Water crossing damage

[greesie]

Hey guys
Just though I'd ask some opinions or sone tips for checking for damage.
On a back track on weekend went through a puddle and drove bout 100m down track further and started loosing power and white smoke which was obviously water goin through engine, turned it straight off, check airbox and filter was completely wet, and some water I'n box.
Took filter out, let sit for 15 min thinking all water that had gotten I'n would be evaporated by engine heat, started and seemed to be fine, had a good look over and nothing else seemed to be damage so had to tow bout 5km to a house were I could get a filter, watched it the whole way, last km didnt though and when we got there radiator was punctured. Needle didn't get to very top but was a 5 mm from the max....
Had to leave for work but when I get home I'n two weeks gonna change rad over.

First thing was I'n suspecting an engine mount has gone that caused the fan to hit the rad, other thing is maybe the fan when it hit the water it flexed forward and notched it, only a small nick, can hardly see it, and it soft leak straight away cus it was fine for a few km.

Other thing is when I sucked water into the engine would the main potential problem area be the turbo? I thought if it was gonna be damaged it would have already happened....
Was thinkin if I just take off the air intake hose and felt the turbine was all good I'm I'n the clear?

And the over heating the likely outcome of that would be the head maybe cracking or something like that, but it wasn't for that long,


I'm hoping I have Gotton out of this with only a radiator...

Any advice if someone knows what to look for would be awesome!!

Cheers
Greesie

 

[tweak'e]

sounds like you didn't get to much water in otherwise it would have hydraulic.
have a look under the left front wheel arch. the stock air pickup is in the wheel arch and for some silly reason there is 2" hole in the plastic shield that lets water splash in off the tire.

 

[Old.Tony]

Nothin' in your garage, so we can't see if you have a snorkel or not!

To answer your specific concerns:

* If you are going to take off the air intake and look at the turbo, give everything including your hands a good clean first. If the turbo has any wobble at all, or feels a little gritty to spin, then you have a problem. If it's smooth and has no wobble, your turbo is fine.

* The turbocharger's intake is not the hot side, so don't worry too much about the turbo. As Tweak'e points out, too much water will make your car lock through hydraulic action: as the piston descends, water is drawn in, the inlet valve closes and because water doesn't compress anywhere near as well as air, as the piston rises up it is stopped by the enormous pressures. This generally causes damage to the con rods, if it doesn't completely destroy the piston as well. In our engines, that much cool water on the crown of a super-hot piston is generally terminal on its own.

As for luck - I think you have it. Obviously the engine didn't get to suck too much water in, but if you have an intercooler I'd be ripping it off and emptying it as well, just to make sure.

And your next investment will probably be TWO things:

1) A snorkel to give you a breathing point well above the water's surface
2) A wading bra to keep the water out of the engine bay through the car's forward motion

Let's hope there is nothing more in there. There might be some value in running some injector cleaner through - just to be on the safe side. If your diff breathers haven't been extended, it might be an idea to check them out - or just replace the oil in both diffs regardless (and tack on "Diff Breathers" to the above shopping list).

 

[MickDooit]

You're right in thinking the fan might have pulled forward, that's a main factor in a wading bra for cars.

You're lucky you have a D22, if it was a D40 chances are you'd have ruined your airbag sensor module as well. They are positioned ridiculously low.

If you can't get your radiator repaired I'd recommend buying aftermarket. The difference in genuine and aftermarket for D40s is 1100 to 500.

Good luck I hope you get away with just a radiator. Carnage isn't fun.

 

[greesie]

Thanks heaps for the replys guys,
Yeah I'm pretty certain after what you'd guys say that it was the water pulling fan forwards. I think a repair is out of thequestion so will just buy a new one, and I'll try source an aftermarket one cheers.
Alright I'll pull the turbo pipe off and see if there is any play but I think as you stated it didn't lock up so hopefully it was just a little bit of water that got In,

Cheers again guys I'll let you all no how i go when I have a look at it,

 

[scottybobcat]

sounds like you have gotten off lightly.If to much water had of gotten in you would have had a hydraulic lock up and good bye engine.Sounds like you have driven through the river crossing to fast and the fan has hit the radiator,I douht it is an engine mount.
If you plan on doing these in the future get a bra or a snorkle fitted.cheap insurance for the cost of a motor and accessories

 

[greesie]

Yeah I no, prob have to be abit smarter about it in the future!
Cheers again for help, sourced a new radiator out from Over east shipped for 350$ so seems real decent.

