hey guys i hydrolocked my motor and need some suggestions if there are any left. i tried to start it (before i knew it was hydrolocked) and it turned very slow and stopped. turned again very slow and stoped. then i tried to start and it just stopped. and would not turn again(seized).all i heard is the thump of the starter engaing and removed spark plugs and noticed the two rear ones were wet with water . tried to crank it with starter and by hand, nothing(seized would not turn) removed rocker arms and push rods. tried to turn it by hand still would not turn removed intake and lifters. tried to turn by hand still could not turn it. i blew air into the spark plug holes before all this but there might still be water in it. but if there was water in it, it should not hold that crank from turning since the spark plugs are out right?? and if this is true then most likley something more critical is out, which would mean new motor. should i bother to pull heads off before concidering that? did i miss something or is there something i need to know?

if it's stuck i'd rather say your rings are a bit rusty. i once had this happening after having an engine sit without head for a year and i couldn't crank it. put some oil in the cylinders (squirt some on the walls if you take off the heads) and wait a day or two, then try again by hand. just go slow anyways.
this is the advise i got from a very knowledgable guy over at another forum i'm on:

"If the rings are stuck from the car sitting you may want to soke the cylinders in Marvel Mystery Oil. You fill the cylinders and wait for them to drain. Normally in a week or so the oil drains past thr rings, freeing them up. Then you fill them again and it takes a couple days. Fill each cylinder till they drain in one day. Then your rings will spring back out to the cylinder walls again."

of course you'd need to remove your oil pan for this, which can be rather time consuming on our cars..

edit: you're right, if you take out the spark plugs there can't be any hydrolock since the water would be pushed out through the spark plug hole.. also, a typical damage after hydrolock is a bent rod. be sure to check for this.

As in push rod or piston rod? Are they that fragile? Water got inside while the car was NOT running. Still a chance of something big broken?

How long was the water in there before you noticed it? Could be your main bearings rusted/frozen. (I am going to guess that it rained while the hood was off?)

I don't think it was long enough to rust it....a day or so. And yes hood was off.

water is much much less compressible than air. it's so dense it will bend piston rods when the piston moves up to compress the mixture.. if both valve are shut and the spark plugs are in. that's what you call hydrolock
i guess a day isn't long enough to get bearings to rust. of course they won't be in like new condition anymore now.. but about the rings, i dunno that.

edit: as you already removed spark plugs i guess all the water is out already? try the tip in my previous post with marvel mystery oil or similar. that's about the only way safe for a tear down and rebuild

I did this to my 4.3 liter S10, except replace rainwater with river. I went in at idle and she sucked up the water and stalled out, total lock up. Didn't damage the rods, so I got lucky. I left mine for a day as well before I could work on it. All six cylinders were full of water. What I did was remove all the sparkplugs and drain the oil, leave the drain plug out and put a pan underneath it. Cranked it over for 10 or 20 seconds to get the water out. I left my rocker arms and pushrods alone. Put in the drain plug, added fresh oil and a new filter, reinstalled the sparkplugs and wires and fired it up. Replaced the oil again in a few days. Not sure why you can't turn it over, are all the plugs out? You mentioned the the rear two were wet, did you turn it over with the rest of them installed?

when i hydrolocked my ram, it bent a rod which caused the bottom of the piston to scrape on the crank counterweight and thats why it locked up....all i did was replace the rod and piston and i was good to go

yeah all the plugs are out and i cant turn it.
in taking off the heads soon so i hope that i can see something.

You can also use diesel fuel in the same was as described above with the Marvel Mystery Oil. Diesel fuel works quite well too.

Bent rod(s)/cracked piston(s) most likely. With spark plugs out, should spin over freely. Good luck!

thanks for the help guys.

i just had this happen to me today,

i pulled the plugs and it turned over fine, i put new ones it but the engine lacks power
lots of power, idles little rough and lacks power,

any sugestions guys? im thinken bent valve, my exaust seams to be a difrent note then befor, hope its not a bent rod, doin compretion test tomorrow,


any thaughts?

runs super rich, two cylinders are not firing and the plugs are coated with gas ,

If it's fuel injected it might take some time for everything to dry out. Mine didn't run right for a few days.

As for your 2 cylinders not firing, are you getting spark to those cylinders? If you are, I'd do a compression test on those cylinders. Do the others while you're in there.

You say you replaced the plugs, why? Did you also do everything else that was mentioned like changing the oil and filter?

i did a compretion test , all is good there

i changed the plugs because i thaught i fould them so i just put new ones in

im getting voltage to all the spark plugs, i would imagine that the are not firing though

all the other cylinders fire but have black soot on all the plugs, and the two dead cylinders are just not firing, cylinders 1 and 3 dont fire

have not done oil yet due to the weather, but definently plan to

I would change the oil before you run it again. Water will leak through the rings and end up in the oil pan. When I drained my oil when i drowned my truck, I'd say about 3 liters of water came out before any oil did. You definately don't want that floating around your engine. Try checking the gaps on those spark plugs and they check out as fine, test to make sure they're actually sparking.

gaps are ok, i gapped then when i put them in,

thanks

ill put a new ox sensor in, and ill keep u posted

ok your going to get a kick out of this,

the two dead cylinders?

plug wire were crossed hahahahahahahaha, i went over it like three times, i must have over looked that some how hahahahaha she runs great

thanks to the guys who helped me out

Hmm, that was obvious, we both shoulda figured that out alot sooner.

hahaha

I especially should have, seeing as I just got my 350 running in the car. Wouldn't start because I had all the wires two terminals clockwise from where they were supposed to be on the dizzy. That's what you get when you hand the manual to a friend and tell him to tell you where to put each wire.

Hey guys, i need help, my car 94 z28 camaro ,over heated the other day and now i think i blew a head gasket...I think the starters are going bad because of the build up of pressure...if I removed the plugs it spins fine...with the plugs in it barely spins....water on plugs from cylinders 6 and 4. Someone from another board and they said sounds like hydro locking...is there anything I can do???

To put it technically you're probably boned. You at least need head gaskets if not a full out rebuild. The state of the bottom end will vary widely depending on how long you tried to "limp" it and the luck you have. Bent rods, bad bearings etc. are real and plausible outcomes from what you described.

hmmm well im hoping not... the car didnt shut off...when i noticed it was super hot I cut the ignition, so im thinking maybe the only reason it wont start now is because of the water in the chambers...could turning the motor by hand bend the rods? it didnt knock or anything before I cut the ignition so im hoping and praying maybe just a head gasket job

if you can, the I suggest entering the worlds strongest man competition

you posted that it's a 94Z

that would be an LT1 and a 4th gen vehicle. This is a 3rd gen forum

I gather that your coolant level dropped? It had to go somewhere

depending on how long this has been going on or how much coolant got to the lower end you might need a rebuild.

Or, you may simply need to just change the oil a couple times the first 50 miles once you do the top end.