Hydrolocked... FML

[Brandon Nootenboom]

So my fiance, me and a co-worker of mine went out to whats called the Porter Pits north of Ferndale WA, had some really good fun runnin the trails and flexing out my stock 97 Ranger playing "follow the leader" I gotta say a stock 97 Ranger can wheel

Untill it comes to water... My co-worker-running a 84 Yota, 4 inch lift on 35's made it through in 2wd (all he has right now) so I thought I could make it through in 4wd just fine-keep in mind, the waters up to the Ford logo on the grille-first run did awesome then some more trails, then second run just as the sun was setting it happened. Hit the water a little too fast and BAM dead My co worker towed me out in 2wd (I died inside a little) After a few calls and getting the spark plugs pulled trailered my baby to another friends shop where she now sits and waits the diagnosis of really bad hydrolock or bent rods...

Guess where I'm going with this is ended up having 2 Yotas help me and a third as my DD. I'll try to upload pics but I'm computer retarded so it may just be on my profile not on this thread. And I'll probably be asking a LOT of help from y'all

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

Plugs out, did you try and spin it over?

 

[Hahnsb2]

Myself and a number of people I know have learned the hard way when it comes to playing in water, luckily all but one of us did not destroy our motors. I now avoid water as much as possible, nothing but problems.

 

[Brandon Nootenboom]

Yeah, pulled all 6 plugs out and tried to crank it but the electrics were too wet, put it in gear and rocked it back and fourth and the pistons pushed a LOT of water out. Got it trailered to a buddy of mine's, he's gonna pull the oil pan, filter etc etc to clean it all out then we'll try oil flushing it with some WD-40 in the cylanders and hope she'll fire. I wasn't at high RPMs when it sucked the water and it took a sec for it to die, no "bad" noises so hopefully I'll get lucky

 

[straycat]

Dude, why is this posted twice? lol I got confused about the 2 post.

 

[hopster]

i recently had a very similar incident. wheelin with my buddy in my 96 exploder and him in his sammy. hit the pond several times that day. then right as we were about ready to call it a day i went through one more time a little too fast and hydrolocked it big time. i just put the 5.0 in a few months ago but now its trashed. bent two rods and broke a piston. hope your story ends better than mine.

 

[2813josh]

Iv'e hydrolocked my B2 and it had to stay there for a day. Pulled the plugs,drained the fluids...still runs fine.

 

[Bennybooster]

Hydro locked twice, first time bent a rod, second time cracked the block. Learned my lesson, have fun...

 

[adsm08]

If you had the pistons pushing water out the plug holes that is a good sign. It means the engine can still turn and I haven't seen too many engines with bent rods that turned well.

 

[Brandon Nootenboom]

I figured the fact that the pistons moved was a good sign, I wasn't over 2000rpm's when I hit the water, it sputtered slowly down to about 500rpm for a couple seconds then dead. I didn't try to crank it with the plugs in but when I tried after we pulled 'em it didn't go either but because things were too wet and it grounded out. As far as the double post... There's this one and another one that just has the pics cause I couldn't get them to go on this thread. I'm keeping my fingers crossed I didn't kill it

 

[gribly]

I hydrolocked the same 2.9 twice, sitting on the rev limiter before it locked up both times. It never got hurt, love how tough those 2.9's can be. I'm not gonna try it with my 4.0, I figure it won't end as well.

 

[Brandon Nootenboom]

I'm not gonna try it again unless I end up rigging up a snorkel. And I just realized my mass-airflow sensor is probably totally f'd now not just acting up. Damn it haha

 

[gribly]

More important than a snorkel is cutting out the factory cold air intake, and taking air straight from where the airbox is. Works great, I've gotten my Navajo's headlights underwater and it didn't even hiccup, but it was just a fraction of a second in one of the mud puddles on my way to camp. Yes, our mud puddles will swallow a fourwheeler whole - on a town road!

 

[bobbywalter]

nice thing about maf is at low rpm they usually die quick.

hardly ever bend stuff if your smart enough to pull plugs first or crank real slow bumping the key/solo under the hood a lil at a time.


cleaning the maf right away is critical as well.

probably be ok. i strongly suggest a snorkel of some sort....dont need to go out the fender....just pull from the cowl or up near the hood at the very least.

 

[Brandon Nootenboom]

More important than a snorkel is cutting out the factory cold air intake, and taking air straight from where the airbox is. Works great, I've gotten my Navajo's headlights underwater and it didn't even hiccup, but it was just a fraction of a second in one of the mud puddles on my way to camp. Yes, our mud puddles will swallow a fourwheeler whole - on a town road!

Nice! I wouldn't mind putting a real snorkel on some day, or something I could swap back and fourth from to keep my gas mileage, I gotta do front wheel bearings and seals once the hydrolock is taken care of then I can think about other things. Altho a snorkel would be pretty awesome And at least my Mass airflow sensor was already bad... haha