Drowning a 4.3

[ihatemybike]

Now that Grumpy had truly been off roading, which included some sizable water holes and a creek run, I'm thinking about worst case scenarios. I know some engines can be hydro-locked and be brought back to running condition fairly easily and others aren't so lucky. Personally, I've hydro-locked the Yamaha JT-60 dirt bike I had in my early teens (easy fix) and recently had an incident in a corporately owned JK 3.8L (tried to fix to no avail*).

Not that I plan on doing it, but how does the GM 4.3L V6 react to being hydro-locked? Anyone have first hand experience with this?



*Not sure of the outcome. We were not able to rotate the engine at all. Turned it back in and let them figure it out. Should have wrote down the VIN to see if it was scrapped.

 

[gmcpimpin]

I don't think certain engines fair better than others. More than likely it has to do with engine RPM, how much water got in the motor and at what RPM. If any got in the crank case. Water is not compressible in any engine, so worst case all engines will destroy themselves. Perhaps your Yamaha dirt bike stalled from the vacuum of the water before it did any damage, While the much larger 3.8L jeep engine sucked in a bunch of water before it stalled.

 

[IdaSHO]

Most of the time the extent of the damage is limited to one or two connecting rods.

Ive drowned a couple of motors in the past. The ones that survived were done at low RPMs, and were subject to the removal of all the spark plugs, then cranked over to remove any water.

Makes for a pretty WET recovery thought. :coffeedrink:

The ones that didnt survive were drowned at mid to high RPM. Connecting rod failure on them both, and one had some extensive cylinder wall damage.

 

[Herbie]

Given how high the intake sits on your van, I wonder how much of a concern drowning really is if you're taking it easy.

Unless you get a mother of a bow wave going, getting into enough water to get it up to the intake also means the water would be 2+ feet up the cabin doors. I think I would skip on any crossing that deep...

 

[ihatemybike]

Looking at the stock setup, it looks like I could go mid grill deep and be ok. Could go almost to the top of the grill, if the reverse snorkel thing is removed from the air box.

The mud line from the Badlands Park run shows that it's been floor level deep so far.

What has me thinking about this is the prospect of driving through a water/mud hole and dropping the van into an unnoticed deep part.