Water in cylinders, advice needed

[RichLo]

When I was painting my yard truck, I had the plastic covering the windshield tucked in under the hood by the cowl. By doing this it allowed rain water to run down the plastic and into the air cleaner and into a couple of the cylinders.

I drained the water out of the oil, pulled the plugs, spun it over with the starter, sprayed penetrating oil into the cylinders and replaced the plugs and oil. It spins over but very slowly and sounds like garbage. It doesn't spin fast enough to fire. This cant be the demise of this engine as it still spins and this has had to have happened before and not killed engines. Does anybody have advice on what to do next? Thanks.

 

[someotherguy]

Plugs back out, squirt a bunch of Marvel Mystery Oil in each cylinder, and turn it over, by hand if necessary - until it clears up. Believe me; a buddy and I rescued a 283 this way that had been overheated so badly that it broke a piston and had the chunk of piston stuck to the cylinder wall. Guy threw the fan belt and drove it til it stopped. Both heads were cracked and filled several cylinders with water. We did the MMO trick and let it sit a while then began cranking it over with a breaker bar. Eventually it turned over easily enough that we figured it was saveable, so we pulled the heads, pried the piece of piston out, replaced that piston and the heads. It smoked a little bit for a while but the more I drove it the rings freed up and it ran fine.

By the way if you're trying to turn it over with the plugs re-installed, don't. It may not be able to compress all the oil you've got in there.

Obviously you'll want to change the oil again before actually running it, but you already seem 100% clear on that concept!

Richard

 

[Schurkey]

When I was painting my yard truck, I had the plastic covering the windshield tucked in under the hood by the cowl. By doing this it allowed rain water to run down the plastic and into the air cleaner and into a couple of the cylinders.

I drained the water out of the oil, pulled the plugs, spun it over with the starter, sprayed penetrating oil into the cylinders and replaced the plugs and oil. It spins over but very slowly and sounds like garbage. It doesn't spin fast enough to fire. This cant be the demise of this engine as it still spins and this has had to have happened before and not killed engines. Does anybody have advice on what to do next? Thanks.

WHAT ENGINE? WHAT VEHICLE?
Charge the battery, yank the spark plugs out, crank it over.

When it cranks at normal speed, stuff a compression tester in each cylinder. Test cranking compression on all cylinders.

Did you try cranking it with the cylinders full of water? Low -compression cylinders may have bent connecting rod(s) and/or broken piston(s) or rings.

 

[RichLo]

1992 k1500 350. I did crank it with water before I knew there was a problem. I stopped once I realized what was going on.

Thanks for the advice, I'll start with the MMO then check compression. Hopefully the starter didnt have enough power to break or bend anything.

 

[RichLo]

Just a good news update.

I pulled the plugs again and poured some MMO in each cylinder and as I was cranking it to start the compression tests, the starter shorted out. Turns out the bad noises was just the starter bushing being worn out and grinding. I'm not sure if it had something to do with the water or if it was just its time to give up the ghost. I replaced the starter, finished my compression check with all cylinders being above 180psi, popped the plugs back in and it fired up and ran just fine.

So thanks for your help and I'm relieved it wasn't something worse. Live and learn moment.