I love to teach my son how to ride and repair stuffs the old fashion way. Here I will share some of our cheap DIY projects and repairs. I will also share some of my experience as a biker and as a pro mechanic. I am not a mechanic anymore but I still do repairs but mostly for my own machineries and this is why I try to keep everything easy and cheap. I also don't race anymore but I still love riding up the mountains where there is little or no help and all I can rely on is my small tool pouch and my monkey repair skills to bring me home whenever my bike or my friends bike breaks down.

If you are a tech-wiz or some kind of high-tech repair guru who likes spending too much $$$s buying stuffs and spends most of your time at a coffee shop posing your best biker battle gear clown costume and talking how great a biker you are then THIS IS NOT FOR YOU... Here we seriously ride our bikes and we try to keep everything simple, easy and cheap. Most of what I will share here are intended for riders who usually break their bikes to peices and may not be needed by other bikers.

I will also be sharing some cheap ways how I repaired my cars and computers. And for laughs, I will also add some weird / funny / odd stuffs that I or we did that worked and didn't work. Sorry about this blog's style, set-up or whatever you may call it, I'm an old school biker and its easier for me wrenching cars and bikes than typing on my keyboard...

Friday, October 22, 2010

water damaged engines

The green van is a swimmer and the blue van is a smacker. I combined both cars to make one. Notice the parts scattered all over the ground...  
The first thing to do if your engine was submerged in water is to:

First you want to remove the water inside the piston cylinder and you can do this by removing the spark plugs (all) and suck the water by using a small hose and by attaching it to a sucker then force the remaining water out by blowing in air using an air gun. If you dont have the gadget, I have used normal drinking straw to suck out the water and believe me that you must do it after eating lunch or else... yucks! I did that when my dirtbike went for a swim. I also did this to a water damaged car that I bought years ago...



When you got the water off the piston cylinders. Hand crank the the engine (DO NOT USE THE STARTER AND DO NOT INSTALL THE SPARK PLUGS). If you start the engine without checking if the cylinder has water inside, you'll fck up the engine. This is called "WATER HAMMER". You might bend the connecting rod on the pistons, etc. 

You can spray deep penetrating oil in the spark plug holes and slowly try to hand crank the engine and try to get the piston loose from the cylinder. If you cannot hand crank the engine because the pistons are stuck, you have to open up the engine. If the engine can be hand cranked, check the plug holes again for water. Be sure that all the parts are dry. 


Most Japanese and German made electronic parts will work once they dry up. You may need to dismantle. clean and lubricare these parts to get the rust off especially for electric motors (power window motor, door lock motor, automatic seat, sun roof motor, etc.)

Change the engine oil, and gearbox oil or ATF (automatic transmission fluid). Check the fuel line for water. Check and clean carburetor or EFI and air filter. Check the distributor cap for water, install plugs, check the battery... START!

You may need to do several oil changing especially for ATF. Change the differential oil also. 

It is also good to check the condition of the wiring connectors. If there is soil, mud, and water inside, you must clean it with water and spray it with deep penetrating oil (WD-40 or CRC). If rust is present, you may need to scratch the connectors.

These are the basics for repairing water damaged engines.
Posted by iWrench at 4:51 AM

4 comments:

  1. RoseOctober 23, 2010 at 5:04 AM

    Wow... you really no your stuff, great tips! This is such a great blog. It's beautiful to see such a great father son relationship! Keep up the good work!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. iWrenchOctober 23, 2010 at 6:22 AM

    Hello Rose! Very sweet of you to visit and comment. Many thanks!

    There are many people who got their vehicles submerged in a flood, vehicle went for a swim, etc. and couldn't afford to pay for a pro to repair their vehicles so I hope that what me and my son share here can be of some help to others. I will keep posting more and if ever you need some help or have questions about repairs, please do not hesitate to contact me OK.
    Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousNovember 19, 2012 at 9:07 AM

    Does this also apply to motorcycles? I was affected by Hurricane Sandy and my motorcycle was submerged under saltwater for a few hours however I did not get to it right-away. I just started working on it after 3 weeks due to no power or gas. Once I drained the oil the first thing to come out was water then oil.

    ReplyDelete
  4. iWrenchJanuary 11, 2013 at 4:01 AM

    Very sorry for my late reply...
    Yes you can also use this for motorcycles.

    ReplyDelete

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