Driving home this evening my wife and I got caught in a flash flood. We were on I-25 (Denver) heading south and below one of the underpasses was about 2 foot of standing water. Unfortunately we had no way of turning around so we had to drive through it in the Vette. Not exactly sure how deep the water was, but it was covering the tires of full sized ford and chevy p/u's. My guess would be between 20 and 24 inches :eek: .

We had to drive about 75 feet in the water and maneuver around about three cars that had stalled out. The only reason we went through it was that if we stopped, we would have most likely been hit from behind as cars were hydroplaning behind us.

Drove the car through the water probably no faster than 8-10 mph and surprisingly it made it through without stalling. Drove very carefully for about 15-20 minutes until we got home and I opened the hood. By the looks of it the lower part of the engine was completely submerged, but the top of the motor did not get submerged. Also looks like the belt pulled up quite a bit of water and covered the top half of the engine with mud / silt.

I checked under the battery to see if the computer got wet and it would appear that it's very dry and clean, so I'm guessing no water in the computer.

I have a Blackwing, and for the most part it seemed pretty dry but the area around it was covered in the mud, so I assume that it did get some water on it.

My question to all you forum guys is what should I be looking for to determine if there was any damage? If it starts in the morning, am I out of the woods, or should I have it checked out.

The real irony of this was that I had met a guy at a bar earlier in the evening that had a 91 Vette but he never took it out when the weather was bad. We joked and I gave him a hard time about having a garage queen and not enjoying the car as much as he should........guess the joke was on me !?@#!

:cuss

Hope someone out there can give me some good news.

 

Should have also added that I checked the oil and there does not appear to be any water in it.

 

Dear U-Boat Commander, You probably are the luckiest person around. Go but a Lottery ticket. :party:

 

:iagree:

 

:iagree: :iagree: Buy a Lottery ticket Good Luck

 

How did the computer not get wet????? :confused:

Anyhow....congrats on surviving that one with little damage!

 

You are lucky. If the engine had sucked up some water you would have some real problems like colapsed pistons and bent connecting rods because water does not comperss well. Check for water or debris everywhere you can find and clean up the car. Then thank God.
:flag :seeya

 

[QUOTE]How did the computer not get wet????? :confused: QUOTE]

Where is the other computer? The one under the battery seems to be ok, but I have not pulled the battery to check. It would appear that the battery, fuse box, and computer are sealed better as thoses areas are still very clean (no mud).

Can someone tell me how to check the other one? I have not started the car yet this morning, wanted to check things out a little better under the light.

I will say that if the car survived (knocks on wood :smash: ), i will definately lay off the GM engineers as there were much taller cars completely stalled out on both sides of the highway. Three on my side, and what looked like 4 or five on the other side.

 

Well it's official, the depth of the water was 2.5 feet. see the link for details.

http://www.9news.com/storyfull.asp?id=16593.

If anyone out there has had problems with water ingestion, computer soaking, etc. please let me know what else I should be looking for.

Thanks,

 

I stress about that all the time also duringheavy rain. I have a Halltech TRIC and my car is lowered 2". One time I had the same situation happen where I was forced through a large body of water because of cars approaching fast behind and no where to pull over or turn around. My technique, in hopes to just save the motor from sucking water was to hammer it prior to the very big puddle, shut it off and try to coast / Hydroplane across it. It wasn't nearly that deep but I am sure my filter was in the water. This was quite sketchy but I had room to slide around iff it got out of control< I figured worst case I would rather bump a curb then ingest water and maybe hydraulic the motor.
It worked, I made it across with the motor off, then let the excess drip off, fired it up and all was A OK. :thumbs:
But it was my most stressfull experience yet in the vette.

 

Update:

Took the car into a Grease Monkey (my father owns it) and had the oil, tranny, and differential fluids changed. It does not appear that there was any water that got into the system, so I'm thanking the big guy so far.

The only thing that seems to be different now is that the car gets hot faster than I remember. It could just be that i'm hyper-sensitive to any changes right now, but it seems that the coolant temp jumps up to 200 degrees pretty quickly. It's not getting any hotter than 220, but it seems that it's getting hot very quickly.

Any concerns?

 

I know the exact location where you encountered the water. It sounds like you were lucky and didn't get any damage. Have someone with a scanner check your temp sensor and see if it got some water damage.

 

That took some ***** to drive through... I would have pulled over somewhere and called out a flatbed.

 

This story kinda re-affirms the Blackwing as a good choice for daily drivers who want improved intake without huge risk of hydrolock.

No flame intended, but I can't understand why anyone would put a bottom breather on a daily driver for 5-10 extra HP. Seems to me like a Blackwing gets you 90% of the performance with very little additional risk. :confused:

 

Did you take a look at the radiator? You might have gotten a bunch of mud and crap like that stuck up there. It will run hotter if that is the case. :cheers:

-Speed

 

Thanks, the thought crossed my mind, but there was nowhere to pull over.

 

I'll look, but when I washed the engine bay the following day I did not notice too much crap comming off of the radiator.

To add insult to injury, when I got in the Vette to drive to work on Monday (daily driver) the passenger side tire had picked up a nail..... :banghead:

So much for playing the lottery.


[Modified by 99inDenver, 11:15 AM 7/23/2003]

 

No flame intended back, but I would not bet any intake (including the stock intake) in 2-1/2 feet of water. Making it through water that deep is just plain luck. If I see other people stalled and water as deep as truck tires, I'm just pulling over and waiting, or finding a hotel for the night. It is not worth the risk.

 

You probably have a bunch of crap stuck between the radiator and the A/C condensor. Second thought is that the water may have damaged the fans.

I would seriously consider having the radiator and condensor inspected and possibly pulled.

 

Agreed 100% -- he was very lucky.. :cheers: But intake choice is a factor. I think his "luck" would have run out with a bottom breather.