Got water in Engine, now it's noisy

[jimtmcdaniels]

Last nite's rain down pour, drove through some really deep water, a flooded street, up to the bottom of the truck or more.

The engine started to die and I gunned it some at the end to get through and it died on the way out on dry ground.
When I went to restart, it acted like the battery was dead, I think now it was that the starter couldn't turn the engine with water in some of the cylinder(s).

It finally started and sputtered and then started running like normal but with a loud ticking sound that gets louder with higher rpm's.
Sounds like it may be coming from the lifters.

So is it excessive valve lash, did one of the lifter rods bend or did a hydraulic lifter die or could it be something else?
How easy/hard to fix the noise?...

170,000 miles on truck.

Thanks for the help.
Jim

 

[CarsonChris]

I'd start with an oil change. I'd also look at getting it indoors and checking all fluids to see if anything else is contaminated.

 

[UrbanRedneckKid]

Change the oil, use a Motorcraft filter, 4qts of the recommended oil, and 1qt of Lucas oil stabilizer.

If it's still noisy, or runs "different", chances are it's done.

Sent from my HTCONE using Tapatalk 2

 

[JoshT]

I'm not sure about the ticking you are hearing now, but the rest of you issues sound like you just got some electronics wet. There's a lot of electronic components under than hood that don't like to get wet and if they did they might have needed to dry out a bit before working right again.

Regardless I'd start with UrbanRedneckKid's suggestion. From the sound of your post I wouldn't write the engine off just yet.

 

[bmerr98]

I killed my old 1991 Ranger like that about 5 years ago. Don't force it. Do as recommended. Probably should have pulled plugs and tried to blow any water out that way before running it, but it's a bit late for that. Good luck with it. Hope it works out better than it did for me.

 

[jimtmcdaniels]

Been driving it for days now and it runs smooth-well like usual except it's noisy like it's a rocker arm-rod gap tapping.

I guess the water in a cylinder kept a valve from opening into the cylinder....causing damage to a rod....?

Decades ago, on a v8, I used compressed air in the spark plug hole and a tool to compress a valve spring to remove the keepers and replace the oil control seal.

How hard is it on this engine to replace a bent push rod or hydraulic lifter?

 

[RonD]

Remove valve covers, check for loose push rods, rotate crank shaft one full turn, check push rods again, if you find one that is loose, pull the rocker assembly on that head.
remove push rod, and see if it is bent, i.e. put on flat surface and roll it.
If it's not put straight edge across the top of valve stems and see if that push rods valve is lower than the others, so bent.

If valve stem heights are the same, and the rocker itself looks good then you will have to pull off the upper and lower intake to get to the lifter.

 

[jimtmcdaniels]

Thanks Ron,
It a rod's bent, is it practical to straighten it or have to get one from the bone yard?
I suppose they are hollow for oil to flow through them.

 

[Stangman92]

If it is indeed just a bend pushrod, consider your self lucky. I've hydrolocked 2, yes 2, engines doing that very same thing you did, except offroad. It did the same thing you describe, started to die, i gunned it, but it died, then after a while i got it running again. Im currently working on my 3rd engine, but this time i have a snorkel. That sound you hear could be rod knock, Connecting rod knock, not pushrods. If your oil pressure guage needle starts to jump around its a connecting rod knock.

Just buy new pushrods, dont try to straighten them, once they bend they are weakend, and prone to bending again. Best of luck!

 

[jimtmcdaniels]

Thanks Stangman!

What damage did you find with yours and how did you remedy it?

I was thinking the easiest way to check the connecting rods is to remove the spark plugs and bring each piston to top dead center and stick a stick into each spark plug hole to see if each piston comes up the same amount.
That should work right?

If they all look the same then I would buy a valve gasket kit and take the valve covers off and look for damage there to repair.

I've been driving it around the way it is. It does seem to idle just a very small bit off-rough, but noisy ticking.

If it is the top engine - valves instead of the piston rod effected, instead of the push rods being bent, could a hydraulic lifter be collapsed-would a hydraulic lifter die before bending the push rod-or damage a rocker arm first even?

I believe the K & N filter in the filter box instead of a conventional paper filter let the water pass through more easily, that this is a downside K & N does not want anyone to know.

Water particles are bigger than air.
I believe auto manufacturers could add a water barrier fabric to the back side of the filter-after it so that not much water can get through in such a situation for an extra 10 cents.

On national news we all see flooding and abandoned vehicles that stopped running.
Such a barrier could save damage to hundreds or more vehicles a year.

I see stores have bed pillow cases and bed fitted sheets that are water proof but breath.
Some appear to be that extremely inexpensive, thin durable fabric we see in many products like the fabric in cd/dvd storage books and landscaping fabric weed barrier-blocker.

I wonder if some fabric weed barrier-blocker can be retro installed so instead of water passing into the engine, the engine would just suffocate and die with no engine damage.

If I get this engine repaired-running like before, what usually goes out on these 4.0 engines with high miles, the timing chain?
I believe this isn't an interference engine design so I may be able to replace the timing chain when it does go out and get even more miles out of my ranger in the future.

 

[Stangman92]

The first engine i found out when the noise got pregressively worse and finally the connecting rod blew out the side of the engine, pretty cool, and sucked at the same time. This past time i knew the sound and knew i had to get home ASAP! I pulled the engine apart and looked at the rod bearings, yep it was them, by then it was so bad that the crank had mild wear marks and the pushrods and rockers were clanking like crazy, the top end sounded like a sewing machine, cylinder walls were scored, etc. Basically it was time for a replacement or rebuild. I chose the faster/ cheaper replacement method. I should be back up and running again tomorrow.

I have no idea what kills the 4.0. Check the tech library. The only wierd thing with these motors is the slight lack of oil to the top end, which makes the pushrod tips wear out.

 

[Stangman92]

The only way to positivly know its the rod bearings is to pull the oil pan, but first what does your oil pressure say? Is it constant? Does the pressure guage needle bounce at idle? Does it read anything at idle?

 

[jimtmcdaniels]

Stangman,

The oil pressure is completely normal, the needle is in the center and the needle does not move.

I'm thinking it helps having an automatic transmission so the movement of the vehicle does not help bend things when the pistons hydrolock.

 

[RonD]

Stangman,

The oil pressure is completely normal, the needle is in the center and the needle does not move.

I'm thinking it helps having an automatic transmission so the movement of the vehicle does not help bend things when the pistons hydrolock.

Ford now uses an oil pressure switch, so you either have "normal" oil pressure, or 0 oil pressure, on or off, 5psi is the open/close point of the switch.
So it doesn't vary with oil pressure above 5psi, if gauge varies at all with RPM then that would be voltage changing, so check charging system and battery.

Bending of connecting rods or piston pins is from the inertia in the crank and flywheel, torque converter spinning would actually add more inertia than a clutch system, it is heavier when filled with fluid.

But bent is bent, a little or a lot is a moot point in any case.

 

[Stangman92]

Hmm, you got me then, If you want pull the valve covers and check the pushrods, or let it be untill you get another symptom. Everytime i got connecting rod knock, it came with the oil pressure guage saying it had 0 oil pressure when the engine was FULLY warmed up, when the engine was cold and starting to warm up the needle started to bounce, and finally fall to 0.