Hey all! So I have an 84 f150 302. I had a buddy over working on it while I was at work. Unknowingly he left the hood ajar and the air cleaner off and we needed up a pretty good dumping of rain. The carb has a pretty good amount of water it looks like in it, when pulling my dipstick it seems a little runny and slightly milky.

What shoild i do besides an oil change? I don’t have the capability to pull the heads off. Thanks.

 

Well, if water got in the engine, you should get it out and the engine running again as soon as possible to prevent rust. Changing the oil should cover ya but of course I haven't seen it, more may needed if it's parked in, say, a lake or swamp.

 

Hahah! That’s for the quick response! Definitely not in a lake! Though Atlanta is definitely wet. Unfortunately the truck isn’t running, hence why I’m trying to work on it. But I’ll change the oil ASAP and I guess take the carb off and dry her out real good? If I can get it started should a dose of sea foam be in order perhaps?

 

Mark the sparkplug wires and pull all the sparkplugs out all at once. Try to start it with all the plugs out. This will get rid of any water in the top of the engine. You must do this to avoid hydro locking the engine and bending a rod. Then put all the plugs and wires back in, change the oil, and you should be good to go.

 

Yes pull the plugs and the rest.
Dave ----

 

A remote starter-activation switch can help you greatly here to spin the engine after pulling the plugs.

Yeah, I see how much water that part of the country is getting, so ya never know....

 

This will be tough to do exactly as described, unless you've got seven friends free to assist you. The logistics alone are daunting, what with all eight of you each trying to remove a single spark plug at the same time.


Maybe some of you could use REALLY long socket extensions so those guys are somewhat out of the way of the others.

Another option is to remove the plugs one at a time, one right after the other. This would only require one person, another benefit in case your seven friends would be expecting pizza and beer.

However you remove the plugs, whether one by one or simultaneously, do NOT crank the engine until all are removed, due to the danger of hydraulic lock.

 

Spin it with plugs out and full throttle, with choke opened for a bit. Can't hurt to add some heet to intake --this should absorb and collect some water. If you're not planning on running it for a while chase it with some wd-40 in each spark plug, should be alright.

 

If the engine will run, after you remove the plugs and blow the water out of the cylinders. Change the oil and filter. Then start engine and let IDLE, remove the valve cover breathers and fill cap, Let engine idle and it will warm up enough to evaporate the left over water out of the oil. you should be able to see it go from milky to clean oil. Have done this several times after sinking my truck in a river playing around. Have also bent a rod when rain got through my cover into the carb and I didn't know it. Was bumping the key to try to get it to roll by and it started and hydro locked almost immediately and knock, knock goes the rod.Different truck of course.