So tropical storm Debbie is rolling through Jacksonville, Florida today. The road leading into my neighborhood has a creek that runs under a bridge. There was about 6 inches of rushing water going across the road. I watched the car in front of me and the water was right beneath the side skirt so I thought my cold air intake would be safe. I ventured into the water and my car stalled. There was no real noise or anything but the lights on the dash flashed. It wouldn't start either. I popped the hood and the water was a couple inches below the filter.

I called my wife and she came with her car and nudged me home since I was only a quarter mile from the house. After I got home, there wasn't much electrical power. The alarm would barely arm and the windshield wipers would barely move.

A little while ago after the rain let up some, I removed the CAI. There was some in the tube but just a few droplets. The battery appears to have more juice since i was able to arm the alarm no problem.

Unfortunately the storm will be here for a couple more days and I can't get the car into the garage because my house is on a hill. I want to pull the spark plugs and attempt to verify if water made it into the cylinder. Personally, I think/hope that its something electrical as opposed to a snapped rod.

So I need to determine if my Fit is hydrolocked? Does anyone have any steps i could follow to be relatively sure? Feel free to ask any questions. I'm not a master mechanic but I'm relatively handy with a wrench. I swapped a B20 into my 98 EK Civic with just me, some friends, and Honda-Tech.com so I'm willing to do some work to get this thing checked out. Thanks for any help.

 

Wow I'm in Jax also, same issue! Locked up on 3rd street

 

That sucks. As soon as I get a chance I'm going to pull the plugs and see if there's any evidence of water in the cylinders. Then I'm going to change the oil and see I can see any water. If everything looks good I'm going to let it all air dry and start trouble shooting electrical issues. Anyone else have any other ideas?

 

Keep in mind if you have water in the oil pan, it will settle to the bottom and you will not see it on the dipstick. If the vehicle engine does run, usually you will see a milky substance on the dip stick. Last November for a friend I transported an engine, trans, and final drive from a motor home that was in a fire in Ontario. When I got it back to the Chicago area I decided to pickle it for him since it was not going to finish it's trip to Houston until March. I checked the dipstick and the oil looked great. A few weeks later I decided to drain the oil and replace it. I was going to run the oil pump to circulate oil around the engine once a month until spring. It was a good thing I did. I got 3 quarts of water and 4 quarts of oil out of it. After replacing the oil, I hand cranked the engine with the plugs removed and had water come out of 4 of the 8 spark plug holes.

My point is to drain the oil and check for water. If you find some water in the oil replace the filter along with the oil. 4 quarts of oil is cheap.

 

Thanks, I'm going to try that tonight. I'll post what I find out.

 

drain the oil, add new oil.
remove the spark plugs.
pull the fuel pump fuse
crank the car multiple times to remove any water from the cylinders
reinstall the spark plugs and fuel pump fuse.

thats the best you can do to "fix" a hydrolocked motor. but since your car actually stalled itself, theres a good chance even if it runs, it will not run correctly.

and run a compression test if it starts

 

You are correct by removing the plugs, all of them, and verify the cylinders don't have water in them. Remember the cylinders don't have to be filled, just more water than the volume of the head. That results in a severe impact and I kinda doubt you have thast. Instead I think yiou've shorted the electrics somewhere includiung the distributor', the coil paks, or ignition wiring, or even the battery connections. You'll need to dry all wiring, connections, and even clean and dry the coil paks.
And yes its extremely important to change tyhe oil and filter, too.
PS you can use a small tubing to 'suck' water out of each cylinder and if you can't pull more than a cc of water, your cylinder is likely ok.

 

Even if you have water in the cylinder(s) and blow/dry it all out, you may have have a bent rod, requiring a tear down.

 

Doing the same.. Had it towed home.. Have to wait till Friday to do everything when Im off work. Said it just stopped suddenly, she tried to crank it later and it will not turn at all.

Planning on pulling plugs, suck out water with tube, drain oil, refill, try to crank.. If so reintall plugs and attempt to start.

 

It sounds like you have a plan. There is a good chance you have an electrical problem rather than a locked up engine. What you are doing with oil and removed plugs will tell you very quickly.

Good Luck

 

If it turns out the engine is hydrolocked I'm going to drop the oil pan and see whats what. If its catastrophic, I think I'll go the K20 route. K20 type R is just too expensive and I can't justify that to myself or the wifey. But a K20a3 is much easier to convince the wife to go along with. Anyone know of any good, reputable, affordable companies to go with to pick up this engine? I ordered my B20 from a site online years ago but I can't remember who I got it from.

