Flooded engine (with water!)

[nutmeg1]

First post here - be gentle!

During the Jan and Feb floods my immobile Vitesse II sat in the River Thames for a total of 2/3 weeks.  I managed to raise it on axle stands, but some water got into the engine, overdrive and diff.   I've only just been able to get around to assessing the amount of water in the engine and it was probably as much water in there as oil.

So, the question is how much damage is likely to have been done to the mechanics and is it worth taking them to re-conditioners or wherever and letting them start work with the possibility that it's all too far gone?

Any thoughts gratefully received.

-Richard

[Encom]

Welcome. Interesting issue to have, have you taken the head off the engine? I would to determine if the bores are damaged. Two to three weeks it most likely can be saved with a bit of TLC. I have seen mechanical plant that has been exposed to water for a few weeks and a bit of WD40 and no problem.

You need to get the water out as soon as you can and then protect the metal, even if you aren't planning on rebuilding straight away.

[Straight Six]

I work with ship diesel engines, where as you might imagine water ingress is a fairly common problem. Depending on how high the water level rose, I would remove the sump and inspect the visible parts of the crank & bores. If the crank was submerged (don't forget oil floats on water, so the water level would have had to have been pretty high) then it would be worth inspecting the big end bearings at the very least, and realistically that'll mean removing the engine, but I would not automatically assume that the engine requires a full overhaul.  

The diff on a MkII Vitesse does not have a drain plug so it would be worth removing the rear cover to drain the oil & that will allow you to inspect the internals.

With the gearbox, I'd be tempted to give it a thorough flush with clean oil, refill and see how it goes.  

The main problem here is that the contaminated oil has been left in the mechanical components for so long, although if your property was flooded I’m sure you had a lot more important things to worry about over the last few months than an old Triumph.

[nutmeg1]

Thanks for the advice so far.

The car needs a total restoration and I was most of teh way through the stripdown with just the engine/gearbox/diff and rear suspension to remove. The property was OK but we've some major house renovation to look forward to so won't be in a position to do very much to it until the winter.

If a visual inspection looks ok (drop sump, lift head and check diff through the drain plug) do you reckon it would be enough to re-fill with oil and re-visit this whole issue in Nov/Dec?
Am I right in thinking that anything other than light surface rust is a problem?

Cheers
Richard

EDIT : the water was above crankshaft level

[thescrapman]

I would expect that the engine/gearbox/diff needs stripping down, totally drying out and inspecting, then if saveable protecting with wax and preserving until time allows.

I suspect any rotation of any part may cause additional problems as rust particles get moved about.

Cheers

Colin

[nutmeg1]

Thanks for the advice.  I dropped the sump but couldn't get the bearing caps off as the engine is out of the car and unsupported and I couldn't get enough torque on the socket set.  I remembered I had a cheap car endoscope so took a look at the bores with that.  They looked ok.

Just taken it to a local re conditioners.  Diff looked OK too as did the gearbox as far as I could see, but I'm far from confident in my diagnostic abilities here.  I've re-fillled both and will re-visit the issue later in the year.

Thanks once again for the help.

Richard

[GT6 M]

If yer gonna run it, then the weel bearings deffo need stripped oot/ re packed with grease
front and back.
My Van went thru a flood a while ago, over the wheels, and 2 weeks later all 4 bearings were shot.

good luk
M