Hello everyone, so about 2 months ago, I had installed a new DC Sports CAI on my B20 swapped EK hatch and it started raining hard out of nowhere here in Arizona. I was on my way home from school when the rain came and my tires were flinging water as other cars were also sending water my way. I was driving on the freeway for an hour with this happening before I got down the street from my house. Car was running fine but then started losing power, like it was about to blow, but didn't and slowly lost power until the car itself shut off. I pushed it the rest of the way home and let it sit for a while before trying to crank the motor. My starter is clicking and not allowing it to turn over and I have not been able to start it since due to that fact. I did check the spark plugs and they weren't wet, but my CAI did have some water in it. I haven't been able to start the car at all once since even with it connected with jumper cables to another car. I know the starter is dead with the clicking but I want to know if I should still D/C the fuel system and take out the spark plugs and try to get any remnants of water out? Again it has been sitting for 2 months now due to COVID-19 and I have not had the funds to get a new starter yet. Once that happens would it be safe to try and turn the car over without disconnecting anything or is the motor just toast at this point?

 

I would just pull out all the plugs and hit the starter so it turns a couple times. Then put plugs back and crank it. Hydrolock is generally an instantaneous event, and yours sounds like a gradual failure. Sounds like something just got really wet.

 

It's more likely the moisture caused undetected electrical failures to worsen. Any moisture making it past the air filter to the cylinders would have been evaporated during the first power stroke.

It probably ran poorly in the rain due to electrical shorting of the spark, probably in the plug wires due to small cracks in the insulation, maybe cap or rotor or even distributor.

The insulation in your starter windings is probably also broken down from the AZ heat. It was probably still working in dry air, but once it got wet, it shorted out completely. You might be able to push start it.

I would put a new starter in, get it running. If it runs poorly, then wait until dark and watch the engine run. There might be a lightening storm visible around your plug wires. Alternatively, or during daylight, you can run the engine and use a spray bottle to spray a water mist around your wires and distributor to detect the failure.

 

Might want to start with the starter issue 1st. You won't be able to check for spark w/o the engine cranking.

 

Water sitting in the cylinders for two months isn't good for anything. There is this thing called rust...
Pull the spark plugs. Put a socket (with a few extensions and a big azz pry bar) on the crank pulley bolt and try to spin the engine. If you can spin it reasonably freely, then fix the starter, install a new set of plugs, make sure you have clean fuel, remove the intake pipe and crank the car. If it doesn't crank, run a compression test. If this comes back good, look for electrical issues such as water in a fuse box or in the ECU... and look inside the distributor. If there are any signs of water/moisture, clean and dry everything and replace any parts that are suspect.

 

Are the battery and alternator functional?

 

Okay, will definitely do that, thank you so much

 

A friend is coming with a breaker bar to help me out with that per your suggestion so thank you very much. I appreciate all the help, be safe in these times.

 

The battery and alternator work fine, just the starter is clicking, but I'm going to take it all apart and check it out again with a buddy.

 

Definitely going to do that, thank you very much for the reply and everyone's help. I appreciate everything guys.

 

were you able to fix it?