due to the recent rain here in georgia and a leaky cowl i managed to get water inside my engine. my valve covers were left off because i was doing some work to the engine and i didnt think anymore about it until it was to late. i opened up my hood today and found that water had dripped through the cowl right into my head, as soon as i realized this i changed my oil which had a bit of water in it.

my question is does anyone think this could destroy my engine? i know people blow head gaskets and get water in their engine and they survive but this makes me nervous. the valve covers have been off for a couple of weeks and its rained a few times since.

thanks
curt

 

Ouch, well water in the motor could certainly kill it. Mainly water in the bearings. You have a couple options...
1. Flush some clean oil through it (the path you think the water took) and fire it up. Get it up to full temp, do this before any hiding water can start to rust on hard parts. Take your chances here.
2. Pull the motor apart.

 

i know for a fact the water only entered the engine in one spot and leaked down to the back of the head through the rear oil passage. when i changed my oil i poured all of it in the one side the water entered, hopefull flushing out any sitting water. does anyone know if water in this rear oil passage would travel near my main bearings?

i unfortunately couldnt get the engine up to operating temp seeing as im having intake manifold problems which wont allow me to start the vehicle. i did turn it over a few times to get the new oil circulating through the engine.

 

How much are we talking here? Even it it's a lot as long as you didn't run the motor with it in there you're fine, the only way it'd get to your bearing is if you started it up and pressurized the oiling system. Even still it wouldn't really hurt much unless we're talking a ton, it's actually normal to have a little water in your oil from condensation, not talking much here but it'll just evaporate once the motor warms up.

 

well ive done this numerous times in my jeep. all you have to do is pull all the plugs, drain all the oil, refill the oil, and crank it over a few times, then spray some wd40 in each spark plug hole and crank it again. put plugs back in and youre done

 

Why spray wd-40 in the plug holes? Curious?

Z

 

i think cjmatt is talking about hydrlocking the motor by taking water in the intake and getting water in the cylinders. if that were the case, he is right.

but if you are sure you only got water in one head and it only leaked down through the rear oil passage (and not into any cylinders) then dont worry about pulling the plugs.

the wd-40 is just to lubricate the cylinder since the water would have washed the cylinder walls clean.

 

yeah im talking about basic hydrolocking procedure, but it applies to this as well. if water couldve goten into oil passages, it could have also made its way down the valves if they dont seal up perfectly. my solution was basically trying to cover everything, but youre right, if youre sure that no water made it to the cyls, you dont have to pull the plugs and spray the wd

 

Run your car for 15-20 mins and change the oil again with a new oil filter.

You should be fine.

 

we had a tractor that leaked antifreeze into the oil it did this for 25 years. We recently tore it apart to fix the o rings and the bearings showed virtually no wear. i'd say change to oil and let it get nice and warm the water that's left should evaporate out of the oil at operating temps. don't run it hard till you're sure that it's all gone just to be safe