I have a 2014 F350. Bought it flood damaged, only freshwater.Fixed it up, replaced all the faulty modules. All was working great.

Took jetski to Miami, had a day on the water.

Took truck down boat ramp to collect jetski. Truck would not stop, I only had it in 2WD, tried emergency brake, nothing. Put it in drive, too late.

Water took it. truck started filling with water, I switched the engine off quickly to save damage. Tried opening door no luck.

There were 8-10 people watching, none jumped in to help, but 3 of them started recording the incident on their cellphones. Maybe to send to Americas funniest home videos lol.

Opened power window a little before water fried the electrics and swam to safety.

Miami Police underwater recover unit helped attach a line for the tow truck and had the vehicle recovered to my house. (truck was underwater for 5 hours)

Tow truck dragged the tuck up the ramp on its side, was heartbreaking watching it scrape up the concrete, he did not bother righting it until it was on dry land as he booked it as totalled anyway. (have already replaced the side doors and front wing)

Everyone said it was a waste of time trying to fix but I had too much money in it to take the loss.

Drained the oil and replaced, then removed the injectors and cranked the engine by applying power to starter to remove the water.

Stage one was fine. Then went about buying replacement modules, cluster, 4x4 module, seat modules, audio/navigation system, touchscreen, amplifier, parking aid, all door and windows and dash switches and then finally found a totalled truck so bought that to use as donor in case parts list was endless. Used seats from the donor (King Ranch) engine wiring harness/ fuse box was screwed so replaced that, I also replaced the harness behind the instrument cluster. Put in the new modules, programmed them using IDS, cleaned up connections on the body harness as it had not been replaced. Changed starter motor as original was damaged.

Drained fuel tank, replaced filters. Removed intake manifold and drained water from that.

Today was the big day to finally see if she would start. After about 3 cranks, she fired and started.

Then almost as quick she stopped again. I went to crank again and it just clicks, batteries are fine, connection and voltages are fine, I'm pretty sure it has water in engine again because it feels likes its jammed-hydrolocked.

None of the rods broke first time round as I check all cylinders whilst clicking starter and all pistons moved.

Its a huge PITA but tomorrow I have to remove all fuel rails and all 8 injectors again, then remove any water that got back in.

I really need come advice as you where it may have come from, its a 6.7 powerstroke diesel. One person said to check the brake booster to see if its being sucked in from there.

Also I am going to remove and flush the Charge Air Cooler. Tomorrow.

I would appreciate any tips on what else to check before trying to fire up again, it takes me hours to remove fuel rails and injectors then replace them. I'd love to only have to do it once more.

Can Any powerstroke experts can advise me on which other units/hoses to check before re-assembling. As mentioned above, I now have a full donor truck so can remove any units I need to swap. If I can get this one running I will sell the engine from donor truck to offset its cost. If not then I'll have to use that one.

Sorry for the long post, wanted to give all the info.

 

Wow, amazing story.

Look, I know you must have tried, but seems to me something went wrong to get the truck to go in the water initially. Did you find out what happened? I'd think that ford would be very interested in this since it could have been fatal for you and yours.


I don't know how to help you with your question, I'm curious though. Good luck bud.

 

Holy crap Terry! I remember you posting about electrical issues awhile ago when you were first trying to get it going. Mind blowing that the same truck was just sunk for the second time. Were the brakes not working? You are very fortunate to have reacted the way you did. Had you not gotten that window down in time you may not be here to post about the experience.

I'm going to move this to the 6.7L forum since this is an engine issue. Unfortunately that's the extent that I can help you here.

 

He initially bought the truck as "flood damaged"... I doubt very much Ford would be interested in why it wouldn't stop. They'd likely write it off as someone driving a "totalled" truck that had inherent problems left over from getting flooded out (the first time).