 

[nathand22]

not to be the bearer of bad news, but i did the same thing with my old d22 3lt.
it did exactly as you described, running ruff and white smoke. my fan didn't hit the rad and i thought after pulling all the intake pipes off i had got away with it without any damage, the ute run just as it always did at first.
after a few days maybe a week i noticed the temp gage fluctuating a little bit from norm to hot under load, eg, up hills, towing ect. i got it pressure tested and all seemed ok, but obviously it wasn't, this gradually got worse to the point where it did start to hydraulic lock on start up.
in the end it was a cracked head. from what i have now learned it only takes a very small amount of cold water hitting a very hot aluminium surface to cause a crack, even if only a small one things will get worse and start to be very obvious.
as this was my work ute and not having much cash at the time i had to find a cheap fix. i had been told about a product from repco, by a plant mechanic friend of the family. so i figured i had nothing to loose and went and bought some "SEAL UP". After following the instructions and poring the "SEAL UP" into a flushed out cooling system, it worked and i didnt have a problem again, and i put 150'000km on it. i am sure it would still be going if i hadn't written it of a few months back.
so what i thought would be a short term fix ended up being a permanent fix. the SEAL UP is made basically from silica and when it hits the hot spot where the crack is, it melts into glass basically and welds it up. it didnt effect my heater by way off blocking nor did it block the radiator like some other products do.
this obviously isnt the best way of fixing a cracked head but it will get you out of drama for a good while if not indefinitely.

the other thing is that i have since herd of these sorts of "accidents" being covered by peoples insurance. have you asked your insurer if they will cover you?
good luck with it and i hope the radiator is the only problem. all the best. nath

 

[greesie]

Haha cheers Nathan, did yours run rough after you turned it off? I'm goin to try stay positive and hope it's just the radiator, I'm going to fix the RAd not this weekend but next,
Will let you no how I go, how much is replacing a head the proper way?

Cheers

 

[nathand22]

Haha cheers Nathan, did yours run rough after you turned it off? I'm goin to try stay positive and hope it's just the radiator, I'm going to fix the RAd not this weekend but next,
Will let you no how I go, how much is replacing a head the proper way?

Cheers

no m8 mine ran just like normal once i pulled out the wet air filter. i drove very slowly back to a m8's place and fitted a new air filter and she ran perfect and kept running perfect even when it was over heating.
i got all sorts of nasty quotes for a new head, reconditioned head, second hand head but i cant remember exactly now, but i dont think you will get much change out of $3500 for reconditioning your existing one. from what i was told you need to get them x-rayed as pressure testing isn't always 100% accurate, and this has to be done to decide weather or not it can be repaired. i think if you are going to that sort of expense you may as well find a brand new one.
thats part of the reason why i bought a $10 bottle of "SEAL UP" From repco. i now carry a bottle of that stuff with me, just incase me or someone im travelling with has an issue. honestly i cant believe how good that stuff worked, i was expecting it just to get me through a few weeks, until i got some cash together. it worked so good i just kept driving and towing like it never happened.
i would be running it past your insurance to see if they will cover you. as i said i have since heard of people being looked after for the same thing.

 

[greesie]

Ahh Jesus haha was think 1-1.5 g.
I wil see how it goes, might put rad in, drive it for abit to see how it goes and if it does start playin up I'll get either a bottle of that stuff or contact my insurance and see if they would cover it.
Fingers crossed it's all sweet but haha

Thanks again mate

 

[nathand22]

yeah it sux that nissan have the intake where it is. i never thought about it until it was to late, my d22 was the first diesel i had owned. what i went through wasnt even that deep i thought, but deep enough to suck half of it up! lol
i ran straight out and bought a snorkel, although a bit late.
needless to say i ordered the new one WITH a snorkel...... hahaaha

oh yeah if you do have to buy a bottle of SEAL UP make sure you clean out all the coolant. even take off your heater hoses and flush it out to. for it to work DONT leave any coolant in the system. once it seals up the crack and you are confidant that its sorted, then flush it out again and add coolant.
any way good luck and keep us posted on the out come.

