With all of the flooding down here my boat went under water when the river rose 12 feet overnight. The engine was completely under water for several days. Can it be salvaged? What should i do to restore the engine?

 

holy ****! umm... id say take it out as quick as you can and take it to a mechanic? uhh damn dunno what to say

 

Fresh water, should be no problem as far as the long block. Get it apart and dried and oiled. The longer you wait, the worse it will be.

 

Yes, you can save it. Pull the engine and drain ALL fluids. Pull the plugs and turn the engine over by hand, this will help remove any water in the cylinders. You might also used compressed air to blow out the cylinders. Turn it over several times to get out any water that is in the intake.....keep turing until you are dry. I would spray the inside of the cylinders with WD40 if you are going to have the engine down several days. You can also pour alcohol into the oil pan...leave the oil plug out with a drain pan under. The alcohol will mix with any water and help purge the water out of the engine. Replace all fluids, pull the distributor and use a priming tool and drill to prime the engine with oil. Run the priming tool for some time to be sure that you get oil to all parts of the engine.

Electrical is a different matter, you may have to replace those items. Trying drying those items out first, or use compressed air to remove as much water/moister as possible. Give it a try at starting. Trouble shoot the non start areas....spark, fuel, injectors etc.

Good Luck,

 

I am with zr1fred. fresh water won't be all that bad.

just drain all liquids, get it dried out and refill. the distributor will need some love...

it should be fine.

 

with the posts regarding purging the engine ASAP!!! to prevent problems. The electrical is a different can of worms. I'd consider all electronics shot, wiring harness's suspect. I've known of several aircraft that ditched in fresh water and were rebuilt with the exception of the electrical/electronic systems which were totaly replaced due to suspect reliability.

 

I thought boats were supposed to float??!!


Larry
code5coupe

___________
not easily impressed....

 

[QUOTE=rocco16;1560994720]I thought boats were supposed to float??!!
DoDo happens. I had a Chris with twin diesels that sank. Did what Marker said. Course I didn't have a lot of electrical stuff to worry about. After clean up they were fine.




___________

 

Oh, I know that idiots sink their boats all the time.

He didn't say he sank his; the water rose and it "submerged".
I'm trying to figure out how.....


Larry
code5coupe

____________
not easily impressed....

 

Sure it is. It's called irony. Nobody got hurt, and that's all that matters. It's a material possession. That's what insurance is for.
Like Buffett said: "If we couldn't laugh we would all go insane."

Matthew

 

how about being tethered to a trailer???

 

I've seen this happen first hand. The boat is on a lift or just tied to a dock. If the water rises too fast, the dock anchors that are attached to the ground may not be able to be let out enough or just not fast enough and the dock actually sinks with the boats on / in it. We also had a deep snow hit this year and the weight of the snow actually made a few docks sink. Not a laughing matter at all!

I hope you can save the boat and motor!

 

I have always heard to leave it under water until you are ready to work on it. As soon as it sees air the trouble starts.
If you have a boat that is moored (Tied to the pier) you need to lengthen the lines as the tides rise, and shorten them as the tide falls. Usually around here (MD) we get flood tides in November. The water comes up 2 or 3 feet above the piers, you need to stay with the boat almost all day as tides change.

 

 

Laugh at something that is funny not someone's disaster. How do you know it's insured? Let's say it was your boat and we all laughed and joked about it. And who the hell is Buffet? Jimmy Buffet, Warren Buffet? Respond with something that is helpful to the poster.

 

Never seen a boat yet that wouldn't float strapped to its trailer.

It is possible that the OP's boat was moored to a very solid object (pier, etc) and rising water caused the submersion...I didn't think of that while I was going through the possible scenarios.

That would be a bummer....


Larry
code5coupe

__________
Often wrong, never in doubt....

 

Too bad.
I don't have any experience with water logged 4 cycle motors, but I do with 2 cycles.

I had borrowed my brother's snowmobile so a friend and I could go trail/lake riding.

A group of 5 of us were on a lake. Going across the lake, I could see a tent in the ice maybe 100 ft in front of me (I was second in line).
The first sled hit it and went right over and kept going. I saw the ice open up, but I was going too fast to turn away, stop, or completely avoid it. I hit the ice, the skis skimmed over, the track hit the water, but I was able to power up and over the opening. My buddy right behind wasn't as lucky. He slowed down, but not enough, and drove the skis right into the opening. He jumped off, and the sled nose dived in, but the tail section remained out of the water by about 1 ft.
Engine, tank, and seat were all submerged.

About 2 hours later, the 5 of us got up the nerve to fish the sled out. Luckily it was on a sand bar in about 3 ft. of water.
We got it out, towed it to a local gas station, put it in the bay overnight.Opened the tank, and no water had made it's way into the tank. Lucky.
Next, took the plugs out, and pulled the rope about 100 times to flush out the water. Let it sit overnight to dry up the electronics.

Next day, Put the plugs back in, and pulled on the rope a few more times. It started. I couldn't believe my luck. I couldn't sleep the previous night thinking about what I would tell my brother.
Actually the thing ran pretty good. Couldn't tell it had been submerged.
(I still had a tough time telling my brother about it, but he was actually quite calm about it, and he never had a problem with the sled after that)

So keep your chin up. You may get lucky with just a fluid change.
Fresh water ain't the end of the world to these things, but get it cleaned up quick, before any corrosion can start.

Good luck.

 

Just to clerify, the boat was on a lift. I usually leave the drain plugs out to drain the water. Also, if the plugs were in, the boat would either float off and then fill and capsize (like my neighbors boat) or will get sandwiched between the lift and the roof of the dock when the water rises. I cant imagine the structural damaged that would do.

 

update: I finally was able to get to my boat today, it was almost filled with mud, the engine cover was no where to be found. I talked to a mechanic who recommended draining all the fluids and filling it with diesel. Its called "pickeling" the engine. Ive never heard of that, and im not sure what the benefits of putting diesel in an engine would be.

 

I can't imagine what good diesel fuel would do, either, since it is not water-absorbing.
I'm with those who say drain the oil and fuel, put in fresh oil and fuel, run the engine until it is up to temp, drain the oil and fuel, refill, and you should be good to go(enginewise).

The rest of the boat, electrics included, will be another story.


Larry
code5coupe

__________
Often wrong, never in doubt....