Drain and Flushing a Submerged Engine

[Flyingw]

So my neighbor shows up today with an 84 200S that a local municipality owned but it got flooded while it was in its storage shed so they threw it away. My neighbor retrieved it and actually its not in bad shape. The oil in the motor has some water in it and the oil is milky. What do you guys suggest to flush the motor with?

[El Camexican]

How long do you figure it's had water in it? If not more than a month or two I'd just drain the oil, shoot a bunch of WD40 into the cylinder turn it a few times, replace the oil with the cheapest brand you can find. Start it, run it till its hot (any remaining moisture will evaporate out the crankcase vent ) and then drain the cheap oil and put some good oil in it.

If you think it sat long enough to pit anything I'd tear it down.

Post some pics!

[Flyingw]

What was told to my neighbor was it happened his past weekend. The motor turns just fine. I just pulled the drain plug and got about 3 qts of water out of it. No milk that I can see in the top end.

[Flyingw]

What I as thinking of doing was fill the tranny with solvent and spin the motor with my drill and draining it then do a couple of fill and flush with cheap oil.

[El Camexican]

What I as thinking of doing was fill the tranny with solvent and spin the motor with my drill and draining it then do a couple of fill and flush with cheap oil.

No need to do all that unless you see silt in the old oil when you drain it. If there is then yea, kerosene flush, but if not just change the oil & filters and run it. Any remaining moisture will steam right out the crank vent. It happens every time you start an engine in cold weather.

[Flyingw]

Roger that then that's what I'll do. It look like the water intrusion is confined to just the tranny. The stator cavity has some junk in it but that could have been there for a while. The CDI pickup on the top of the motor is clean. I have the trike tipped up and I'll let it drip dry overnight. I shot some Chemtool in the cylinder and I'll blow that out tomorrow.

[xrider]

I've sank a few over the years. I always just change the oil and cycle the motor 4 times. Seems to always take 4 to get all the water out.

[coolpool]

I think a good soaking with diesel fuel couldn't hurt either. Fill the crank right up and put some in the head with the cylinder in TDC on compression stroke. Tip it side to side and drain. Drain, fill with oil, complete a couple of heat cycles and change the oil. Probably overkill but why risk it.

[atc007]

In my experiences it takes several changes to get it all out. Diffs,a whole nother ball game :(.. I guess maybe I never ran them long or hard enough to really get them steamed right up to a hot enough temp to evaporate it all out.

[Trike_crazy]

I had a little 110 chinese dirt bike that had gotten water in it and rusted it up. Once i got it free I filled it with transmission fluid and ran the engine lightly for about 45 mins or so. I did that about 2 more times then filled it with regular oil. That bike started 1st-2nd kick everytime! Transmission fluid has detergents in it that help clean the internals. It also won't hurt the clutches. But like i said its thin so you don't want to put a load on the engine. Just get it up to temperature and drain it.

[userj8670]

No need to do all that unless you see silt in the old oil when you drain it. If there is then yea, kerosene flush, but if not just change the oil & filters and run it. Any remaining moisture will steam right out the crank vent. It happens every time you start an engine in cold weather.

I'll second kerosene. Drain it...fill with kero...kick...drain repeat. Worked when I sunk my SX. Then as stated cheap oil...drain it. New filter....cheap oil. ..run a bit longer...change filter...fill woth good oil new filter and enjoy.

[Flyingw]

I have completed the first flush. The first order of business was to see if it even ran. It took some tinkering but I got it to run so I ran it at idle for about 5 minutes and now I'm draining the tranny. The oil this time is less milky and more grey. I don't know if my neighbor wants to put any money in to this so I'm on hold pending his decision but the intent right now was to get the water out and see if it ran. Compression is low so I'm going to assume this motor it tired and needs some attention.

[Jmoozy27]

I think a good soaking with diesel fuel couldn't hurt either. Fill the crank right up and put some in the head with the cylinder in TDC on compression stroke. Tip it side to side and drain. Drain, fill with oil, complete a couple of heat cycles and change the oil. Probably overkill but why risk it.

I use diesel too. It's so much easier to get than kerosene. I burn it in my tiki torches too.

[Flyingw]

Well the owner has decided to put some money in to it and that will include an engine rebuild so the water in the tranny will be taken care of then. Thanks for all your advise guys.