water damage ?

[land-def-90]

hi waded through a flood yesterday, turned out to be a lot deeper than i thought , had a lovely bow wave going but it got deeper and deeper till it were over my bonnet, the old girl (200tdi) kept going and pulled us through, but as we got through the engine  slowed down almost till it stopped as if it were a damp petrol engine but then slowly came back to life and is now fine, looked in air filter and found it was damp. wat hapened and will i have damaged my engine?
                                                                                                                                                        thanks Iain

[Saffy]

Sounds like some water got soaked into the paper filter and chocked the engine for a period (hence engine nearly stalling) as there will be little airflow. If there are no strange noises, lumpy running, strange vibrations, engine rocking then  sounds like you may be lucky and the paper filter only got a light dunking, which would have misted into the fuel mix with minimal ill effect until the filter could breath again.

Happened to my mate the other day through water splash, stalled the engine totally and the filter was trashed because the puddle was muddy.

Do you have a snorkel fitted? If so then you have a leak! If you do not have a snorkel fitted then you should NOT be wading above the height of the standard bumper!
 

But any large quantity of water entering the engine....ooooo you're risking hydraulic locking the engine and causing MUCH damage. Many engine written off that way with bent conrods and broken cranks and torn out bearings etc.

[Range Rover Blues]

Sounds like a lucky escape to me.  Any water that got past the air filter would have evaporated by now, just don't do it again.

[extreme90]

lucky lucky person
tip  :lol: diesels and water do not mix   8-[
if you dont have a snorkel fit one
if you do, remove the snorkel top and put you hand over the air intake whilst the engine is running, and find where the air leak is, it'll make a hiss'ing sound
dan

[SimonHarwood]

lucky lucky person
tip  :lol: diesels and water do not mix   8-[

As an example: On Saturday I came across someone in a diesel escort (not a 4x4, I know, but the results could easily be similar - but more expensive) in the ford on Watery Gate Lane.
After I towed him out he tried to restart and found that he had broken his block and/or head. The water was only about 16" deep but his air intake was 8"-10" from the ground.
He was waiting for a tow home (his wife was on the way) when I left.

[land-def-90]

thanks chaps, it sounds like i have been very very lucky i do have a safari snorkel fitted but it must of leaked as the filter was still damp the next morning, engine sounds fine so will have to trace leak thanks again
                                                                                                                                      Iain  :D :D

[extreme90]

itll be the water dump valves
i remove them and blank the holes off for every person who i fit a snorkel for
there are two, one on the plastic wing moulding and the other is on the airbox itself
dan

[L90OOK]

...& the crappy two piece wing moulding needs sealing up properly  :roll:

[land-def-90]

i did seal off the dump valve on the air filter ,i filled it with silicone (is there a better way?) but not sure how to get to the valve on air intake, i asume you have to remove the inner wheel arch. thanks guys your advice is much appreciated  :)

[Saffy]

...& the crappy two piece wing moulding needs sealing up properly  :roll:

Safari snorks on the 300tdi discard that wing crap and have their own moulding and they supply a new hose section. This is the reason why I ditched my mantec/BM style snorkel due to the awful way it mates to the standard 300tdi wing moulding and the way the crappy wing mouding only push fits to the rest of piping - YUCK. Do a suction test on the standard 300tdi with a wing mating style snorkel and the hard plastic of the standard fitting will collapse and stay that way and leak like hell.

[Saffy]

if you do, remove the snorkel top and put you hand over the air intake whilst the engine is running, and find where the air leak is, it'll make a hiss'ing sound
dan

Just do not do that with a K&N filter element still in place though as it sucks all the oil out of it like a vampire.

[extreme90]

who runs a K&N anyhows
there all load of tripe and wreck engines 

[Saffy]

there all load of tripe and wreck engines 

aye cuz people block their snorkel and suck all the oil out :twisted:  --- lol I am so not going here the internet has enough k&n threads  [-X 

[ian_s]

your engine could have slowed down because you were pushing a huge amount of water out of the way, and water is blinking heavy!

[SimonHarwood]

your engine could have slowed down because you were pushing a huge amount of water out of the way, and water is blinking heavy!

A cubic metre of pure water weighs 1 tonne. Think of the additional weight you have with dirty water. If the water is up to your bonnet you could easily be pushing several tonnes.
I always use low box when wading through water that comes above bumper level.

[extreme90]

water entering the engine makes it have very little throttle respose to the point as there isnt any rseponse at all, thats when it starts to loose revs then silence falls  :'(

[land-def-90]

your engine could have slowed down because you were pushing a huge amount of water out of the way, and water is blinking heavy!

A cubic metre of pure water weighs 1 tonne. Think of the additional weight you have with dirty water. If the water is up to your bonnet you could easily be pushing several tonnes.
I always use low box when wading through water that comes above bumper level.
[
  i was in low second and although i were pushing lots of water it had no problem till we emerged then it almost stalled then ran on half power for a min or 2. think the wet air filter coused by leaky snorkel makes sense  ;)]

[ian_s]

if its running ok now, i'd leave it well alone and learn from your experience!

if you are worried get a compression test done, if you've bent anything like conrods you will have reduced compression