Anybody have some effective techniques for flushing out a non running block to get rid of remnance of wet oil?

I've heard everything from diesel to run it with water

Pans drained but obviously you can't get everything out, and im not about to fire off an engine that has any amount of water hiding anywhere in it.

Thanks

 

Yeah, the commercial engine flushes I used to sell at a lube shop were a combination of Naptha, and Diesel (don't ask, tho, additive salemen will never admit this.)
I don't know about their abilities to remove water from a block, tho.

Would alcohol work? Something like a "dry-fuel"?

A little bit of water isn't the end of the world. Especially if you watch the oil for milkyness, and change it a few times, frequently.

If the block is out of the car, I would recommend hosing it down with as much WD-40 as possible, too. This will remove a lot of the water, and keep things from rusting on the surface.

 

Well here's the quick scenerio

Last night I was breaking in an engine, and Got about 10 minutes into it when It started *spraying* fluid out the timing chain cover, the engine was running good but i immediatly killed it, and pulled the drain plug, the liquid coming out had no consistancy, a person couldn't guess it was oil, 200° @ 10 minutes 5 quarts of oil and i thinka bout 1-1.5 quarts of water turns it pretty damn thin. Anyways I drained it out and inspected it and the filter and couldn't find any metal shavings (*** i hope the bearings are ok...) I pulled the intake and the gasket looked like it sealed beautifully around 3 ports, Im 100% confident that these 3 sealed perfect, the 4th im 70% confident, but there's a 30% possibility there was a leak there, Its hard to tell because of the way the gasket pulled apart when removing the intake and thats why i say its a possiblity. All the head bolts have loctite teflon paste, head gasket mated perfectly on install, so if it wasn't the intake I think the block may have cracked/sand pitted.

Anyways, Its all drained, I put a stock (instead of the original felpro 1205) intake gasket on it, and im going to pressure test the coolant system tonight, But If all goes well I'm uncomfortable on running this engine without a really good flush to get that water/oil out of there and start fresh.

Please keep any flushing techniques coming.

 

Methanol has a high affinity for water. Unfortunately, it also likes lead, ,which means that bronze, brass, and some bearing alloys could also suffer. I wouldn't use it.

Pure water isn't all that bad. Coolant mixes are not good, however, since PEG also likes the cadmium and tin in bearings.

If the engine has a roller cam and doesn't need the initial high RPM break in to polish the lobes, you could refill with oil, sttart it to get it warm, and make sure the PCV is working. Once the oil hits about 180°F or so it sould evaporate out very nicely.

If you feel there may still be more significant amounts of water, you could refill with a couple gallons of kerosene and a diesel fuel drier additive. The kerosene will lubricate, prevent rust, and actually contain some of the water molecules. The fuel drier will attach to the water and contain it for draining. What you're going to do with two gallons of wet kerosene after you drain it is your problem. Planning a BBQ?

 

Yea, planning on BBQ'n this damn car

Its posessed, nothing but the weirdest most destructive chit has happened to it and im getting annoyed..

Anyways, That sounds reasonable I might try that and even prime it with a drill with the mix in the bottom (yes it does contain coolant)

however the engine is in fact flat tappet, which means I do need to finish/restart the break in.

Think there will be any ill-effects to the cam with coming to an abrupt stop at only about 10 minutes?

 

Vader: There are a few things that are confusing me here.
I'm hoping that you're not suggesting that the "couple gallons" of kerosene and diesel fuel additive be put in the crankcase. I've never done it (because I like my cars cooked "rare"), but it sounds like an explosion waiting to happen.
At first, I thought you meant for tpi_roc to add your mixture to the tank, and run the car on it, but that's not making sense, either.
Will kerosene really lubricate enough for engine internals?

 

This topic is for a NON running engine...


obviously do NOT start an engine with flamable materials in the crank case


Im simply talking about flushing it

 

Hell I'll even have the battery 20 feet from the car

 

Diesel fuel just isnt that easy to ignite. Try it some time. Takes awhile with a lighter just to get it to go. In the operators manual for some old time tractors(think it was farmall) they actually told you to run the tractor with nothing but diesel in the pan for 10 min at an idle between oil changes. This was before detergent oils and was how they expected you to keep the motor clean.

What I would do... and have done is pour the diesel into the motor. DONT run it! I'm not worried bout it exploding but more so doing bearing damage. And then drain it out. Vaders suggestion of adding gas drier sounds good to me too. I'd have never thought of it. Thanks Vader.

 

Friend of mine bought a truck with a leaky water pump and still drove the truck till it blew a head gasket. He kept driving it till it stopped running and I got stuck with fixing it. Probably about 10 to 12 quarts of that water and oil mixture came out so after letting it drip out for about a week and while the head was off, I poured in about a gallon of diesel then sloshed the crank back and forth using a breaker bar. Drained that and buttoned everything back up, started and it ran for another year or more. What killed the truck was the wiring mess hehe, damn thing caught fire.

 

So there is a sign of hope...


but this is all assuming that whatever it was that gave is repairable