Stalled out in too much water -- loss of power and surging at idle

[Amos]

Hey, Long story short my 1993 Auto recently died out in a foot and a half deep puddle (didn't have any choice, it was go through foot and a half, or two feet deep.)

I've since replaced the air filter, spark plugs (Inspected for water in the cylinders), blown everything I could dry with an air compressor and done an oil change. However, there's still a very noticeable loss in power accelerating from a stop. The vehicle also surges sometimes when it's in park and almost stalls its self out.

What else should I be looking into replacing? The vehicle only has 81,000 miles on it and the body is in very good shape... so I would like to do whatever I can to keep this little guy going.

Any advise would be very appreciated.

[rmoltis]

Typical example of hydro lock.

You understand that when air enters an engine it is compressible.
You also understand that a column of water is not compressible.
So when your pistons went up to compress the charge it met deadly resistance.
I'm not sure what is wrong exactly but you should check your head.
Check all the valves make sure none are bent or warped or don't seal tight.
Id look at the piston rods if possible. I'm not sure but maybe you could have bent some.
If so maybe they don't come up as far into the cylinder as they used to lowering compression.
Also maybe check to see if the block was warped it could be sending blowby into other spaces.

I'm sure other people have more specific things they would recommend looking at but I'd start in those areas.

Maybe even check the piston rings. I'd imagine if the water had no where to escape it could send a high pressure stream around the edges of the rings. I'm sure you guys have seen what water cutting is I wonder if it could happen?

[drddan]

Spray spark plug wires and disty with WD-40.
If it runs fine then, you have to replace those wires. Easy check for water where it shouldnt be.

[tooldude]

I would like to be able to give you the amazing solution but this sounds to me like a problem that could have a rather long list of possibilities. I definitely want to read about your solution. I would suggest that you give more detail to help in solving. Did you hit the water fast so that it blasted everywhere (entering distributor,cracking or warping a hot manifold,penetrating connectors,knocking off a vacuum hose seems suspicious) or go through it slowly or stall in it so the car sat? Did water get inside the body? Did the engine start right after or only later? If it kept running was it acting up right away or later. Sure there is no moisture deep in the distributor? Have you checked manifold vacuum with a guage or timing to see if it is off? I just noticed you don't say if it's a festiva. If you have something with a crankshaft sensor low on the engine it could have gotten water in it. If you had gotten water into your engine you would have had hydro-lock or a no start with wet plugs or starting with missing. Just trying to get you started here.

[tooldude]

My personal opinion about spraying out a distributor- disconnect your battery. Use a quality electronic cleaner made by CRC (from any auto parts) - this will remove moisture and oil and leave no residue that could lead to carbon tracking and does not cause damage to anything. WD-40 was proven by industry to hold some moisture.

[Amos]

I was going about 10mph making my was through it slowly and steadily to not splash anything up into where it needn't go. The car was going, then died slowly in the water and sat for a couple minutes until I was able to push it out.

The engine struggled for a few minutes once it was out of the water, but it started up shortly after. I drove it about 500 feet into a parking lot and drained the air-box and the intake hose of water, then it started right up and I drove back home to change whatever I could.

Just to clarify, this is a 1993 GL Sport Auto

[rmoltis]

If I ever had to drive through some water
Id pop my hood and find some flex tubing anywhere within walking distance.
and tape the airbox holes shut all except the velocity stack portion.
Then I would seal the tube to the velocity stack and point it upwards for a ghetto snorkel sticking through the hood opening lol.
But that's in a random emergency situation.

[tooldude]

I don't see a large response of help here yet but you asked for ANY help. I'm not presenting myself as as all-knowledgeable. That said, I don't know your knowledge level or what you have to work with or what all you have checked. Disconnect the battery (and never make or break connections with the ignition key ON), unplug wiring harness connectors and look for moisture (and now corrosion), spray out with electronic or electrical cleaner accordingly. Start with the VAF-airflow meter. If you can get inside it spray out the slider arm and contacts. Carefully check the movement of the vane for smoothness and debris. Check the connectors on the distributor and throttle position sensor-if you can get inside it spray it out. Blow cleaner off electronics with dry air or give it time to evaporate. Harder to get at, check the connector on engine coolant temperature sensor. Check the connector for the O2 sensor. I don't know if the water would have damaged the sensor. If this doesn't get it you may need to check every connector in the wiring harness. Does the engine run smoothly without missing or say the same as it did before submerging? Here I am not talking about changing RPMs but the quality of running. If not, it's possible there are one or more warped valves or blown head gasket. The specification is 199 PSI (with a maximum variation of 25% between cylinders) for a new engine. I would not expect it to be near that unless your engine is low mileage. A compression check will show a larger problem but it may take a leakdown test to show up a small leak. An engine with VERY low compression but still enough to run will run very smoothly. You need to see if manifold vacuum is at least 15-20 and steady on the guage needle both idling and higher RPMs say 2000-2500. If vacuum is real low you may have a restricted catalytic converter or muffler-maybe with water.

