What Happened:

I saw a HUGE puddle that I couldn't avoid, so I dropped out of gear, let off the gas, and rolled through. The engine quietly stalled. Afterward, it cranked fine but took a LOT of cranking to start. Eventually, after I did finally get it started, I pulled it off the road. There was tons of steam coming out the exhaust. Once it started idling stably, I drove it home like a granny and it ran fine. There was some excess vibration at idle, but not at any other time.



Diagnostics:

The oil was a chocolate milkshake. The residue around the filler hole sort of had the consistency of white lithium grease. My coolant was totally clear, so I assume that the milkshake was from the water rather than a blown head gasket.



What I Did:

I drained the oil right away and used about 8 quarts of fresh generic motor oil to try to flush out the crap. I also removed the oil filter and drained and filled it 6 or 7 times to try to rinse it out. I refilled the engine with about 4.2 quarts of oil (mostly Amsoil, with some Mobil 1).



Problems Remaining:

UPDATE: There is still some clattering that seems to be coming from the area of the rear exhaust manifold. Other than that, the car idles and runs fine (as far as I can tell from driving sanely and keeping it well under ~4000 rpm).



What I Intend to Do:

I'm probably going to hit Amsoil up today for 6 quarts of oil, some of their Engine Flush stuff, and two filters. Once all that comes in, I'll use the Engine Flush and change the oil again.





Thoughts? Observations? Advice?

 

Same thing happened to me and my motor was fine. It swallowed enough water for it to get past the rings into the oil, but not enough to hydrolock. I'm not sure if your's swallowed more though. As a precaution for the next time that happens (hope it doesn't) don't try cranking the car until the spark plugs are out, if at all possible.



I'd do a compression test. If one cylinder is consistently lower than the rest, a rod might have been bent. It's a crude test, but it's a start.

 

First offf, your engine will not drink water. If you had taken in water it would have hydrolocked immediately. The white residue you see is simply condensation in the crank case. It happens during cold weather especially if you normally take short trips and don't let the engine get hot each time it's driven. A nice long trip will burn that off. As far as the rough idle, let the engine compartment dry out, again from a nice long trip so everything gets nice and hot under the hood.
Engine components will tollerate water, my detail shop powerwashes engines all day long. Every now and then we get a car that acts up. Simply looking for the wet electrical connector and drying it out gets them running again.
So, relax, drive the car, don't worry about the oil, what your seeing is most likely normal.

 

I agree w/ njmax. Drive it and get the water our of the electrical system. As for the motor oil, it is possible for it to get contaminated. but typically water in the oil will result in a white condensation on the oil fill cap and if it is real extreme white in the oil. It sounds like you flushed it enough times to drive it a little. I would change the oil again in a week or so. Even when a car comes in with a really blown head gasket, it only takes one maybe two oil changes to get it cleared out. GL

 

Thanks, guys.

What I'm most concerned about is the clattering sound. I don't have enough experience to be able to describe it properly but it sounds sort of like the noise my brother got when his Integra's valve lash was off. I got under the car this morning to try to track it down and it definitely sounds like it's coming from around the exhaust manifold on the right bank.

I didn't exactly flog it on the drive to work this morning, but it seems to be running fine. It idles stably within the normal range (700-900 rpm low, 1500-1800 rpm high), there is absolutely no undue vibration below 3800 rpm (as high as I took it), and there doesn't seem to be any power loss.

If I bent a valve, I'm going to be pretty damn pissed. I was really, really getting to like my DE-K...





EDIT: BTW, there wasn't just residue on the oil cap. The oil was definitely milky. My brother and I used 2 quarts and then 6 quarts to try to rinse out the crap, and each drain was milky (obviously the second one was less so than the first). After filling it again and letting it sit overnight, I checked the dipstick and it was mostly clear except for a few small wisps here and there.

 

Same thing happened to, i rolled through a puddle and it stalled quietly. I let it sit for 2 day, pulled the plugs and tried to get as much water out the cylinders as possible.

It did take a while to start it and I had a rough idle and a tapping sound. Does the clattering go with the RPMs? I was able to drive it home and the next day I started it up a rod snapped and that engine was done.

The while to start it was due to trying to compress the water in the cylinder and causing the rod to bend. It was able to push out the water and start but the damage was already done. Yours might be okay but I would look into the clattering noise.


Heres what happend to mine....

 

did u crank try to crank it over with all the plugs pulled....good way to get water out of the cylinder...that way nothing is trying to ignite and compress

 

The clattering seems to go away with RPMs, but that could just be because I'm not hearing it over the sound of the engine... Does that mean anything?

Like I said, it idles fine and there is no undue vibration....

 

I did not. I was in the middle of the road with cars passing by me on either side, I was pointed up a hill that was too steep for me to be able to push the car, and there were rails on either side so there was nowhere else to go but back into the puddle.

 

do you guys all have cold air intakes? i would be paranoid of that happening if i had one

 

Ouch...thats when u stop and get the tow truck involved...never try refiring a car right away after it stalls from water....u always want to make sure u drain flush oil, pull all plugs and crank a few times..blow the cylinders out with compressed air if u can....NEW PLUGS....fresh oil and then try....

