hydrolocked 4.0L

[RoarksRanger]

hey there im new to the ranger world was previously a jeep guy and i loved my jeep but this ranger was to cheap to pass up. I'm motor savvy but no pro by any means so here is what happened...i Hydrolocked the motor taking it to our camp spot over the weekend. pulled all the spark plugs and nothing put a new starter and solenoid on it and still nothing. you can hear the starter clicking and trying to turn the crank but it wont. i put a breaker bar on the crank pulley and it doesn't move forward it moves backwards but i have a striking suspicion that its just loosening the bolt. so i pulled the starter off and tried moving the fly wheel and still nothing. in my experiences if it bends or throws a ride it would have made a violent noise when it died but it didn't do that it just bogged down and died nothing extreme sounding at all. so im assuming the motor is toast i have a feeling it either bent a rod or letting it sit the day and a half it did with water in it rusted the piston rings to the cylinder wall. if someone can confirm or deny my thoughts im all ears on a good way to break the crank free if someone thinks the rods are still good if not then here is my question...its a 93 4.0L which is OBD1 will a 4.0L from a 96-97 ranger work even though its OBD2 the only reason i ask is because i can get a 96 or a 97 motor for 400% which isn't bad just curious if it will work or if i need to stay with the OBD1 type motor. are the wiring harnesses different or will it mess it up for emissions or whats the deal? your input on the subject is very much appreciated! thanks for reading and hope to hear from someone with any advice.

 

[Big Jim M]

Wwll

hey there im new to the ranger world was previously a jeep guy and i loved my jeep but this ranger was to cheap to pass up. I'm motor savvy but no pro by any means so here is what happened...i Hydrolocked the motor taking it to our camp spot over the weekend. pulled all the spark plugs and nothing put a new starter and solenoid on it and still nothing. you can hear the starter clicking and trying to turn the crank but it wont. i put a breaker bar on the crank pulley and it doesn't move forward it moves backwards but i have a striking suspicion that its just loosening the bolt. so i pulled the starter off and tried moving the fly wheel and still nothing. in my experiences if it bends or throws a ride it would have made a violent noise when it died but it didn't do that it just bogged down and died nothing extreme sounding at all. so im assuming the motor is toast i have a feeling it either bent a rod or letting it sit the day and a half it did with water in it rusted the piston rings to the cylinder wall. if someone can confirm or deny my thoughts im all ears on a good way to break the crank free if someone thinks the rods are still good if not then here is my question...its a 93 4.0L which is OBD1 will a 4.0L from a 96-97 ranger work even though its OBD2 the only reason i ask is because i can get a 96 or a 97 motor for 400% which isn't bad just curious if it will work or if i need to stay with the OBD1 type motor. are the wiring harnesses different or will it mess it up for emissions or whats the deal? your input on the subject is very much appreciated! thanks for reading and hope to hear from someone with any advice.

Is there water in the oil? Could the problem be the battery? If it is a stick shift tow or push it in 4th gear... NOT LOW gear. That should break it loose or tell you if it is gone forever..
I'd like to hear more of your story..

Most times if you get to it quickly, and you weren't turning 4 grand when it injested water, it will start right up..
Big JIm

 

[59bisquik]

I am not sure if the later model motor will work or not. But I am sure someone else can give you that info. However, I hydo'd my engine back in July. Once I broke it down, the rod was bent and the counterwight and piston skirt were touching. The rod doesnt have to bend much to lock the engine!

 

[RoarksRanger]

Is there water in the oil? Could the problem be the battery? If it is a stick shift tow or push it in 4th gear... NOT LOW gear. That should break it loose or tell you if it is gone forever..
I'd like to hear more of your story..

Most times if you get to it quickly, and you weren't turning 4 grand when it injested water, it will start right up..