Op,

If your engine really has hydrolocked, I would just put in the donor engine and not look back. Your bottom end is now hosed on your locked engine. Sorry to say, but I would have just pulled the pin on the grenade and dropped it in the fuel tank as soon as the wrecker brought it to the surface. The wrecker driver was right. That truck is a total loss. It will have issues pretty much forever at this point.

Not only will you have electrical gremlins from now on, but what about your driveline? Have you pulled apart and flushed your front and rear ends? Hubs? Transfer case? Transmission? They all have water in them. They won't last long either.

Sorry for your bad luck. I wish you well.

 

I had 30k in the truck, not insured against sinking so could not walk away from it.

I've already replaced both engine harness and dash harness plus almost every single electronic module/switch in the truck. Only a few were not penetrated by water such as the pcm as it is a well sealed unit.

I did not replace the body harness as seemed ok, I cleaned all the electrical connections. All electronics are working fine now, no error codes are showing on ids

Have already flushed transmission and do intend to replace the other parts from the donor truck once engine is running.

As for reason for it sinking, that was reall puzzling to me, until I spotted a brake pad lying on the wheel rim. I have never heard of a brake pad slipping out of a caliper but I explains why nothing happened when I braked going down the ramp. Will investigate the further once I get time

Will also put 4 new calipers on as well as new rotors and pads to hopefully prevent a repeat.

 

Just an observation on the recovery - what a bonehead move. Working for a local TowBoatUS up here in jersey for over 20 years. We've never recovered a vehicle from the drink on it's side.

 

I thought the same.

I asked the police how they would pull it out straight and he said the truck drivers were extremely skilled and it s was all about angles and the way the used the tow wires.

The tow truck was enormous, could have lifted a semi.

Once he dragged it all the way op the ramp onto the concrete he lifted the truck completely into the air so it was dangling pointing into the sky.

Then they just pulled the back of it gently as he lowered it into its four wheels.

I know it was my fault for sinking it, but would have saved me a few grand in bodywork repair and paint had he really paid attention to getting it out with minimal damage.

I can see his point too though, he just assumed it was a piece of crap as it was under salt water. Had I not had so much money in it, I'd have scrapped it. But with enough time and effort, I should be able to get it going again. Plus the donor truck was 2013 king ranch, only cost $8000. (though had to drive from florida to texas to get it) Once I have finished pillaging parts from it, hope to get some cash back off that.

Am eventually expecting the repair to cost around 10k plus countless hours in work. Hopefully will be worthwhile.

 

Sir, and I mean no disrespect whatsoever, you are a glutten for punishment. You bought a storm damaged truck and now you sunk it in salt water? ..... and you still think you can salvage it? For the money you have already spent and the money you're GOING to spend to "try" and fix it.....Man good luck with that.

 

Only thing to do at this point is going to involve taking the motor apart to see if it is hydrolocked. I'm surprised that your comp. policy doesn't cover it. It isn't like you were using it for something that it wasn't designed to do. Unless you didn't have full coverage.

BTW, having lived in Miami for over 40 years and seeing lots of recovery operations, I am not surprised they pulled it up on its side. If you have it, use 4WD and in LOW.

A little tip for surviving a sinking vehicle as sometimes you can't roll down the window.

As you can still easily survive a submerged vehicle - you should be able to take a breath when the water is close to filling up the cabin and open the door. As you'd most likely have to wait until the truck is almost completely filled with water to be able to open the door.

Alternatives to having to wait until the cabin is filled up - Center punches are good to keep in your vehicle if you are driving around water too. Use it to shatter glass under water. Last but not least, as a last resort if you have a gun, putting it up against the glass and pulling the trigger will break it. Assuming it fires, You only get one shot so make it count. Obviously takea deep breath before this happens and be ready to swim out to safety. If it's dark or the water is murky, blowing little bubbles will help orient you to the surface. You should be able to feel them leaving your mouth going up to the surface. This happened to a co-worker of mine and it saved his life. His car went straight to the bottom of a canal at night and turned over and landed on the roof. No one was around to see the accident as he hit an animal that crossed the road and caused the car to hit a bridge, flip over it into the canal water at night in an area with no street lights.

