GaryTuesday

So I was driving to my friends house to watch the Olympics
The area I am in, Las Vegas, had heavy raining tonight.
One of the storm drains by my house was clogged, and made the intersection flood.
I have a 1995 Acura Integra GS-R with an AEM v2 Cold air intake. stock motor. The air intake filter is pretty low in the fender.
I drove through high flood waters, and my motor shut off. I was driving low rpm, under 2k rpm.

I pulled to the side of the road, and tried starting my car again. When i turn the key, the dash lights go dim, but the motor wont crank. It actually cranked just a budge, and moved ever so slightly. But not enough to even get a cylinder to TDC.
I assume I hydrolocked my motor. So i call my friend to come hang with me incase I can't get my motor going again.

I walk to autozone, and buy a spark plug socket and ratchet.
I walk back to my car, which wont crank over, and remove the spark plugs. I also removed my wet air intake filter. So the intake is just open, no filter now.

I shine my light into each of the cylinders after I remove their spark plugs, and they all actually look dry.
I see some oil and grime, but no water. Just how it usually looks. Which gets me hopeful the motor isn't actually hydrolocked.

At this point, I tried to start the motor with the spark plugs removed, just to see if the motor would spin. However, even with the spark plugs removed, when I activated the starter, the dash lights went dim, and the motor wouldn't spin. Kind of like how a dead battery looks.


So at this point, I am thinking the cylinders are dry, but the battery is dead, for some reason. The battery was/is strong. Its only 1 years old and I never had any issues. But i'm thinking maybe somehow the battery was discharged by driving through the water. Or driving through the water made the motor need more cranking amps to turn over.

My friend shows up, and asks me to try to start it infront of him.

I turn the key, and it does the usual "dead battery" start, where it doesn't crank, you can hear the starter engage against the flywheel, but it doesn't spin at all. And the dash lights go dim. Looks like a dead battery.

We hook up jumper cables, and try again. The motor spins, but stumbles, and dies immediately after after starting.

We try revving up his engine while the jumper cables are connected, to give more cranking amps. I engage the starter and tap the gas pedal to open the throttle body, and the motor spins as long as i keep the key turned and throttle pressed, but it wouldn't idle for longer than 1 second.

It sounded like it was knocking when i first started it with jumper cables. I am not sure what i was hearing, but it wasn't normal. It sounded bad. I wonder if I bent a valve? Or jumped my timing? How come my battery isn't able to crank over the motor even though the battery was good before I drove through the water?

What do you guys think I did to my Integra?




Did i damage my internals? Bent valve? bent rod? My RPM's when the motor stopped was around 1500rpm. Very low rpm. Maybe I short circuited my battery? how come my motor would crank with a jumpstart but couldn't crank with its own battery? which I know was a good, strong battery?

With extra amperage from the jumpstart, my motor was able to turn, however, wouldn't hold its idle. If I were hydrolocked, the motor wouldn't have been able to turn even with a jumpstart, right?

Maybe I damaged my internals, and it made the motor harder to crank over? Maybe it bent a valve and won't make compression now? however, the motor wouldn't even turn over after it shut off. So it appeared as though the water discharged my battery. But even with a jumpstart, it would only spin as long as i held the starter engaged.

The water was less than 1ft high.I thought the water level was just touching my air filter, and hopefully my motor would take air from the top side of the filter that wasn't submerged.

Any advice or insight is appreciated. I am pretty bummed out my b18c stopped working. But if the motor really is dead, I am just gonna k24 swap it.

It definitely has to do with my cold air intake, and the flood waters. It died right after going through 4-5" deep water. It would be too convenient for it to be something else to fail right as I drive though flood waters with a CAI. But what does it mean if there isn't any water in the cylinders? what could I have broken? Why wouldn't the motor crank right after with the spark plugs removed? the water discharged my battery? Maybe my injectors/spark plugs stopped firing correctly?

Now my car is stranded at a fast food restaurant parking lot. I got a ride home from my friend. I am going to ride my bicycle over there tomorrow morning after all the water has dried up to try again incase there is a short circuit situation going on, but I don't think its gonna work. I feel like i damaged my internals by driving through water. And even though it didn't suck up any water that was viable through the spark plug, something was damaged.

TLDR: I drove my integra gsr through deep water with a cold air intake. I think I hydrolocked my motor. I pulled the spark plugs and looked into each cylinder and they looked dry. The motor was unable to crank with its own battery. I tried jump starting the motor and it would start and stumble but would only idle for 1 second before dying.

Thanks honda tech

GaryTuesday

So i went back to my car to look at it with some daylight, instead of in the middle of a thunderstorm.

I definitely hydrostatic locked my motor. There was a large pool of water in the lower "neck" of the cold air intake, and there was actually water in the #1 cylinder, however the rest were dry. I guess i wasn't able to see the water during the darkness of night. Also all 4 spark plugs were wet, so thats probably why they weren't firing.

I probably had water in all 4, however my forced starting probably pushed the water past my piston rings and into the oil.

I am almost sure of this actually, because my oil level is too high now.

So my plan is to tow the car home, suck the water out of cylinder #1 with a thin tube, drain the oil, refill the oil, replace the now dry spark plugs, and give it a jumpstart. And maybe try replacing the battery under warranty. Because it should have been able to crank my motor with all my spark plugs removed.