more of the story eh?... ha well here it is our camp spot is down an old jacked up dirt road there are many deep puddles on it from years of D-bags with like 44" boggers eating it up. we have gone down there 3 times this year and all three times have been with my newly acquired ranger (like i said i loved my jeep Cherokee but due to a hit and run accident that quite literally should have killed me im lucky it was just the jeep that was lost and not my life) but my jeep never had any issues and on the road and neither had this ranger till this weekend. but i was driving slowly through the puddle in no way roddin' on it at all and the front end dipped down into the deepest part of the rut and just sputtered out. no violent noises like when i have heard rods break. which leads me to suspect its just bent and not broken throwing it off just enough were its bound up on the compression stroke i guess. but the story goes on. pulled it out of the puddle up onto dry land with the front end facing down hill, we pulled the intake tube off and i sucked out all of the water from the intake manifold with a straw from carls JR and my mouth. didnt really taste that great let me tell ya! but no mud or gunk or anything came through the filter just water. but with the manifold clear of water i pulled all the plugs and also went to drain the water out of the oil pan. common sense kicking in told me that since water is heavier itll be the first to come out when i opened up the plug. this was true some water did come out a terrible amount but some. i then dropped the drain plug and all the oil drained. so ran back to town and grabbed most of my tools from my roller not just my quick fix tools i keep in my rigs. also while i was in town i bought a brand new starter thinking that since this one was old as hell maybe it took a crap and bound up or something. and i also bought a new solenoid. replaced both of those once we got back up to the truck and still nothing although you could hear the new starter working a lot harder than the old one. it was producing a lot more torque on the fly wheel. so getting tired of working on it on the trails my buddy with his 5.2L dakota pulled it all the way home 74 miles with a tow strap and now its sitting in the shop. cant get the crank to move from the fly wheel or from the pulley below the fan either. i am convinced a rod is bent and that i might as well replace the motor. im not really looking to dive in and pull this motor and then have to mess with replacing the rods and anything else that might have resulted so here i am.

my main question is if there is anyway to bust the crank free just so i can verify for sure what is going on....and then one i would love some one to answer is if any of the newer motors with the OBD2 set up will work in place of mine which has the OBD1 and an explanation as to why it would work or why it wouldn't so i can have a better understanding of just WTF is going on! thanks for your times guys really hope this thread continues Jeep Forum is notorious for having people chime in with info your looking for and then when you ask a question in return they never respond. Hope that doesn't happen a lot on this forum!
Again thanks in advance for any useful info.

Oh and its a 93 4.0L with the automatic if the transmission has anything todo with the way newer engines would respond in an older pickup.

theres a couple pictures of my old jeep too for anyone who is interested

 

[Hahnsb2]

It will be easiest if you use a 91-93 motor.

 

[Bennybooster]

I think the fact that you can't turn it over is proof enough. Just pull the engine and drop the pan, you wont know anything for sure until you can look at it. I have hydro'd twice, and I feel your pain, just jump into it, its easy to swap an engine.

 

[RoarksRanger]

ya swapping an engine isnt a big deal and its obvious it needs to be done i just want to know what im getting into if i use an OBD2 motor since thats all i can seem to find on CL right now i know there has to be some out there im just curious what the issues will be with swapping in a new motor as opposed to an older one

 

[RoarksRanger]

from what i have gathered from 95 and on there is an extra o2 censor...will this cause the engine to run alot richer or leaner? if i used the wiring harness from a 95 and above motor would everything hook back up correctly and also add the last o2 censor?

 

[Hahnsb2]

Well, EGR, for one. You will need to use all of your OBD1 sensors and wiring on the newer motor if you do. And it's Ford, they change shit every year practically, so I'm sure there will be shit you didn't even think of. 95+ also have shitty plastic intake manifolds that are more prone to develop a vacuum leak.

 

[Snoranger]

You can use any year 4.0l OHV motor. Just strip it down to the long block and swap your parts onto the new motor.

 

[RoarksRanger]

strip it down to the long block? what exactly does that mean?
and chris why couldnt i use an OBD2 motor and harness wouldnt that add the extra o2 sensor? and whats the Deal with the EGR valve? is there a difference between the pre 95 and post 95?

 

[Hahnsb2]

strip it down to the long block? what exactly does that mean?
and chris why couldnt i use an OBD2 motor and harness wouldnt that add the extra o2 sensor? and whats the Deal with the EGR valve? is there a difference between the pre 95 and post 95?

Long block means the block with complete rotating assembly and heads with the valvetrain (minus intake manifold and exhaust manifolds), a shortblock is just the block with rotating assembly, no heads. With ford 95 was actually the first year of OBD2. To use the ODB2 harness you also need the OBD2 computer and basically rewire the whole truck. If you just use the long block none of the other stuff matters. And I suppose since yours isn't wired for EGR you could just leave it unhooked or remove it. It would still be best just to use a 91-93 motor.

 

[Bennybooster]

You can use any year 4.0l OHV motor. Just strip it down to the long block and swap your parts onto the new motor.

I was going to recommend this myself

 

[Heavyfire14]

or you could rebuild your motor...

 

[cdawall]

buddy hydro'd his 1993 but it was a stick shift and we just pulled it around behind my truck till it started...