 

not really a glutton. I just had no choice this time.

I usually fix flood damaged mercedes for a hobby, have done 2008 cls 550, 2009 r350, 2011 E350, 2011 S550, 2014 ML350, 2014 E350 and currently working on cla 250, 2014 S550 and 2014 GL550.

Most of the cars I keep for a few years after fixing and very rarely has anything gone wrong with them. I literally strip them bare and clean every single connection on the car and test every circuit with mercedes software before replacing any faulty modules. Best case scenario they are fresh water flood and just need all fluids changing. If hydrolocked, sometimes the break a rod, I've replaced con rond on the ML350 and now the CLA250. If they ingested salt water and left to sit like the 2011 S550 I had to change the engine. Also had to rebuild one transmission and replace a valve body.

As I'd had so much practice on the Mercedes, figured the Ford would be a breeze and first time round it was OK after finding my way round the service manuals and IDS software.

Could not have predicted the sinking in Miami harbor though, thats the big pain here.

For anyone interested, I removed the Charge Air Cleaner today (whilst removing injectors for a second time) and it was full of water. Fingers crossed I can expel any remaining water this time round.

 

Thats good advice Dakster.

May save some reader skin one day.

I was too busy trying to save the truck to think of myself but as soon as I realized it was getting serious, I went for door first then windows before electronics got fried

Since that day I bought auto escape tool from ebay for all my vehicles, it has seat belt cutter and window punch and cost around $5. Well worth the investment.

 

COULDN'T HAVE SAID IT BETTER MYSELF!!!

To the OP. I'm just curious. How much did you manage to pick up this vehicle for, when you initially purchased it as a known flood damaged vehicle (if you don't mind divulging of course)? How much did you already have invested, when you managed to get it running, before your little incident with getting it under water? I'm just trying to follow your line of thinking. Flood damaged or written off vehicles are written off for a reason.

As far as what to do, to get it running again, you may just have to use the entire engine and fuel system assembly from the donor vehicle. The high pressure fuel systems on these trucks are EXTREMELY sensitive to ANY type of contamination of any sort, be that water, gasoline, DEF or any other substance other than CLEAN diesel fuel!!! And to that point, if you are going to replace all the injectors and high pressure fuel system plumbing, each individual injector needs to be programmed to the PCM using IDS. I will assume you must understand what I'm talking about by now, since you've needed to use IDS as you've mentioned in your initial post.

As a final note, there are NUMEROUS circuits on these vehicles in the network that when either shorted or open (due to green death) WILL cause the vehicle to not crank, not start and not communicate with IDS when connected. HAVE FUN!!!

 

I'm a bit surprised at how much pessimism I'm getting here. I came on here for some friendly advice in curing the hydrolock. Of course I did not expect to have 30k tied up in a truck that I could not get comp insurance on due to its rebuilt title. And again did not expect to sink it again after fixing it first time round.

But life throws us these curve ***** and I could ill afford to simply ditch the truck, Most things in life are fixable if you put the time and effort into fixing them so I'll keep going until hopefully I get it back up to scratch.

For any that are interested and in case it helps anyone else having submerged engine trouble in future, the charge air cooler as suspected WAS full of water (see pic). Have flushed it with simple green HD as per service manual and removed all new water from cylinders again. Still cranks over fine so have hope. Am going to check for other possible water remnants then reassemble everything and try again.

 

Very interesting Terry.

You gotta keep in mind...your hobby is the type that even insurance companies refuse to consider. Most consider a flood restoration something too expensive and challenging to even think about, and you're about to do the job twice on the same truck. I think all of us have tremendous respect for that.

 

Well said Tom. There are a lot things folks do that I would never even consider to attempt even if I had the knowledge or $. However, I don't knock them for trying. I look forward to seeing the end result whether it works out or not... Good luck Terry...