 

I agree with maximase96

 

What was the condition of the oil before this happened? Everything was all good?

 

The oil wasn't even a week and a half old.

 

Did you try to hear for it when revving it from the engine bay?

 

I have to be under the car to hear it properly. When I'm anywhere within arm's reach of the TB, I can't hear it over the engine noise (mostly induction). I'll see if I can get a friend to come over and help me out...

 

I'm sorry man. That definitely sounds like the engine ingested some water. Two feet of water is pretty deep, and you're ROLLING thru, so there's a wake. EVEN if you're running the stock intake (I don't know what you have), water can still get into the snorkel, (at the bottom) unless someone took it apart, sealed it and put it back together again.
If the noise is something you never heard before, I would seek help right away. I would not try to drive it anymore (unless it's in your neighborhood).
Good Luck.

 

This assumption is incorrect. I was speaking from experience, not speculating. My motor swallowed enough water for there to be water in the crankcase, but not to hydrolock. This was confirmed by A. the presence of water behind the throttle body and in the intake manifold and B. the plugs coming out wet. I could literally hear water sloshing around inside when i finally got it to start. Drained the oil, and there was plently, and i mean PLENTY of water in the oil. Drained and refilled with GTX, and she was good to go. The motor will hydrolock only when the combined volume of water and fuel is greater than the volume of the cylinder at TDC.

 

Everyone, thank you again for your feedback.

The car was perfectly civilized on the drive back from work. Best of all, the clattering seems to have diminished greatly (if not gone away completely), which is GOOD news. I suspect that the noise was from a part of the valvetrain that got really gunked up with the milkshake and took a while to get washed out, but is fine now that good oil is getting to it. The oil on the dipstick is clear, too, which means that my commute (almost all highway) was able to remove what little moisture there was left.

One weird thing I noticed: When I remove my oil filler cap with the engine running, it looks like the camshaft is rotating slightly off-axis, almost as though it were bent somehow. I've heard that it's normal for it to seem that way... Any input?

I am getting a compression check tomorrow. If everything checks out, I will either do Amsoil Engine Flush + Seafoam or AutoRX, and then I will change the oil again with some more Amsoil 0w-30 and an EaO filter.

 

Nice going man. Glad it all seems OK now.

 

It is normal for the camshaft to seem visually "off-axis"...don't worry about it. My 3.5 has done that since day 1.

 

I recently hit a few large puddles, nothing deep enough to stall the car out though. i hardly drive the car these days but today when i started it up the engine light came on and its idling rough and there is a bit of vibration. not sure if this is possibly related. Ive noticed some valve noise in the past but this rough idle and vibration is wierd.

 

Compression Test Results:

(185)........(185)........(180)(180)........(175)........(180)
How's it look?

 

Looking pretty damned good to me.

 

That's what I like to hear!

Since this motor is still good, I'll be ordering some more Amsoil 0w-30 and another EaO filter soon to replace the concoction of oils I used in a pinch after draining the milkshake. But, I also want to do a treatment to get out any gunk and crap that might remain. So, here's the next question: Would it be worth it to do an AutoRX treatment, or would Amsoil Engine Flush + Seafoam + Techron be okay? The engine has ~62k on it so I have a feeling AutoRX might be overkill. Plus, it'd be a ton easier to get the Engine Flush with the oil and the Seafoam and Techron locally, and do everything in one shot...

 

Glad to hear that everything's okay! Just go the Amsoil Engine Flush + Seafoam + Techron route. Auto RX is prolly overkill @ ur mileage.

 

Quick question... Is there any potential for damage to my O2 sensors?

 

do guys hvae CAI that ur stalling out??

 

you might get an o2 code if any of your o2 sensors are on their way out. Some people get a code, they clear it, it ususally doesn't come back.

 

Quick update:

I did the Seafoam + Engine Flush + filter changes last night (except for the fuel filter, which is apparently being shipped separately).

I used the Seafoam through the intake manifold. The damn thing sucked up about half the can through the brake booster line before I could blink, and then sat for longer than the recommended 20 minutes while I reconstructed my intake with the new filter. It definitely made a significant difference in how the car ran: idle was smoother and throttle response was better. I guess that means I had a lot of gunk in the intake tract.

After that, I did the oil flush with Amsoil Engine Flush and a Wix oil filter, and then re-filled with fresh Amsoil TSO and a new Amsoil EaO oil filter. That didn't make as much of a difference as the Seafoam, but it revealed an exhaust leak somewhere around my front manifold. That's the shock of the century... tons of water splashing on a hot mild steel exhaust manifold and causing a leak. That will be fixed whenever I get around to it.

There's still a noise or two, but I can't decide whether they're normal or not. I tend to get hypersensitive when something catastrophic happens (or almost happens), so I'll need a second opinion... but that's where I'm at. The car runs smooth and pulls hard, so at least there's nothing immediate to complain about.