Storm, puddles and hydrolocking... :-\

[andruxa]

There was a big storm here in Edmonton, Alberta on July 11 2004 (I have pictures but will try to have few good ones uploaded later on). Monthly amount of water fell out of the sky within minutes, and highway that goes through the city turned into a river, quite a few smaller cars stalled under bridges and ended up swimming (diving completely), as well as many got buried under 3-4 feet of hail (up to a golf ball size). Trees (leafs in particular) look like they were shot at with a medium-caliber machine gun - leafs and some places branches are broken off, some cars (japanese tinfoil in particular) got hail damage...

Few of us had alot of fun driving through pubbles (pretty big ones), where water could not drain quick enough, and my 97 XLT stalled out. Tried to start it once, and quickly shut off (did not rotate engine I think). Pushed it out of a puddle (it was amazingly easy to push it when it is in water up to the doors and 2-3" higher), towed it home, it was late and only had time to take out air filter - it sure did suck in water through the air intake nozzle and basically acted as a plug.

I have my stock XLT sitting near my house now, undrivable (as it is right now), and I am hoping it is not hydrolocked (due to luck of funds - me and wife just got back from lenghty trip to Europe). I am at work, but will be attending to my truck as soon as I am off.

I need suggestions and ideas as to what to do and what NOT TO do today, as well as general recommendations on how to approach it. All I can think of is taking out sparkplugs (to let water dry out from inside - if any got in), taking off air intake sleeve and seeing if any water is inside the sleeve), blowdrying alternator. I do not think any water got in through exaust, although I am not sure.

I am reading through hydrolock start-up procedures in numerous posts right now, but whatever you guys can recommend - I will be more than glad to hear.

 

[EMG7895]

Ive read that you should take out the plugs and turn the engine over to clear the water.

 

[andruxa]

How do I manually turn the engine over (without sparkplugs) to get rid of water? Where on the crankcase is the bolt? Which covers come off?

 

[EMG7895]

From what i understand you just try to start it and it should push the water out of the cylinders, but after that i dont know what you do.

 

[boominXplorer]

Go through your wheelwell to take your plugs out. You can just turn the key for a second to turn the motor. Just make sure no plug wires are bare and mark them. You just better hope that that water didn't turn to rust. Also make sure the air filter and tube is free of water.

 

[andruxa]

I do not want to make things worse than they could already be, so please a little more clarification and additions, as I did not find detailed info on that after using search extensively for past couple of hours.

1) Take spark plugs out (with cables all marked so I don't have to figure out firing sequence)
2) Take off Air Intake tube and make sure it is dry inside, put it back on and replace filter (old one is like an old mushroom now)
3) Turn ignition on and start truck couple of times (turn it). HOW LONG SHOULD I DO IT FOR?

I will check tranny and engine oil before also (to see if the levels are normal or ABOVE normal, which would indicate that there is WATER in there.

I do realise all fluids should be changed, but I will see if I can get it started first today after work.