Hi,

I'm a new member here and an owner of a 97 Camaro RS.

I'm looking forward to being an active member of this site. I've heard a lot about it but have never really visited here before until now.

My luck with vehicles has always been terrible. I bought my camaro in Feb of this year only after my other car got stolen. 3 weeks after buying it, it hydroplaned on the freeway and crashed. The rear end was finished. It sat in my parking lot for 8 months. I just got it repaired last week. Now here comes more bad luck. I live in Houston and today it was raining uncontrollably here. I was driving around and there were a lot of almost knee high puddles of water flooding the streets. The car was doing fine and I was going through slowly. As I'm getting close to home, I go through another puddle a little more than ankle-high and in the middle of the water the car just stalls. I tried starting it and it turned but it would just gurgle loudly. So I got out and had to push it out of the water first of all. A lot of cars were driving but no one stopped to help. It's Houston after all.
I pushed it out of the water onto a clear area and again tried starting it. Nothing. Same gurgling. I called my friend and he came and we went to go get gas because my tank was near empty so I thought it might just be the gas. Nope. Gas didn't help either. Then I called a tow truck and had it towed to my apartment. The tow truck guy checked it out and told me that I don't have an air filter. Apparently whoever had this car before me, replaced it with a cold air intake. Greeaaat! So now I guess all the water got sucked in straight to the engine.

I'm not a car expert by any means so I don't know what exactly to do. I'm just going to wait till tomorrow morning and hopefully by then the car will have dried up. Then I'll try starting it. If it starts great. If not, does that mean the engine is finished?? What do I do?

Thanks and sorry for the long post!

 

What engine is in your car? Does it crank over ok? If so, there is not enough water in the engine to hydo-lock it (good thing). I would remove the intake piping to the throttle body and check for water.

If it won't even crank over, remove all the spark plugs and then turn it over by hand to force any water out. You would probably want to change the oil and then see if it will fire up.

 

And you do have an air filter. Cold Air Intakes are just better at getting cooler air into the engine as the filters are farther away from the heat of the engine bay. CAI's are good first mods.

 

I think it's just the stock engine. 3.8L V6.

It's too dark to do anything now so I'm just going to wait till morning and then do all the things you suggested. It is turning over and it sounds like it's wanting to start but there's just a lot of gurgling.

Thanks for your help!

 

May not be too bad, then. Check the intake plumbing (air filter to the throttle body) and dry anything that needs it. There should be a sensor (MAF) that measures the incoming air. Dry it, but be very careful with it. It has some delicate wires in it. Use a hair dryer or something.

 

Welcome to the board. Pulling plugs and getting the water out would be my first concern and suggestion. I don't think I'd let that water sit in there very long either. Then replacing the plugs if they are fouled out. Replace the water soaked filter, and change the oil and filter.

 

Is it ok to leave it till morning? This all happened around 6:30 so it started getting dark. There's virtually no light in my parking lot, none strong enough for me to do such type of work anyway.