What is the likelihood i bent a rod? The motor stoppage was not at speed. It actually seemed to stall when i engaged the clutch to go from 1st to 2nd. and i never engaged 2nd, as i tried to rev up the motor and there was no power. So instead of engaging 2nd i went into neutral and pulled over. So it was a low power stoppage. I have no idea if 600-1500rpm hydrolock stoppage is enough energy to bend a rod on a stock b18c.

GaryTuesday

So I went back to my car and sucked out the water in cylinder #1 with a straw, there was actually a good amount of water in there. I also removed all the water in the lower neck of my cold air intake. I still suspect there is water in the intake manifold though. But i didn't have a flathead screwdriver to open up the hose clamps to check.

I also checked the oil level, and it was too high, so i could tell there was water in the oil. So i opened the oil drain plug for about 2 seconds and a good amount of water came out. However, i think i noticed a slight blue tinge to the water. Making me think i blew my headgasket because my coolant is blue.

I put the now dry spark plugs back in, and tried to start up my motor with a jumpstart. When i stick my key into the ignition, the "beep beep beep beep" sound the dash usually makes, now sounds different. Its a different tone of beep. It makes me think the battery is low? I tried to start the motor but it still didn't start.

My plan now is to replace the battery with a brand new one, and to check the intake manifold for water.

Aradin

Once you get all the water out of it you can easily check for bent rods with a long extension.

Remove all spark plugs, drop the extension down each hole - one at a time, and check how deep it goes with each piston at TDC. Start with cylinder #1 and mark the extension with a marker at the top of the spark plug tube. Any variation between them means you have a bent rod or multiple. They should all come up to exactly the same point. Very quick and easy way to test.

Also an easy way to get the water out is just to remove all the spark plugs, pull the ECU fuse, hold the throttle wide open, and turn the engine over with the starter until water stops spraying out of the spark plug holes.

I've dealt with hydrolocked engines before and you can easily find out within 10-15 minutes if they're fubar. They usually are.

GaryTuesday

Thanks for the tips. Ill give that a shot with the extension and marking TDC for each cylinder.


I tried using the trick where you crank over the motor, however at the same time as my hydrolock, my battery lost the ability to crank over my motor. Even with the spark plugs out. Is that just a coincidence my battery discharged? or is it more likely i bent a rod and now the piston is dragging against the cylinder wall and its making the rotating assembly hard to turn?

I haven't tried cranking the motor with a socket and ratchet yet.

Aradin

If a rod was bent that bad I would think it would have broken and windowed the block. They won't deviate from their normal shape that much before they give out completely.

Test your battery and go from there.

GaryTuesday

So here is the update.

I replaced my battery with a brand new one under warranty.

The motor will wont crank over. All that happens when i turn the key is a loud clunk from the engine bay. Nothing else.

I do still think my old battery was good, however i still think it was dead. Because the sound of my dashboard "ding ding ding ding" when you put the key in, changed. With the new battery, it went back to normal sounding.

I think i blew my starter, because the night of the incident, with a jump start, the motor was able to turn maybe 20 times. Even with water in the cylinders, and intake. I bet i was forcing water past my piston rings into my oil when i tried starting it. IDK why I let my friend convince me to just try to jump start it over and over. I should have known not to do that.

The starter even made a pretty nasty sound when I gave it one final try.

I am gonna try removing the starter and replacing it with a new one.

Aradin

I would make sure the engine was clear of all water and would turn over by hand before I spent anymore money on it.

GaryTuesday

I just tried turning it by hand and it wont spin. Seized up. Might be time for a k24 swap.


I'm confused why the motor was able to spin with a jumpstart the same night i hydrolocked the motor but now it wont spin by hand with everything dried out.


Maybe i rusted the internals...

Aradin

Did you remove the spark plugs and make sure all the water is out? If there's still water in the cylinders it won't spin.

GaryTuesday

Yeah all the water is out.

Yes i tried to spin it with all the spark plugs out, so no compression being made. Still wont spin. Rotating assembly is stuck.

Is there any way to unstuck this motor? I've seen tricks like putting oil/acetone in the cylinders and letting it sit for a few days. I don't know if this will work but I'm willing to try anything at this point.

I am hopeful this could work because the motor did spin right after i hydrolocked it, when hooked up to my friends battery. So the motor did spin a few times, even with water in it. After i removed the water, now its stuck.

I took a close look at the oil I drained out of the motor and there is blue coolant in it.



Update: so the motor actually spins if i rotated it the other direction, clockwise. It seems to be stuck on something when rotating counter clockwise. Maybe a rod that has snapped and is jammed up?

GaryTuesday

I pretty much confirmed i broke cylinder #1 connecting rod. The other 3 pistons move up and down but piston #1 wont move. Feels good to finally be sure the motor is donezo.

Thanks for your help aradin. it was helpful to be able to talk it out.


So the answer was YES i hydrolocked my motor and broke a connecting rod when only going 1500rpm.


I am not sure if my valves are bent or not too.

Aradin

Bummer. Time to tear it down and see the carnage.

GaryTuesday

Hey what do you think caused my coolant to enter my oil chamber? What part would fail to have a hydrolock situation push a lot of coolant into the oil? Just the headgasket?

I'm thinking of buying an oem connecting rod and replacing that 1 connecting rod, without pulling out my motor. Seems like the cheapest and easiest way to get the motor running again.

I would be replacing the headgasket, of course. But I am worried if i do this repair but coolant still enters the oil, it would be a waste of time.

If i replace the rod and headgasket, do you think the motor would seal up OK?

thx

Aradin

Probably. I have fixed them that way before. You may have more than one bent rod though so check them all while it's apart.