My son drove his Suburban (87' 350 V-8 Auto 4WD) through deep and muddy water. The water (I think lots of it) streamed through the grill area, into the air inlet and right on down the throttle body injection carb, finally locking up the engine. He was able to get the vehicle out and onto dry land. He changed the oil twice and replaced the plugs. The engine starts now but runs rough. I'm looking for some input on what else we should do to prevent further damage and any comments on what damage may have already occurred. Thanks.
jor

 

The axles are also full of water as well as the transmission. Change all fluids. Many electrical connections are wet also. You have a job ahead of you. The damage is the same as if the vehicle had been in a flood and resale value is nil. Sorry about the loss. Remind your son that this is not Hollywood or a cheby commercial.

 

Important thing to remember: water doesn't compress like air. So, if the cylinder(s) got too-full of water, something had to give.
In my experience with a car, the connecting rod bent. It would run, bud had a very rough idle accompanied by that wonderful knocking sound. I was able to replace the one damaged rod and it lived on, but it involved a teardown as I'm sure you realize.
You can probably check this by doing a compression check. If there's a damaged rod, that cyl should be significantly lower since the piston isn't travelling as far.
You may have been lucky that this didn't happen, and the rough idle is from something else, but my experiences as an insurance adjuster with other vehicles has not been positive that you'll get off lightly.

 

Thanks, guys. I think he has learned this lesson, Torque and your total fluid change sounds like a good idea. David, I hope you are wrong about the bent rod but you could just be right as it is running rough at idle. I was going to spend the day at the wrecking yard dicking around and looking for F-100 parts but maybe I better get on the Suburban instead. Thanks. Anyone else?
jor

 

Take the suburban to the wrecking yard and trade it for some F-100 parts!

 

Just be reasonable about how much its worth and how much it will cost to repair..

 

I agree, do the compression test. Remove the dist. cap and see how loaded up that got. You might get away with just a new rotor and cap.

 

the man speaks the truth, more then likely you will find a bent rod or more, water will not compress and something has to give, also trans , transfercase if so eq. and the rear or rears,water into the wireing will become a every day problem even if you find and clean every plug,
sorry but a 87 is not worth the labor, if you started the engine and it ran rough before you cleaned the trans out forget that also you can't flush out a convertor at home. water kills the clutch discs inside the trans , i hope for your sake you find pink not milkie fluid in it. good luck but don't put up high hopes untill you have looked at every thing.

 

I did the same thing with my truck. Engine wouldn't turn over until I took all the plugs out and forced the water out. Engine ran rough until the distributor dried off, and it still runs like a champ.

 

Have you taken the distributor cap off and sprayed everything with silicone spray? That would be where I'd start.

 

A great way to dry out electrical connections WD 40 it will force out all moisture.
Distributor caps spray with WD 40 wipe dry with toilet tissue.
This post is like dejavue. Thursday night I get a call from Halliburton feild camp got an F350 down driver went through low water crossing killed the engine so I drive all night 460 miles drag it to the shop. Get 2 hours sleep Halliburton calls again same location F450 drowned same trip got in late last night. 8:00 am this morning Halliburton calls dispatcher says you dont have to very bright to work for this company one of our engineers just drove his Crown Vic through the same low water crossing. I got back in about 6:30 pm.
God I love my job
Pat

 

Well, we went at it Saturday and got the Suburban in pretty good shape. We got off easy in that no major damage was done. The engine was definitely hydro-locked (water pouring out of the cylinders when the plugs were removed and the engine bumped) but I don't think any rods were bent or bearings turned. Anyhow, the kid has run 18 quarts of oil through it and we don't see any indication of water. I checked all the 90 wt and it looks good too. We dried out all the electrical connections and pumped in the di-electric grease, replaced the PCV valve and generally cleaned it all up.

Anyhow, it runs fine now except at idle. I think it needs one of the sensors replaced and we are going to troubleshoot that next. I have a lot of experience with old pickups but none with the newer stuff. This one has throttle body injection (cleaned that too!) and all the rest. Anyhow, we'll get that sensor deal fixed and all will be well (no more mud and water runs though).

Hooker, we forgot the distributor (guess I was thinking it didn't have points but of course we need to do that - thanks).

Also got the 390 out of the 73!
jor

 

unfortunately, it probably at the least broke a few rings.