Flooded diesel engine :(

[agnes]

Drove through a ford and stalled the big girl today. Got towed out by a tractor and left the car on his farm. Engine is flooded. Air filter soaked.

It's a 2.7 litre TDi, I was just going to pull of the injectors, give it a whirl to get the water out. But would it be best to just pull the glow plugs out instead? Saving messing around with injectors?

Annoying, my own stupid fault. Too high a gear.

It's a Nissan Terrano II SE+ (2001).

 

[acemastr]

Did you go flat out?!

Glow plugs would be better as the hole would be bigger I'd have said

 

[TaKeN]

Glow plug method would be best I'd say.

 

[TripleT]

How deep was the ford?! It's a suv...

 

[andy_mk3]

Yeah glow plugs out is the better option.

 

[agnes]

Cool, glow plugs it is then. And not that deep. I went in too fast. It was the 4th ford I went through that day. I just got stupid, had it in third in low range gears and went too fast. No error on the car or ford. Totally my fault and learnt my lesson the hard way.

The ford was maybe 2 feet.

 

[Orionaut]

Call your insurance company!

It is almost certainly destroyed!

If you do get her started I am betting that you will have a single cylinder misfire that will either persist or go away once she has warmed up!

If she does start up and run OK then there is still the possibility of a loud bang some time down the road!

If you think this is pessimistic. The engine stopped because you tried to compress water! What do you think happened inside the engine??

 

[mattyprice4004]

I got away with it once, and bent a con rod the 2nd time. There's a small chance you may be very lucky!

 

[[TW]Fox]

I got away with it once, and bent a con rod the 2nd time. There's a small chance you may be very lucky!

First time is a mistake, but a second time!?

 

[Locky]

First time is a mistake, but a second time!?

I lol'd

 

[Nathan]

Call your insurance company!

It is almost certainly destroyed!

If you do get her started I am betting that you will have a single cylinder misfire that will either persist or go away once she has warmed up!

If she does start up and run OK then there is still the possibility of a loud bang some time down the road!

If you think this is pessimistic. The engine stopped because you tried to compress water! What do you think happened inside the engine??

Maybe. It's a little different with diesels though.

My brother flooded his old 306 hdi, glow plugs out, water skirting out the engine on cranking it. Glow plugs back in, starts a little while later.

30k later sold the car no problems...

 

[andy_mk3]

Diesel engines are very tough compared to petrol engines, so generally can be revived from a bit of water

 

[Dogbreath]

Maybe. It's a little different with diesels though.

Yes, it's generally worse with diesels as they have much higher compression ratios so it takes less water to hydraulically lock the engine. Once you have a hydraulic lock, it makes no difference how strong the engine is, something will break or bend if there's enough energy in the moving assembly.

 

[Dr House]

I lol'd

lol so did I.

Fox has a habit of just saying what many of us are thinking lol

 

[Orionaut]

Yes, it's generally worse with diesels as they have much higher compression ratios so it takes less water to hydraulically lock the engine. Once you have a hydraulic lock, it makes no difference how strong the engine is, something will break or bend if there's enough energy in the moving assembly.

This!

Anything more than a couple of teaspoon fulls of water "Will" lock the engine!

This "will" bend the con rod or crush the piston crown (Or both)

You may appear to get away with it if the damage is minor but dont kid yourself that damage hasn't occurred.

I have dealt with a number of vehicles over the years that seemed OK initially after drying them out. Most however eventually failed within a month or two (What happens is that the the piston crown breaks away and becomes a free assembly bouncing up and down in the cylinder rather than con rods breaking up)

Even if there is no con rod damage piston damage will have occured. Either it will come back and bite or it wont.

There is no in situ way of testing for piston damage (A compression test will indicate con rod damage)

Hydrauliced engines should be regarded as dead unless proven otherwise!

Since the damage has been caused by an external agent (The Water) it is an insurance issue, though typically with modern stuff it will also be a write off.

 

[Clarkey]

Hydro locked Mazda BP motor =

Big lolz, crank was jammed solid.

 

[snapdragon69]

These injectors require a lot of replacement parts when pulled, and it is essential to put them back in the same holes. What is more, any water would get spurted into the cam area rather than out of the engine.

If you remove the glow plugs, use some plus gas and a 1/4" drive and be very careful that your socket is on dead straight. Replace them with new ones.

 

[Terminal_Boy]

Or have the dealer come collect it and get a mechanic to look at it.

 

[agnes]

Right, all good, used a hand suction tool to pull water out of induction cooler inlet and removed all 4 plugs then turned over. Barely any water came out of the pistons, it took a while, but eventually it started. Left warming up and it was running smoothly. Then when it got up to temperature, issues occurred.

It runs off 2 or 3 of 4 pistons. 3 mostly, but randomly drops down to 2. Unknown of which ones, I'll be investigating to find out which ones tomorrow. It's a smoke to suggest unburnt diesel. Exactly the same type of noise and smoke as in this video:

.

So, any ideas anyone? I've not removed injectors, and I would rather avoid that.

 

[Scania]

It's borked would be my technical analysis!