to do when we rescued submerged waverunners :-) and it was a good fix until we had to time to take the engine out.

hacker-pschorr

+1

Remove the center plenum (18 hose clamps, easy) and look down the throttle body. You would really have to pressurize the lower part of the intake to force water up past the throttle body and into the plenum.

alk4life

Mike and Hacker, I hope you guys are right. I will remove the plenum and have a look. Last evening there didn't appear to be any water in the cylinders, and the plugs were dry when I took them out, but I'll have a closer look today. I used very low pressure when I sprayed the engine, so I'm hopeful everything is ok. As for not having a shop vac, the cost isn't the issue, I just didn't have one last night and wanted to know what could been done immediately. I 'll look into getting one even though I only have a car port, not a garage.

I'm getting some conflicting information on whether to turn/not turn the engine, although the overwhelming majority here says no. I did a search for flooded and hydro locked-engines, and most of the advice I found said to turn the engine by hand to get water out, which is why I asked.

Giovanni

The engine needs to turn fast to spit the water out, you will not accomplish that if you turn it by hand. You will hydro lock the engine if you turn it with the spark plugs still on, but with them removed it will force the water out. But I am no expert, search the internet before you do. No expressed warranty that this will work.

James Bailey

It is highly unlikely that you forced water up into the center plenum. Just towel out all you see then crank the engine with spark plugs OUT(pull the fuel pump fuse) a few turns put the plugs in crank it a few and then put the relay back in and fire it up.... The damage from a hydro lock happens when a cylinder fires and then tries to compress water in another cylinder !

alk4life

Thanks for your help everyone. I made sure to mop up all the water in the intake, and let it sit to dry for a while. Then I removed the spark plugs and cranked the engine by hand a few times. I put new spark plugs in and changed the oil (didn't see any water in the oil). Fired right up.

One strange/bad thing happened though. When I was cranking the engine by hand, I heard a pop, that sounded like a vacuum hose blowing off. I immediately stopped and started checking hoses. Everything looked fine, and the engine runs, but I'm still a little worried. Any idea what that sound could have been?

Tampa 928s

Could be a backfire you may have a little moisture in the intake or fuel in the cylinder from turning it over with the plugs out. Did you remove the FP relay. if not you were dumping fuel in which would cause a pop. If you did not remove the relay did it start right up, if not change your oil. You would have to fill it a lot to get into the TB so I would not worry.

alk4life

The "pop" happened when I had the spark plugs out and was turning the engine by hand. I didn't take the fuel pump relay out as I figured the hand turning would have gotten rid of any water, had there been any in the cylinders in the first place.