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Goofed up

H

Howard H.

Well-known Member
I was cruising down the county road yesterday in my '97 Mercury Cougar with a V8 4.6 in it...

Hit a stretch of 2 inch deep water along the side - and it sprayed up under the engine. Immediately a big cloud of white smoke poured out the back - and the engine died...

Everything looked OK visually, so I started it - and it has a hammering noise in the engine now. I checked the air filter - and even though it was still in place, it was soaking wet and water droplets were everywhere going past the filter into the intake manifold...

I can't imagine enough water went down to the gullet to bend a rod or anything... But it has a very definite hammering noise - sounds like from up top - I'm guessing a bent valve...

But I don't really see how a slug of water could have bent a valve...

Any ideas on any other damage it could have caused??? It has 200,000 miles on it, so I've gotten a lot of good use out of it...


Thanks,
Howard
 

Water will not compress, and it takes very little water going directly into an engine to cause damage such as bent valves, damaged wrist pin bushings, rod bearings, or even bent connecting rods.
 
Yes it can happen. GM changed the air intake on the Corvette because water could get in and cause engine damage. As you already suspect, likely a bent valve.
 
When I was a claims adjuster doing vehicle service contracts, when a vehicle had a bent valve for no particular reason the first question we asked was were there any heavy rainstorms in the area.

Quite a few vehicles will ingest water through the intake.
 

inquiring minds want to know . how does water bend a valve in an emgine ? possably warped from water comming in contact with a hot valve ?
 
A bent valve likely won't make a knocking noise,but will misfire.

My vote goes for a dropped valve seat.4.6's have an aluminum head with steel valve seats.

I've heard of guys using the old water trick to clean carbon from their aluminum head engines and immediately dropping seats.
 

yeah - I was hoping for something like that, but this car has "jacketed" or sealed plug wires... Plus, it is a very distinct knocking noise...

I'm leaning towards pulling the heads, just to see what exactly was damaged...

Even now, the engine runs fine - just has that distinct hammering noise...

I just don't see how it sucked enough water right through the air filter to hydro lock anything mechanical to bend or break anything...

It was pretty crummy luck... 20 minutes later, there wasn't enough water standing anywhere to have done any damage...


Thanks for the replies...

HH
 

Thats sort of what I mean! :)

I remember at a Nissan dealership back in the 80's - the mechanic had a bent piston rod hanging on his wall - he laughed and said everytime it rained - he had to repair a few 240-260Z's because they'd scoop water into the engine and lock a cylinder down and bend the rod...

This medium-sounding hammer tapping sounds like it is up on top - but I can't really visualize how it could have bent a valve... Or even how a bent rod would cause a hammering noise - for that matter...

HH
 
well for one thing when you pour water down the intake it loosens the carbon in the cyls. this carbon gets stuck between the head and piston and makes this hammering noise you are talking about. all you need to do is get a can of that miracle stuff and pour it down the intake at 2000 rpm and the noise will go away. did this fix many times on the chevy v8s. make sure you let us know how you fixed this problem.
 
2000 cougar would have 8 ignition coils. Maybe 97 also. Maybe you just blew ignition coil. Did that on mine caused by water. 7 cyls. don't cut it. Do you have any check engine lights? Please post follow up. Would like to know. Dave
 
You have knocked a chunk of carbon loose and it is banging around on top of a piston. Had a V8 454 do that to me three times. Pour ATF in the intake while it is runninging and have someone shut if off while you are pouring. Let the ATF dissolve the carbon chunk - maybe 30 minutes or so - then start her up and it should be fine.
 
See if you can get a can of GM top engine cleaner - we used to ise it on Pontiacs that had pinging or a possible carbon loose in the cylinder.
If you can figure out which cylinder. look at the spark plug, carbon will bend the electrode shut on the plug.
Pontiacs would sometimes bend rods if the had a hood scoop in heavy rain if the oring was missing on the wing nut.

Diagnosing it would be better - dont be like the mechanic who replaced an engine without checking fully - brand new engine still had the same "rod knock" he forgot to install a spring on the fuel pump a month earlier, and didnt catch it even the second time around ... sure caught it from his boss though...
 
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