Water Crossing Q/A

[Colorado4wheeler]

Seems silly to ask but am I going to hurt my engine crossing a really cold mountain stream with a hot engine. Can it crack the block?

[Gatorman76]

I think you will be ok as long as you don't suck water into the air intake. That'll seize your your baby in a heartbeat. What I don't know is how deep you can go with a stock setup.

[TMS2U]

Not likely just from the temp differential. You'd be surprised how deep you can go, basically to your headlights, provided you dont go blasting in and let a burble form in your engine compartment by creating a "wave" and then driving in the trough of it. If you do get water into your engine, turn it off immediately, get to a dry location, remove the plugs, turn it over a few times, let it sit for a while, dry out the intake and air box, etc., put it back together and you should be OK. If you hydrolock it you may be up the creek, pun intended

[Colorado4wheeler]

Originally Posted by TMS2U

Not likely just from the temp differential. You'd be surprised how deep you can go, basically to your headlights, provided you dont go blasting in and let a burble form in your engine compartment by creating a "wave" and then driving in the trough of it. If you do get water into your engine, turn it off immediately, get to a dry location, remove the plugs, turn it over a few times, let it sit for a while, dry out the intake and air box, etc., put it back together and you should be OK. If you hydrolock it you may be up the creek, pun intended

Ok thats what I wanted to know.

[shelbix2020]

yeah, the intake is located on the passengers side about where the antenna mount is and forward a foot or foot n 1/2 ... Id guess 4ft high? My ex was 4'8 and I think she could see over the hood lol

[cupidstoy]

don't forget block temperature on average is about coolant temp. under 200 degrees F in most cases. the hottest parts are the cats, exhaust manifold and tailpipe/muffler. if anything would crack, it would be one of those components.

[dsrtrcr01]

we went to Lost Lake and if you do not leave the sand bar in time the water rises. Well we were partying to much to watch the time and figured the 1985 solid axle would make it. Well it did but not much further. The water filled the cylinders and broke the rods busting out the side of the block.

Same location same year and everything truck just a different one we went thru earlier but he did not raise his differential breathers and they filled with water dilluting the gear oil and burning up the rear diff. Front would have but we unlocked the hubs so we were able to drain and fill.

Different location in a 1968 VW beetle stock we went up over a small hill of dirt and guess what was on the other side??? A new pond. Well the car filled with water stranding us on the roof in the middle of the new pond. Once we got it out we pulled the plugs put it in gear and drug it about a mile put the plugs pack in and drug it about another mile and she started right up spitting water out the exhaust but ran fine until it was sold.

[trailsmoker02]

When crossing a deep stream or river. How would you know if water gets into the engine?? What would happen if it did flood, would your engine be toast??

[HBjeff]

this question was asked lower on this page

[TMS2U]

The engine would stall.

Since water does not compress, you'd likely do damage to the pistons, rings, etc. The condition is called hydrolock. If that happens, its rebuild time. However, if you didnt try to keep turning it over, and didnt completely fill the cylinders, you might get lucky and not do any permanent damage.

[Colorado4wheeler]

Originally Posted by HBjeff

this question was asked lower on this page

Actually, I asked the other question lower on the page. That was about cold water hitting the block and causing it to crack. General thought was "not a problem".
If you do suck water into the intake you will break something if you suck enough in. It won't take much either.

[trailsmoker02]

Cause what happened to me was I hit this puddle going pretty fast and my engine just shut off in the middle of water, it was about 4 feet. Luckily my engine turned back on

[HBjeff]

dang you are lucky indeed!

how damaging is it to the cats when it shuts off and sucks water back up the tailpipe?

[xSupaKx]

Originally Posted by trailsmoker02

Cause what happened to me was I hit this puddle going pretty fast and my engine just shut off in the middle of water, it was about 4 feet. Luckily my engine turned back on

That happened to me.

First time wheeling, watched 2 tacomas and a 4runner go through about 2-2.5 feet of water. I tried to do it, but screwed up.

While I was watching the others to do it, I heard someone say "Make sure to keep your tires spinning". So, thats what I tried to do.

I pulled up to the edge of the water, stop, and floor it. I fly into the water about 25 feet, and stall. Being the n00b me (I had gotten my license abotu a month and a half earlier), I tried to crank it over 3 mor etimes until I gave up.

We puled it out, and it wouldnt start. (Crank, but no fire). So, we waited a little, and tried again,a dn she started up. I was so happy.

There were people standing by the tailpipe that got shot with the water cannon.

[jjc]

Mine doesn't seem to mind much !