waterproofing electrical components

[sicks570]

I generally carry a spare MAF (just the electrical part), coil pack, and alternator, I have yet to purchase a spare computer, but will some day.

yeah this is my first 4x4 so im still trying to figure out what spare parts to carry. ive always built fast cars until now so im used to carrying extra blower belts, spark plugs and silicone couplers and tbolts for charge pipes. the alternator is actually a really good idea. the f150s alternator quit on us two or three times from excess water and cost me a $300 jump box in the process

 

[little x]

Those are just the spare parts I carry for potential water damage (I also carry all the fluids I would need to change everything in the truck). As far as general spare parts, try to think of anything that the truck absolutely can't run without, no matter how you jerry rig it, and of those parts which are the most likely to bite the dust. Obviously you can't take an extra engine, but you can take extra sensors, you can't take extra axles, but you can take extra axle shafts, etc.

 

[sicks570]

yeah i broke a front axle shaft last time out so i have a spare set of those now that i am going to start carrying since theyre so easy to swap. i have spare plug wires too since those always take a **** at the best possible time.

 

[zero_psi]

i was going threw maybe 2 feet of water today in my 93 and when i got out the truck stalled. and shut off tried to restart cranked it over for 5 min and it fired back up and i was able to take off. ???? filter was a tad wet any other reasons why it was running so ****ty

 

[sicks570]

it could be any number of reasons although i would guess the wet filter personally. the mass air flow sensor on vehicles measures air flow by testing how much heat based resistance there is on a small wire. the idea is that the airflow will cool the wire and reduce resistance. if you get water into your intake in large quantities it can hydrolock your engine but in smaller quantities it can confuse the mass air flow sensor into thinking there is more airflow than there really is making your engine run rich. rich mixtures cause loss of power and eventually flooded and/or fouled conditions making it hard to restart the vehicle. if you get enough water vapor into the combustion chamber it can cause the plugs not to fire until dried out too. obviously the filter would have to be pretty wet to experience something like this or none of us would be able to drive in the rain. i havent really seen issues with soaking the ignition components yet as its a sealed coil pack and the plug wire boots seem to be sealed too. i also ran into an issue where my underhood relays all got soaked and kept flickering on and off. these relays control the computer and the fuel pump so obviously this causes issues but my experience has been that they take longer than 5 minutes to dry out and they are pretty high up so i would doubt 2 ft of water would have done that.

 

[zero_psi]

yah it was kinda odd guess i should just stick to wheeling in my rubicon lol