Occasional hydro lock? Huh?

Goofyexponent

Mentally Unstable..
Joined
Jan 7, 2009
Posts
4,567
Reaction score
5
Location
Halifax / Nova Scotia
Letting a diesel engine idle for hours on end is a good way to harm them. If it needs to idle for extended periods of time, idle it at like 1200 - 1400 RPM. This way ALL of the fuel is burnt up and lot allowed to be partially burnt. Partially burnt fuel gets into your oil and will thin it out prematurely.

I suggest taking the missus for a nice drive. Let the engine work, don't let her sit and idle!!!!
 

icanfixall

Official GMM hand model
Joined
Apr 10, 2005
Posts
25,858
Reaction score
682
Location
West coast
Well it seems like you found out how the rain water got into the cylinders. Now a new cowl seal is needed but... Any type of plastic bag over the top of the air filter can will shed water off of it. Or find that special rubber and steel wing nut washer for the air cleaner lid.
 

RavenTBK

Full Access Member
Joined
Apr 22, 2012
Posts
85
Reaction score
2
Location
Apalachicola Natl Forest
To conclude this thread, this is what has happened over the past few days. Truck is running great now, but here's the details:

Friday: Drained the oil, had about 1.5GAL of fresh water down in the bottom of the pan. I grabbed a sample for Blackstone about a gallon past where it started flowing full oil. My catch pan was a bit over at 4.5GAL when it was all said and done. Removed the oil filter. Turned her over a couple more revolutions, glowplugs still out, and some more oil+water came out of the filter base. Let it sit again overnight as I was already late for work.

Saturday: When I removed the plugs, the #7 cylinder had eaten the threads off the plug, and I was wary about reinstalling it, so I bought a single new Bosch plug from NAPA. I found what size threads the plugs are (M10x1.00 btw), purchased a tap from my local Ace Hardware, and used some white grease to lube the flutes to catch any crap. There was a ton of carbon in #7, but no metal shavings. Apparently the carbon buildup ate the plug threads, but the ones in the head were fine. I went on ahead and hit 5 other cylinders I could access without removing the injector lines. A tiny bit of carbon in most, with #2 having a tiny bit of metal from an apparently burred thread about halfway down. My white grease caught it all. I slapped some anti-sieze on the threads, and installed every plug back into its original home, minus the new one in #7. Amusingly enough, I have 1 Bosch, 3 Autolites, 3 Champions, and 1 Weng-Shen? Some random chinese thing. Anyway, I dropped in some fresh oil, 3GAL with that FL1995 filter to be exact, and fired her off. Took a bit of cranking, as expected for sitting for several weeks, a couple cylinders caught, and eventually all came online after a bit of a ruckus. I plan on getting a set of Motorcraft plugs off of fleabay here soon once the temps begin to cool. I also stuck a bit of blue RTV up under the rubber grommet to seal the base, and found a washer to sit up on top and compress the crap out of it. Shouldnt have any more leak issues, from there anyway.

I let her sit and cold idle until she came up to temp and dropped speed. A 8mi drive around the block, and its all good. Drove her 27mi up to church this Sunday morning, and I wouldnt have been be able to tell anything had ever been wrong.

I am glad I didnt drive down to the shop to do the oil change... seeing how much water had drained down into the pan, it really would've made a huge mess.

Cheers..
 
Top