Don't dip your feet with an E30...

[GeoBem007]

... It's the golden tip I can give anyone right now.

Went cruising in the surroundings here, looking for some places to drift. I suddenly came with the idea of making my, already slightly dirty car, a real 'E-Dirty' (E30 -- E-Dirty).

But, I didn't realize the air intake on a stock E30 (at least, post-facelift) was near the foglights.

So, after dipping into the first puddle (about ankledeep water. Got wet socks & shoes to proof ) the car stalled at 3/4 through.
After pushing it out of the puddle, it had some trouble starting. First thought that the electronics had taken a neat share of the water, but it was the air intake.

A lot of noise comming from the engine and not the exhaust. The latter put out a lot of white smoke, from vaporating water. The extra noise comes from the H2-gas igniting, my chemistry background tells me.

Went for the ride home, about 5 miles, and it didn't stop making those sounds. Even after putting down the pedal a tad. I really took a lot of water!

Now, my questions are:

The water.. How am I going to get rid of the greater part? Drying out the airfilter element? Opening up the engine?

And the thing I'm more concerned about.. Damage! Is it really bad? If I think it through, the H2-gas puts in an energie-boost in the combustion chamber, thus giving the pistons & crankshaft extra beatings..

Any help, anyone? This boy has been naughty

[Avtovaz]

oi

water can do a lot of damage, but unless it was up the bonnet i recon you maybe have got away with it.

[march109]

~Take the spark plugs out, turn the engine over on the starter. Any water left will soon be expelled.

[jbh]

my mate once tried to take his diesel mondeo through a flood and it took in water and managed to wreck the head it bent valves and broke the cam shaft

[Cloud]

my mate once tried to take his diesel mondeo through a flood and it took in water and managed to wreck the head it bent valves and broke the cam shaft

Needs a snorkel... I've just had an idea...

[CG_Maintenance]

standard air intake is behind the head lights not the fog lights

[leeparkes]

standard air intake is behind the head lights not the fog lights

^this is what i was thinking^

my neighbour done this in a renault espace and it cracked the head!

[johnl320]

Hydrostatic lock, seen it on many landrovers/ tanks/ cars/ trucks.

Intake fills with water, then on in to the cylinder, piston comes up on compression stroke, can't compress a liquid, bends con rods breaks pistons/ rings, blows head gaskets can even snaps head bolts.
You might as well have taken a sledge hammer to the engine.

hope this helps

john

[johnl320]

this made me giggle

[leeparkes]

this made me giggle

[stonesie]

My old 205 was a good little flood basher, just ripped the intake pipe off the top of the carb and plodded through... the Citroen ZX diesel coming the other way had to be rescued by the farmers tractor though


I wouldnt take the E30 through a flood unless there was no choice and i would make sure the bow wave didn't wash over the intake.

[magpie]

that vid has cracked me up,,the crowd all laughing at the plod,,,5 of the gits aswell RESULT

[fuzzy]

i bet the one driving felt a right coont.

[magpie]

a wet one at that

[magpie]

sounds like driving the car after you flooded it wasn't a good idea,,,,
i hope you get away with it i'd do as was said and take all the sparkys out and crank it over
for a while,,,any water will be chucked out the holes,, give that a go

[fuzzy]

would the water make it up through the inlet manifold from that shallow depth?

[magpie]

sounds like it did by the white smoke,,,it could be fooked,,,,he should have took all the plugs out there and then
that would have saved it,,,it may not yet be terminal,,,but i'd think of the worst then anything less is bonus .

[johnl320]

The engine still runs so any water will be passed through long since. Paper element air filter may be badly damaged. Water may have managed to get into the oil, but lots of noise just after a 'water' incident normally hails severe engine damage. Some people may argue the case but thats just my experience.

john

[magpie]

signs are not good though tbh

[kevo]

i did a similar thng on a recent rally with my 318is, sucked in water and 'hydraulicked' it, which means that water got into the bores and the pistion tried to compress it. unfortunately the water won. first rally on a newly rebuilt engine too but it proved cheap to fix as i only needed a couple of new gaskets and used my spare conrods. hope yours doesn't end up like this.
Kev

[fuzzy]

always slow down for deep puddles then....

[jbh]

if its making lots of noise could be possible that its broke a rocker..

has it lost power ?

[fuzzy]

i did a similar thng on a recent rally with my 318is, sucked in water and 'hydraulicked' it, which means that water got into the bores and the pistion tried to compress it. unfortunately the water won. first rally on a newly rebuilt engine too but it proved cheap to fix as i only needed a couple of new gaskets and used my spare conrods. hope yours doesn't end up like this.
Kev

did you pour extra water in those bores just for dramatic effect?

[kevo]

genuinely no, that was a week after, hence the rusting ginger water.

[magpie]

ouch! imagine the cost of this repair if you'd payed a garage

[ChrisiS]

Did you restart it in the water? If you did it is possible that you sucked water Via the exhaust.....Which would give all of the above issues, Especially if your exhaust isn't properly sealed. If your vehicle's engine stops in water you should never try and restart it for this reason.

Used to Instruct offroad techniques in Defender 90s, which if they were warm (Knowing they would fire quickly), and a client stalled during a water crossing we would jump into the drivers seat, and start them with your foot on the loud pedal to force any water that got sucked as it turned over straight out of the exhaust.

Miss my discovery, used to abuse it offroad, went through a ford near my house in flood and had water well over the bonnet..........

[harry_p]

sounds like you've shagged the engine.

it stalled because it couldnt compress the water, and probably bent a rod or two.

you might have saved it at this point had you removed the sparkplugs and turned it over to pump out any water in the bores, but as you started it with water still in the system you probably dmaged things that werent already damaged. theres a hell of a lot of torque going through a starter motor.

th extra engine noise will be from different compresion ratios on different cylinders, and an unbalanced engine. any water in the cylinders would have been pumped out as soon as you managed to turn the engine over, no chance theres still any in there.

as an outside chance, you may well have blown a head gasket due to the massive compression force of a locked bore, which would give similar running issues.

either way, you're more than likely going to have to take the head off, and given the priceof most e30 lumps, it'll be cheaper to find a decent secondhand lump than repair your existing one.

[Chris]

He drove the car home, ergo, no bent rods.

Ankle Deep is nothing, thats like a decent puddle when it is raining.

Big splashes in the engine bay will have got water everywhere, ie. dizzy cap ht leads etc etc. thats why it stalled. And probably why it wasn't running to well on the way home.

Take the air filter out, if it is a nice wet paper mush then you may have done some damage. If not, replace it anyway, change the oil and filter then take her out for a nice long drive, start slow, warm up gently and give it a bit of thrash toward the end. just to make sure everything is well upto temperature, this should get rid of any moisture lingering around.

Good luck with it all.

[johnl320]

A slightly bent rod doesn't mean it won't run.

[harry_p]

A slightly bent rod doesn't mean it won't run.

exactly.

it's possible it'll still run with a slightly bent rod or two, but it'll run like a lumpy bag of crap.

[ChrisiS]

Ive known a defender run with 2 bent rods, albeit not very well, and not for very long......