Drowned quad

[Brute Force Boy]

Well, it finally happened, I went a little to deep and totally flooded my engine with river water. It was so full that the engine wouldn't even turn once I got it out.
I got it home and drained the oil and got it started back up without to much trouble. I drained the oil anouther 5 times till it was just clean oil coming out.

My question is, should I be doing anything else to the cylinders? A friend suggested that I pull the plugs and spray a good amount of wd40 into the cylinders and crank it a bit without the spark plugs in it. Any other suggestions?

 

[sumx54]

IMO if you have already had it running again then the wd40 trick would be a waste of your time. I drowned my new quad completley last week (08 outlander) it only had 36 kms on it. Bad move on my part. Hopefully no long term damage but I'm sure there will be.

IMPORTANT NOTE TO ALL***

If you drown your quad and have to drive it out with water in your oil, DISCONECT your crank case vent from the airbox. Once your oil gets back up to temp the water in it will boil off and fill your airbox with steam, froathy oil and water and your engine will start pinging and damage can result. To prevent this do the disconect.

 

[Brute Force Boy]

Thanks sumx54, thats what I was kind of thinking as well, haven't had it out for a good ride yet to see if I've lost any power to cylinder damage.
Guess its time to put that snorkel on before it happens again.

 

[Summitric]

PICTURES????????????? :d

 

[Brute Force Boy]

It was to painful to take pictures, I can still hear that sound of water being sucked up the air intake and then the bubbling of water going up my muffler pipe.

 

[sumx54]

Sorry no pictures of mine either but have some of my bud when he drowned his about an hour before I drowned mine in the same river . Heres a video of some the rescue .

 

[Garryese]

... and totally flooded my engine with river water. ...

.... A friend suggested that I pull the plugs and spray a good amount of wd40 into the cylinders and crank it a bit without the spark plugs in it. Any other suggestions?

WD40 probably not a great idea. Two problems here:

1. Silt in the river water gets trapped above the piston rings. The silt did it's damage (if there is damage) when you started it.
2. The first bit of water that entered the cylinders would have flashed into steam and the steam would have washed most of the oil off the cylinder walls. WD40 will wash all the oil off the cylinder walls. Silt with no lubrication is a reciept for damage IMO.

If you would have had to abandon the machine for a few days, wd40 could have been used to displace the water in the cylinder to prevent pitting of the cylinder walls and rings, however any oil would have been better.

Anytime a cylinder has a liquid above the piston do not crank it over with the electric starter. Use the pull rope or put a socket on the flywheel bolt with the spark plugs out and the key in the off position.

This advise is a little late but I have learned that jumping off the machine before it drowns and balancing the machine upright while it is idling and floating is far less troublsome than drianing the water out of a dead machine a few minutes later. The key is knowing when the ship is about to sink.:d

You have started it now, so ride it. Oil consumption will tell you if the engine has been damaged. Most times there is no major damage that requires a tear down.

I would do one more oil change with filter after a few hours of riding to be sure.

 

[Garryese]

IMPORTANT NOTE TO ALL***

If you drown your quad and have to drive it out with water in your oil, DISCONECT your crank case vent from the airbox. Once your oil gets back up to temp the water in it will boil off and fill your airbox with steam, froathy oil and water and your engine will start pinging and damage can result. To prevent this do the disconect.

IMHO

The water will be sitting on the bottom of the crankcase, oil on top of that in an overfull condition. The first thing to perculate out of the vent will be the oil while the oil pump is pumping water, silt and the odd frog or fish.:d Once the water boils off you will find yourself critically low on oil/water slurry.

Once the crankcase gets filled with water it is best to tow the machine or bring supplies to the machine to do the required oil changes. If the machine is not started before the first draining, the water is all but remove after a few oil flushes, otherwise it does take 4-6 flushes to remove all the water. The other option is to let the machine sit awhile (without cranking it over) and then slowly remove the drain plug to release only the water. This should prevent the oil from perculating out the vent.

 

[Garryese]

Sorry no pictures of mine either but have some of my bud when he drowned his about an hour before I drowned mine in the same river . Heres a video of some the rescue .

That pic reminds me of one more piece of advise:

A drowned machine with a paper air filter cannot be driven out unless you can find a way to carefully dry the paper. If you try to start the machine the filter will tear.

K&N and foam style filters can be shaken dry enough to get the engine started again.

