waterproofing 1990 loyale

[logang1k]

I am going to try to make my car more water proof. I have a 1990 loyale that I drowned out last Saturday.

I plan on:

Dielectric greasing the connections and plug wires

Using a thick rubber glove over the distributor with the fingers cut and the wires run through the fingers and zip tied.

Same type thing on the coil

The rearend, tranny breathers extended

Reseal my intake track. Somehow water got in past my snorkel

Reinstall the body drain plugs with silicone

Seal the other holes, with fiberglass? Maybe or will it pop up from the floor?

Automatic bilge pump

Move the ecu higher. Current one was under water

 

How do I keep water out of the power steering fluid? Engine oil? Just rtv the caps?

Where can I get large amounts of dielectric grease? All I see is 3 oz tubes. I disconnect the connectors and squirt some in there but do I put it on the back side where the wires run into the connector also? What about open connectors? Do I need to worry about connectors that I'm not using?

[rxleone]

I am going to try to make my car more water proof. I have a 1990 loyale that I drowned out last Saturday.

I plan on:

Dielectric greasing the connections and plug wires

Using a thick rubber glove over the distributor with the fingers cut and the wires run through the fingers and zip tied.

Same type thing on the coil

The rearend, tranny breathers extended

Reseal my intake track. Somehow water got in past my snorkel

Reinstall the body drain plugs with silicone

Seal the other holes, with fiberglass? Maybe or will it pop up from the floor?

Automatic bilge pump

Move the ecu higher. Current one was under water

 

How do I keep water out of the power steering fluid? Engine oil? Just rtv the caps?

Where can I get large amounts of dielectric grease? All I see is 3 oz tubes. I disconnect the connectors and squirt some in there but do I put it on the back side where the wires run into the connector also? What about open connectors? Do I need to worry about connectors that I'm not using?

 

Why not just fill the entire compartment aside from the drivers seat and the engine bay with expanding foam? Then you can float softly along whatever river you come to... Hell, take out the rear diff and extend the drive shaft, weld on a prop and you have an instant on-demand sea-going Subaru!

 

In all honestly, I personally wouldn't bother about a lot of that. If you're going to be underwater for the amount of time it would take to penetrate a lot of those things you're going to have water leaking in somewhere.

 

For the dielectric grease, do you guys have CRC company over there? Like WD-40, 5.56 etc? I'm pretty sure CRC make a decent sized tube of dielectric grease, but I'm not sure. If not, I'd go to any auto-electrician and ask them where they get theirs. They might put you on to something.

 

Check the retrofitting forum for the ECU idea, there's a guy in there (forget his name) who had the idea of putting his ECU in a watertight ammo box. Do a search, I'm sure it'll come up.

[logang1k]

Good question

[NoahDL88]

you'll need to run hoses up the "A" pillar for all your vents, tranny 2, rear diff, the powersteering cap is closed pretty tight, i wouldn't worry about that as much, just make sure you have a good seal on that one.

 

 

Seriously though, its a waste of time, you can get every fluid happy but you'll still be soaking connectors and wires, so you may have to junk the car anyway, except it will have some good looking fluid in it instead.

 

you can get 207S bearings for the front wheels, they are sealed and are less likely to be ruined by water crossings.

 

An older diesel has no electronics so you can cut the distributor entirely.

 

 

Its fun going through water, don't get me wrong, but its just not worth it to "waterproof" your car

[logang1k]

The cap on my power steering reservoir feels tight but after sinking the car it looks like chocolate milk. So I bet the seal is bad.

[akc]

I do not know that much about it but.. you could check out what RC model boat builders do to protect there wiring.. someone I knew made there own circuit boards for there boats and then they took a substance that waterproofed them... SO they could last hours underwater.. might be able to do something similar to some of electronics.. However I agree with alot of the other members subarus really are not ment to float. however something like this may be able to save the electronics in a flood. Provided you are attracted to those puddles... (I know it can be addicting.)

[logang1k]

It is a mudwagon not a waterwagon. So it needs to be mudproof more than waterproof. My new ecu came in today. Hopefully it starts now.

[NoahDL88]

Stock, if you don't get too crazy you'll get 3-5 dunks out of it before everything fails. If you spend about 50 hours on making it "waterproof" you'll be good for about 6-8.

 

It is far easier, and this is the voice of experience, that you either:

 

1 replace car after you dunk and kill it.

 

2 don't dunk it.

 

For my money, I've decided to go for option two.