heavy rain hydrolock, fwi, CRAZY

[nickburgundy]

so we just got pounded by 80+ mph winds and rain, durring the storm i got a phone call from my grandma who lives 8 blocks away, she said the two 80 foot trees in her yard are now on the house. So i jumped in the car and failed to see the "pond" a block from my house. The 9" k&n got her fill of water and the car died. I pushed it off to the side of the road. after getting grandma and dog out of her house I called andrew with tears in my eyes. I then pulled all the plugs and cranked away. There was water pumping out of the cylinders and my eyes. After pumping the water out and changing plugs to a set or 605 i had in the trunk, I began to crank the flooded beast over. To my surprise it actually started, and ran pretty good. I let it idle for a while and took it home. Today i flushed the oil out, and some cheapy stuff in, and then out and put the syn back in. I put some 104 back in her and drove it about 40 miles or so to go see some early fireworks. The car is running great, and all credit the andrew and maybe an answered prayer. The only thing that bugged me on the way home was the trans seemed to be shifting funny, and by "funny" i mean taking longer time to shift. I have just done the diy shift kit about two weeks ago. So if you have read this far for some reason, anyone have an idea why the trans would be shifting like this? or maybe give me shift time # to watch on the aeroforce? Also something prob non related as it has happened to me in the past, I believe it was the sucurity light flashed and dinged two seperate times on the way home, something i believe i have seen before. Any advise, questions or "holy craps ur an idiot" i guess is welcome lol.

[LakevilleSSEi]

Holy crap you're an idiot!! Now that we got that out of the way.....j/k LOL

Depending on how much water you actually drove in, if you got your intake there's pretty good chances you douched your trans too, so prolly gonna wanna check that out.

[RJolly87]

I would check the transmission fluid just to make sure it didn't get water in it. If it did, I would get that addressed yesterday.

How deep was that water? I believe this is the first documented case of drowning a FWI. I think it would be good to know what it takes to do it.

Holy crap what an idiot? Nah

Holy crap you were greatly concerned and weren't paying attention to what was going on around you? Prolly.

The only other thing I can figure is dunked electronics, but I would expect more to be wrong if that is the case.

[00Beast]

I'd change the trans fluid and filter, just to be safe.

Glad to hear it wasn't a major failure, hope it all gets worked out soon enough.

[yourgrandma]

Ive always thought a breather filter on the top of the tube would be a good idea to help avoid this very problem.

[nickburgundy]

lol thought i would get some good and funny responses. Alright i am about to change the fluid and i will let you all know tomorrow or tonight what i think. To me at this point I know i did a few things wrong in this type of scenario, but for me right now i feel fortunate to have the car running at this point.

[Mark Fahey]

I would check the transmission fluid just to make sure it didn't get water in it. If it did, I would get that addressed yesterday.

How deep was that water? I believe this is the first documented case of drowning a FWI. I think it would be good to know what it takes to do it.

Holy crap what an idiot? Nah

Holy crap you were greatly concerned and weren't paying attention to what was going on around you? Prolly.

The only other thing I can figure is dunked electronics, but I would expect more to be wrong if that is the case.

I guess that I would be the second and it's why I took mine off. When the engine died after going through a pond due to a clogged sewer, I tried to start it but didn't like the sound so I had it towed. The cylinders had water in them but because I only turned it over briefly, it didn't hurt the engine but did trash the starter.
The sound and the small horsepower gain may be nice but the risk wasn't worth it to me.

[nickburgundy]

well i changed the tranny fluid and overfilled just a hair so i will have to pull a little out first before an honest opinion of it.

[haro1225]

Its good you got it going, nothing worse than thinking your car is toast.

I drowned mine once too, as soon as it died tho, I knew what it was. Pulled off the intake tube and a bunch of water came out of the s/c and there was some in the intake tube. I fired it up without the filter on and there was a little smoke out of the exhaust, and I never had another issue from the water.

[LakevilleSSEi]

If you flood them out, first thing you need to do if you hydro lock is pull all the plugs and spin the engine over until all the water stops shooting out of the plug holes, because if you try to start it, one cylinder fires, and another cylinder hydro locks you can easily bend/break some valves, worse yet, bend/break a rod or put a nice hole in your piston. NO GOOD. Then drain and change the oil......

As for overfilling the trans a hair, I dunno how you drive, but if you like flying around corners n such, fairly aggressive driver, you're better off a quart overfilled, because you won't starve your trans pump or TC on hard right hand corners and causing slippage.

Not a huge deal, but a lot of people including myself always ran a quart over to avoid that.

[gonzo4191]

glad its running still!

and o/t. but whos this nate guy?

[LakevilleSSEi]

glad its running still!

and o/t. but whos this nate guy?

[nickburgundy]

ok it not a quart high, i would say around an 1/8 to 1/4 over the max line on the w body stick, so ok i will leave it at that.

So now that i have everything seeming to be back in order I would love to get a tune lol.

[LakevilleSSEi]

I was just saying, you're safe with a quart over max, and depending on your driving habits, it's even encouraged lol.

[nickburgundy]

yup got it so what would a quart over max look like?

[LakevilleSSEi]

trans cold and full on the cold mark, dump the extra quart in and should be about at the max line. Hot should be about 3/4-1" above the max line IIRC.

[nickburgundy]

ok perfect i'm not far off than. thanks man. so what is a recognized vendor