 

[greesie]

Haha it sucks I bought a stereo instead of a snorkel!!
Decided to get a mechanic to check it out for damages as insurance Said they will cover it, even though it was off a main road,
Will a mechanic be able to see if there is any damage to the head 100%? The guy said they will run it and if anything seems suspect they will do further tests I'm assuming pressure testing..
I just wanna no if my car is going to be 100% back to normal at the end of this...

I'm hoping that how you said yours was fine for awhile that the mechanics will give it the all clear and then a week down the track it screws up, Spose there is always a bottle of seal up

 

[nathand22]

Haha it sucks I bought a stereo instead of a snorkel!!
Decided to get a mechanic to check it out for damages as insurance Said they will cover it, even though it was off a main road,
Will a mechanic be able to see if there is any damage to the head 100%? The guy said they will run it and if anything seems suspect they will do further tests I'm assuming pressure testing..
I just wanna no if my car is going to be 100% back to normal at the end of this...

I'm hoping that how you said yours was fine for awhile that the mechanics will give it the all clear and then a week down the track it screws up, Spose there is always a bottle of seal up

it will depend on where or if there is a crack as to weather or not a pressure test will tell you anything. as i said i had two different mechanics look at it and both couldn't tell me anything, as the pressure test showed that the system was holding and maintaining good pressure for over five minutes. the only way i would of seen a different result would of been when it started to get hot, but at first it would only get hot under load, like towing a trailer up a hill.
from what i was told, it is very hard to tell if a alloy head has a fine crack, and the only 100% test that can be done is a x-ray with the head off.

check with the insurance co how long you have to get it fixed. this may give you some extra time to give it a good run to test it in real life conditions. you will be able to watch the temp, and watch water levels. the fist thing i noticed was that it was using a very small amount of water over 2-300km.

as i said it would only take a teaspoon of water on a very hot alloy head to get a crack.
i will send you a pm with my phone number

 

[Bvandermaat]

Sorry to revive an old thread but Seal up is awesome.
I have a mate who ran his 92 petrol hilux on the stuff for two years with a badly cracked head at around 220,000km. He added a bottle every 6 months (about all the attention the engine got) and the motor ran out to the 270,000km mark (good for a hilux ey?)

How did you go Gressie? Is the motor all good?

 

[realtucker]

Just saw this thread for the first time... i did the same thing with my Nav. Ran through about 6 inches of water too fast and got a good sniff of water. Car died about 30 metres over the crossing, pulled over and popped the bonnet. Opened the airbox and poured about a shot glass out... shook out the hoses and took the saturated filter out. Drove it about 100km back home without a filter in and bought a new one. Hasn't missed a beat since. I knew i was lucky, but i just feel even luckier reading stories like this. Hope you got it all sorted Greesie!

 

[nathand22]

as far as i know from speaking to Greesie a couple of months ago the head was cracked. his insurance new what happened and was going to sort it out for him.

 

[joshman]

Am I right in thinking that the nav has a water sensor before the airbox? So if you suck in too much water the engine just cuts out?

 

[realtucker]

Yeah Joshman, that's what happened to mine although (and i may be wrong here) i think it is just an air sensor. Caught it in time and just stalled the engine before it hit the turbo... very lucky.

 

[nathand22]

Am I right in thinking that the nav has a water sensor before the airbox? So if you suck in too much water the engine just cuts out?

no water sensor before the airbox on any nav.
the only water sensor they do have is on the fuel filter.
i think you will find the reason they would stall is that they get a gut full of water in the air box or air intake and cant breath properly so they then stall. if you bloke a snorkel they will stall real quick, i did that to test if mt snorkel was sealed up properly.