loss of power after hydrolocking engine ea81

[the sucker king]

around 5: 30 tonight I stalled my ea81 in deep water and hyrolocked it, we got it out of the water and eventually I got it started again, I did not pull plugs, just kept trying to start it and eventually got it going. I drove 50 miles home and it seemed to run good but with a very noticable loss of power going up steep hills. clutch seemed to be grabbing, engine would bog down. Barely got it up one steep hill in 4-low, was a hill it would have gone right up before. produced white smoke from the engine bay when going up, I didn't pop the hood to see from where, dark was coming I was trying to get out of no mans land. All hills on the way home were a challenge.  I got home just before dark so couldn't work on it when I got home, but plan to in the morning. any suggestions? probably would start with pulling plugs and cranking it.

 

For whatever you make of this, when I say it ran good but with power loss- It sounded smooth, not like it was missing, but a different sound than normal, like a different pitch. wife called it a lawnmower sound When I got back to flatter land, It runs good, I don't think I would notice the difference driving around town.

 

any help, much apreesh

Edited June 22, 2014 by the sucker king

[el_freddo]

Two things:

 

First, the worst:  You could have bent a con rod but not enough to stop the engine or really notice it when the engine is running, only a pressure test will determine this.

 

Second - you could have a crank case full of water so the engine was working harder to move all that liquid due to it's height.  As you cranked without removing the spark plugs you were probably forcing water past the rings into the sump - and possibly doing more damage to the rings too.

 

Always, always, ALWAYS remove the spark plugs before trying to start a hydrolocked engine!  It's also a good idea to turn it over by hand a few times before using the starter motor with the spark plugs still removed.

I hope you've not done any damage and it's just a case of a high sump level - check your oil to make sure it's not a water/oil soup

Cheers

Bennie

[jono]

Was gonna say similar, and have seen a nicely and uniquely bent con rod from a twin carb Mazda 323 of the late 70's early 80's after it went through a water crossing, sputtered, sorted itself out, just didn't run right after. No breakages, just an altered stroke in one pot

[subaruguru]

If you decide you need a motor i have a low milage 1.8 make offer and pay shipping :-) 

Cheers R.

[the sucker king]

here's an update, no water in oil, engine appears to be shot, I changed oil and tuned it up, it still ran funky so I did a compression test, which showed barely any compression on all 4 cylinders, don't quite know what to make of this, as I thought I would find a bad cylinder or 2. My guage is a cheap simple one, but american made Lindy brand I think, I have used it before and trusted it, but this time all four cylinders barely made the thing jump. Like I said the car actually runs smooth, not like misfiring but lacking in power and sounds a little cheesey. Would a car even run at 25 psi compression on all 4? It scoots around town just fine, you have to put your foot into it, and I won't even take it up the mountain at this point.

Anyways, i was planning on a trans swap next weekend, now I will do a engine swap as well, so no big deal.

 

A couple lessons learned- Biggest one is Tools! I always carry tools, I did not have a socket capable of pulling spark plugs when this happened. i will re-evaluate and rebuild the tool kit that stays in the car.

 

One question for you all- what would you do with a carberator that chugged a lot of muddy water? I guess i'll do a rebuild before I put this on the new engine. But I don't know that it was comprimised. I doubt the car would run as good as it does if the carb was clogged but i dunno? It's a weber.

[el_freddo]

Pull the carb and clean it out - I wouldn't think you'd need a kit unless you want to do a general overhaul anyway.

The compression, pretty low to run an engine IMO.  But anything is possible.  You could have bent things, or damages valve seats/have something stuck in a valve seat thus it's not closing properly.

The factory tool kit has that long pressed tube with a different socket on each end - one end will remove spark plug no worries

Cheers

Bennie

[the sucker king]

the plot thickens, I haven't worked on this much, I still drive it, Like I said before it if fine around town, just sounds weird and is lacking power. I've been second guessing replacing the engine for now, so I just checked timing, and it was way off, retarded. It was spot on 12 degrees advanced before it was hydrolocked, and ran like a champ. So I set it to 8 degrees, which is as far as I can advance it without re-stabbing the disty. It got the power back, still sounds wierd though. I have to repeat this- It sounds smooth, but different.

I'll have to drive it more to see just how do-able it is, but it did scoot right up the hills by my house.

when this all happened and I was trying to restart the car, it made horrible noises. clacking clunking you're ruinning your engine noises. I wonder what happened in there. I will tear the engine down when I do pull it and see where the damage is.

 

the bigger picture is this- this car needs a tranny, so I was thinking since i have a good tranny and ea81 engine at my disposal, I would just take a weekend and swap them both.

But in the long run I want to put a 5 speed and ej in it so I am thinking if i can make this thing run decent enough, I'll just drive the hell out of it AS IS for the rest of the summer while I collect the tranny and ej parts for the swap. The bad tranny is fine to drive, it's just noisey in reverse.

 

So that's what I am thinking I'll do,

 

So any guesses what happened,  why did this event alter the timing so much?disty gear is on the crank, but should not have had any extra force from the water in the engine, or is there something I am not getting? could the crank have twisted somewhat so it is no longer the same at the front of the crank where the gear is?

[the sucker king]

oh and el freddo- would you beleive I don't have the stock tool kit? this has definitely made me re-think what I carry with me.

[skishop69]

Sounds to me like when you hydro-locked it, the cam bound up as the valves couldn't open against the pressure. If you're timing gears were worn enough, you could have slipped a tooth on the cam gear and that would account for the loss of power and timing retard.

[the sucker king]

Sounds to me like when you hydro-locked it, the cam bound up as the valves couldn't open against the pressure. If you're timing gears were worn enough, you could have slipped a tooth on the cam gear and that would account for the loss of power and timing retard.

I thought of that but it would not account for the ignition timing, that gear is on the crank.

[skishop69]

Crap..... DUH! lol Hmmmm.... Sheared the key on the crank gear?