[drddan]

WD = Water Displacement
I had a LARGE crack in one of my spark plug wires once, and whenever it rained, car would not start, and how I found the crack.

A simple spray of WD and poof, ran great!
Also bogged out the same way Amos did in my Bronco, in about 3 feet of water crossing a low water bridge after a torrential rain.
Bronco stalled out. I climbed out the window, over the side of the hood, and to the bumper. Opened the hood, sprayed WD-40 on everything, fired it up and drove off.

Dont tell ME WD-40 dont work!!!!!!!!

[bravekozak]

I power washed my engine and the plastic bag blew off of my distributor.
The car stalled on the elevated Gardiner Expressway. I grabbed a screwdriver, popped the hood, took off the distributor cap, drained a lot of water, blew as hard and quickly as I could, put the cap back on, jumped in the car, said a prayer and turned the key. I was able to get off at the next exit. I hate it when water gets in the distributor.

[Movin]

water can get inside an o2 and give crazy readings but the computer believes them.
Check all lower electrical connectors. Water can get in relays..

[tooldude]

Many moons ago I was told these things you are saying and it's true - you can displace and blast away water and moisture with a pressurized can of WD-40. I remember I sprayed out a distributor with it at least once to get moisture out and it worked well. I began to question whether it had any long term bad effects on spark plug wires, electrical wires or distributor caps but I can't find out because it's a "secret formula". The web site says it's safe for most surfaces except a "few" but don't name all of the "few" except polycarbonate and clear polystyrene. There are a lot of plastic and rubber compounds. At least I never had any problems that I noticed. I would spray a wet distributor with it in a jam, but why not just use a product that's made for the application? If I offer advice or opinions I have to go with "do no harm".

[Amos]

I don't see a large response of help here yet but you asked for ANY help. I'm not presenting myself as as all-knowledgeable. That said, I don't know your knowledge level or what you have to work with or what all you have checked. Disconnect the battery (and never make or break connections with the ignition key ON), unplug wiring harness connectors and look for moisture (and now corrosion), spray out with electronic or electrical cleaner accordingly. Start with the VAF-airflow meter. If you can get inside it spray out the slider arm and contacts. Carefully check the movement of the vane for smoothness and debris. Check the connectors on the distributor and throttle position sensor-if you can get inside it spray it out. Blow cleaner off electronics with dry air or give it time to evaporate. Harder to get at, check the connector on engine coolant temperature sensor. Check the connector for the O2 sensor. I don't know if the water would have damaged the sensor. If this doesn't get it you may need to check every connector in the wiring harness. Does the engine run smoothly without missing or say the same as it did before submerging? Here I am not talking about changing RPMs but the quality of running. If not, it's possible there are one or more warped valves or blown head gasket. The specification is 199 PSI (with a maximum variation of 25% between cylinders) for a new engine. I would not expect it to be near that unless your engine is low mileage. A compression check will show a larger problem but it may take a leakdown test to show up a small leak. An engine with VERY low compression but still enough to run will run very smoothly. You need to see if manifold vacuum is at least 15-20 and steady on the guage needle both idling and higher RPMs say 2000-2500. If vacuum is real low you may have a restricted catalytic converter or muffler-maybe with water.

Thank you very much -- This has been the most helpful comment thus far.

The vehicle ran extremely smooth and before the indecent, and it's still running pretty well only with a significant lag from the get go. When I popped the spark plugs and everything there was no sign of any moisture in the cylinders (I cranked it over a few times to get a good look from all different positions of the piston.) However, there was a fair bit of moisture and water inside the air intake lines that feed into the throttle body (I think that's what the part ontop of the engine is called.)

The car had a small oil leak from the head before the stall, but it's not looking like anything is any worse than it was before. My plan for tomorow is to get electrical cleaner and get at everything I can with a blow dryer and some spray cleaner (I'll be avoiding WD-40 as in this case it would be better to use a 100% purpose made water displacement/electronics cleaning product.)

My technical skills are above the average joe... but not at the point where I would consider myself capable of re-building an engine... so I'll start with the easy stuff (replacing the distributor cap and rotor, replacing and cleaning out electrical connections) before I delve into anything that would be replacing things on the inside of the engine.

Now -- I've run into another new issue. When I'm going along at about 40MPH I'm getting a strange humming from the rear of the vehicle... Could water have gotten into the wheel bearings and started rusting them? I've got my car aspire swapped and I've had the wheel bearing professionally replaced within the last year. Could water cause anything like this to happen?

[roadkyll]

dont know if this will help or even pertains to you issue but check your trans fluid and look for water contamination

[Amos]

dont know if this will help or even pertains to you issue but check your trans fluid and look for water contamination

I haven't done much with the trans ever... I suspect it's time to change all that stuff anyways... How would I go about checking that and changing the fluid?