A friend of mine thinks he may have hydrolocked his car. What should I do now ;(

dont turn it on. take some stuff apart a little and let it dry out for a few.

I would take out the sparkplugs and see if u could somehow use a vacume and suck out the water.

My friend was thinking more along the lines of it wont turn over already, like something is locked up. He wants to know what steps i should follow in order to get it fixed, (ie rebuild the bottom end...etc etc)

I hydrolocked my engine awhile back. If your friend is lucky like I was, he didn't do any internal damage. Take out the spark plugs, and do your best to get the water out. I just turned it over without the plugs in to clear it out. Water shot up like 8 feet in the air. Make sure you change the oil, because a lot of water probably made its way down there. The best thing you can do after that is just wait 2-3 days until it dries out more inside.
It will be Very difficult to start for awhile because the water rinsed off all the oil on the piston rings, thus greatly reducing compression. My compression was about 25-50psi in each cylinder. 2 days after I sucked up water, I was trying to start my car for about 30 minutes. Finally I realized I was flooding the engine with gas, so I disconnected my fuel injectors. Within 2 minutes, it started up really really rough, and stopped again. I reconnected the injectors, and it ran from there. It took another 2 days for my compression to be restored to about 175psi.
Hope this helps a little.

It does thank you very much :+

Ok we removed the spark plugs and tried to start it and it just clicked. Anyone know if its fuct or what?

So do you all think its locked if the starter just clicks even when i took the spark plugs out? If so what kind of repair am i looking at.............rebuild bottem end...............head..........new block.........ect...........???? anyone??

??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????:-(:-( :-( :-(

Yes, engine is gone. Your engine's trying to compress water, and water can not be compressed. The connecting rods wound bend before water compresses. So I would say, new pistons and rings without doubt, probably spun a couple bearings, and hope that the rods and crankshaft are ok. Your head might be ok if youre lucky, but if not, the valves are probably shot, ect. I would go get it looked at, you can't get good estimates over the computer without us looking at it in person.

It just clicks? as in your battery is dead and it cant give the starter enough juice to throw the gear out? steal a battery from another car and give that a shot. just make sure you have your plugs out when you try to crank it so the pistons are not tring to compress water. water does not compress.

It clicks but the battery isnt dead. im sad now :(

clicking usually means its your starter or battery. I would really have to hear it to be sure. Don't give up, it may not be as bad as you think.

>Yes, engine is gone. Your engine's trying to compress water,
>and water can not be compressed. The connecting rods wound
>bend before water compresses. So I would say, new pistons and
>rings without doubt, probably spun a couple bearings, and hope
>that the rods and crankshaft are ok. Your head might be ok if
>youre lucky, but if not, the valves are probably shot, ect. I
>would go get it looked at, you can't get good estimates over
>the computer without us looking at it in person.


^^ That's off. The first thing that would go would be the rods (bent). Your bearings are ok, pistons ok, rings iffy. Your valve train is fine. When you hydrolock a motor it's the rods that take the abuse (and rings).

All that being said, if the battery is ok (did you have it load tested or just tested it with voltmeter ... if it's the voltmeter go get it load tested for free somewhere) and it just clicks without the spark plugs then it sounds like a starter problem. You see without the spark plugs in there is no compression in the cylinders. Air should be sucked in and pushed right on out through the spark plug hole on the compression stroke so there can be nothing preventing the piston from coming up (like water in the cylinder). Now if you bent a rod really badly then it could be bound up there. I would try to turn the crank by hand with out the spark plugs. If it spins ok there then it's gonna be a starter problem.

Give it a whirl see what happens and let us know.

Yeah you could easily have shorted out the starter at the same time you hydrolocked the engine.

Try to turn the crank by hand, if it turns the starter should be able to turn the engine, so starter problem. To be sure you can see if te starter turns when not bolted to the trans.

There may be serious damage but strt checking the simple stuff first.



15.9 @ 86.7mph

Smooth idle? We don't need no stinking smooth idle.

Mods List:
http://highlander.dsmpower.com/sig.htm

Can you explain to me what "turn the crank by hand" means please, i wanna try to see if it works. Thanks so much guys..........I mean the flooded road i drove through was only about 4-5 in deep and i didnt open the throttle going through it.........i hope i shorted something out....

Pull the spark plugs out. Get the passengers front wheel off, there's an access for the crank bolt or you can remove the whole splashguard. Put a ratch or breaker bar on the crank bolt and try to turn the engine over by hand (go clockwise).



15.9 @ 86.7mph

Smooth idle? We don't need no stinking smooth idle.

Mods List:
http://highlander.dsmpower.com/sig.htm

Am i going to need any special tools besides the obvious ( jack, lug key for wheel, etc) like to turn the crank with..........special socket or whatever....?

The crank bolt is a 19mm socket. You'll just need any extension so it's not right up on the motor.

Ok, this morning had the car towed to the shop that specializes in talons/eclipses. Well something disturbing happened when it was being loaded onto the truck. Once it went inclined it started leaking oil so it left a trail of oil up the ramp of the tow truck............future outlook..........not good probably.....but we will see when they call me back and tell me whats wrong with it. Pray guys pray:-(

Ok, just got a call from the shop and it turns out that the car did hydrolock and shot a rod through the oilpan. He said I may need a new block depending on the damage done. I asked him if it would be possible to rebuild and he said he didnt know he had to do some calling around and research. So basically I need a bunch of new stuff.............I figure if i have to replace the block or whatever is it possible to replace it with one of those build blocks from fty or anywhere else? Also there is a price on the websites and it says with core or whatever......is it possible to send them my old block as a core even tho it might be damaged? If it is possible to rebuild, then im going to do that with better internals so i can turbo eventually. Either way im out an assload of money so anyone have any opinions on what they would do and approx how much it would cost? Please help a brother who is down get back to his feet.......:-(

???????????????????????????????:-( :(

Hydrolocked my ride this past summer.

I got a whole new engine out of a 98 Sebring. I put a new clutch in as well while the engine was out. Found the Sebring engine in Indiana for $1500. Not bad. $800 to drop everything back into place, changed the oil every 500 miles up to 1500 miles. Car is running perfectly and I'm back in the game.

Insurance covered my ass. If you have full coverage you might wanta check up with them. It was called catastrophy insurance or something like that. I ended up dropping a new clutch in while I was at it. Extra $400.

So in total: $1500 engine + $800 install + $400 clutch

$2,700 all togther, but I only dished out $400 for the clutch.

So you had to get the entire block too then.........damn i hope i can just rebuild but it doesnt look like im going to be able to.....so im lookin around 3 grand for the fix then......and no i dont have full coverage....only liability.:-( :-(

My insurance was covering it so I just said fuck it and let them buy everything. I really wanted to rebuild with 10.5 compression and rework the head a bit, but I didn't have the money and insurance wouldn't just give me the money for the engine so here I am on stock compression and a new engine...which is a double edge sword to me. Oh well, at least its running again :thumbsup

Guess its up to you how you go about doing it, but I would say that the prices I listed are a pretty good medium to go from. As long as your head is ok I would say just get the rebuild kit from Howell w/ high compression.

$1100 for rebuild kit
Install may vary but I would say around 6-800.

You got a brand new engine thats faster than stock for under $2000 respectively. Not cheap but if you wanta keep the car it has to be done. Mine as well do it right.

Good luck.