 

So tonight I pulled the spark plugs, pulled the fuse for the fuel pump, and cranked the the engine. Water shot out of the spark plug holes . I drained the oil and there was water in the oil. The first little bit that came out was clear . When I cranked the engine, it turned over fine, and there was no awful noises of creaking or banging metal.

My next steps tomorrow are to let everything dry. I left the oil pan plug out and left the spark plugs out. I'm taking the battery to get tested and will probably get a new one. After that I'll put some new oil in, add some sea foam to clean it out and I'm praying it will run.

Am I missing anything here? Does anyone else have any other ideas on next steps or other things I can try to bring my Fit back from the edge?

 

I am suggesting that you get some cheap 5w20 from Walmart and put that in it. Run that oil for a about 1/2 hour and dump it immediately. Any water in the oil system will get churned up with the oil during that 1/2 hour. Dump the oil in the filter also. Look at the oil and see if it is milky color. Now install the oil of your choice. After that any additional water left should be a very minor amount and it will be boiled off while driving.

I would save the Sea Foam treatment for later. It is not going to help with the water situation and might just confuse matters if you still have a water in the oil problem.

I had a neighbor drive her garden tractor at full speed into her swimming pool. It took me 3 oil changes to get all of the water out but remember that engine was submerged for about 4 hours before I retrieved it from the pool.

 

to be honest i avoid really deep puddles or slightly overflowed streets and when water gets in there be very careful cause it can still cause damage to your engine without you even knowing, any funny noises shut her off or you could be doing a engine rebuild and def check your tranny cause if it got in there that is not good neither you might want to flush both and pull down your pan and clean and dry it out remove all moisture from pan then refill it

 

Great plan you have for returning your Fit to life. I believe you'll do exactyly that.
Wish you hadn't cranked the engine to flush the water out; even at 600 rpm the piston speed is great enough to compress that water enough to affect valves so keep a close eye on the clearances and engine performance. The fact that water shot out the spark plug holes is a good indication of the impact. Next time suck the water out first.
As for drying, not much will happen unless you push air into the cylinders, typically using compressed air thru a 1/4" hose into the cylinders. That goes for the oil pan as well. Without dry air flow, there won't be much drying. But a tiny bit of water in the combustion chambers is not a problem.The normal combustion process produces water so a few drops being there is not a real concern. Just make sure its only a few drops.
If you can, put the car in the sun so solar heat will assist drying out. Check your plugs electrodes for damage; any bent or manged electrodes is not a good sign and could mean pulling the head and checking/refinishing the combustion chambers.
To restart, flush the lubrication system with oil, any cheap but good brand will do. Just start the engine and run for only a few minutes then stop and drain; if any water shows in the drain, repeat the oil flush til there's no water, then go to a good oil and filter and in 500 to 1000 miles repeat the oil and filter change. That gets you back on Honda's schedule. Oil is the lifeblood of engines; you cannot be less than super careful to eliminate corrosives, such as water, from the system.
Replace the plugs with new ones, The coil paks should be OK. And check valve clearances, before and afdter restarting the engine.
several years ago we hads a customer who had his whole car flooded and using the procedure here he got his car back and drve it another 140,000 miles with zero problems so I think you have every reason to expect your Fit to do the same. Yuor Fit engine is a lot better one than his.
Good luck.

 

Well it's toast. I did everything I said I would, gave it a crank and it sounded like a hammer against metal. I filed a claim with my insurance today so hopefully they'll help me out. Learn from my lesson, fellow fit freaks. Avoid standing water.

 

burningwrek. As soon as you say there are water shooting out of your spark holes, then it's a sealed deal... sorry to hear about your engine... but am hoping you can get the k20...

 

Don't be too quick.
Did you crank with the spark plugs removed? very important. If that yields the metallic rapping then valves maybe hammered. At least the dealer, or whoever yoiu choose, can probably repair the cylinder head.
If there's no rapping., then check the plugs for impacted electrodes and if found you'll likely need new pistons as well. Sorry. Hope your insurance company doesn't stiff you.

 

I'm sorry to hear that. See what Insurance says. If they won't cover it, then it is time to pull the head and see what damage you have. I would not do anything more to it now until you hear from the insurance company.

Hopefully it is valves. If it is a piston or rod you will have a bigger job.

Hopefully insurance will cover it and you will only be out your deductible.

I have never pulled a Honda engine so I'm not sure what all is involved.

 

sorry dude hope you have luck with the insurance