Sadly, on a way too many times I found myself becoming educated due to my own misjudgements.

 

[JoHNI_T]

what about a DOO 800r?
anything I should be doing.... might be a little late now.
I shut er down before taking on water, then we pulled a few hundred times to squirt out all the water, pulled the pipes drained and fired it up.
changed crank case oil other than that any sugestions.
THX

 

[Brute Force Boy]

Thanks for the tips guys, I've started the snorkel tair down today, I'll take some progress pics and post'em.

 

[allan climbhigher]

good quad $hity submarine

 

[sumx54]

That pic reminds me of one more piece of advise:

A drowned machine with a paper air filter cannot be driven out unless you can find a way to carefully dry the paper. If you try to start the machine the filter will tear.

K&N and foam style filters can be shaken dry enough to get the engine started again.

Sadly, on a way too many times I found myself becoming educated due to my own misjudgements.

That is a k& n filter pictured and thats all we run and yes we let the machines sit for a long while and drain off the bottom of the crankcase until on the full mark. Fortunately we each had 4 liters of oil with us to use for the two drownings that day. You must still remove your crank vent for boil off of the remainder water in your oil. Any time you can tow out is good but sometimes in big water you need your own power. Garryese you seem to really know your stuff. Myself and the rest of the S&Mers appreciate it, Thanks.

 

[Qub3d]

ahh yes, tis the season for quad drownings... the only thing that I have to add is from experience not more than a month ago. I ended up sucking water in through my muffler and found that taking out the spark plug and pulling on the crank a few hundred times cleared out alot of the water that was still sitting in valves. After 3 oil changes I finally fired it up and haven't had any problems with it.

Pulling the spark plug made it so much easier to turn and crank over as well.

 

[sumx54]

ahh yes, tis the season for quad drownings... the only thing that I have to add is from experience not more than a month ago. I ended up sucking water in through my muffler and found that taking out the spark plug and pulling on the crank a few hundred times cleared out alot of the water that was still sitting in valves. After 3 oil changes I finally fired it up and haven't had any problems with it.

Pulling the spark plug made it so much easier to turn and crank over as well.

Yes pulling plugs is a MUST before turning over your engine. Also before trying to turn the engine over, stand your machine on end and drain the exhaust and belt housings.

 

[Richters Riders]

I drowned my CRF250X bike a few years ago. I went through what I thought was a puddle and turned out to be 4 feet deep. I fell off the bike before I could hit the kill switch. It was brand friggn new and only had about 10 hours on it. Total damage was over $4000.00. I thought I was gonna cry.

 

[Zipp]

Deep 6'd the 04 outlander in the middle of nowhere. Stalled in a lake, and was fortunate enough just to take it up the literal tail pipe. Not a drop made it into the crank, and as said before, just took alot of pulls on the rope sans spark plug. Surprised me how good that motor is, as I was over 180 km away from my truck.

 

[BigRed800]

Can Am 800
Buddy of mine finally went to deep. Came of an embankment and sunk his 800 Can Am.

 

[Roldog]

Well i hear it happens to most of us. I drowned my new Can am 500 at the edson quad ralley. Its my first quad and was so crushed about putting it in the drink. Lots of people were very helpful at getting my quad out of the drink and giving me tips on how to get it running. Everyone was there to help. I put a snorkel on it too, but it only comes up to the instrument cluster. Wonder if i should get a pipe or just stay out of the deep waters. After it sunk i was like " damn i should of got off and lifted it out of the water ...whoops)...i changed oil 5 times and cleaned the air box...anything else i should do?

 

[Qub3d]

I would look at your spark plug and change that too. I did in mine and it worked fine... another thing especially if you've taken water into the belt drive, is to drain it out and wash your belt. Mine slips ever since last years drowning and it's on the to do list for this year.

Well i hear it happens to most of us. I drowned my new Can am 500 at the edson quad ralley. Its my first quad and was so crushed about putting it in the drink. Lots of people were very helpful at getting my quad out of the drink and giving me tips on how to get it running. Everyone was there to help. I put a snorkel on it too, but it only comes up to the instrument cluster. Wonder if i should get a pipe or just stay out of the deep waters. After it sunk i was like " damn i should of got off and lifted it out of the water ...whoops)...i changed oil 5 times and cleaned the air box...anything else i should do?