big puddle, now petrol flooding out of carbs

[navigator21]

Hi All,

I drove my Vitesse through a very deep puddle ( 2-3 ft @ 30mph ) it was that or the lorry coming the other way!, the engine died and will not start now.

It had a normal paper filter on a flat pan air filter casing.

When i try to start it, there seems to be no suction at the carbs and fuel just pours out of them ( strombergs ) all the electrics are fine.

What have i done to it??

cheers

chris

[thescrapman]

Did you stop in the water, or just cover everything in water?

If you had ingested water, (and it will only be a small bit or you will have hydra-locked the engine and you would possibly be looking fro the bits in the puddle) then turning it over with teh plugs out should clear that.

Fuel coming back from the carbs may just be that it is flooded with fuel from your attempts to start it.

Are all the plugs and leads nice and dry now?

Any signs of water in the oil??

If you definatley have a good spark, then it can only be fuelling. The car was running fine a few moments earlier.

A few more details of the moment of impact with the puddle may give us a few more clues.

Cheers

[navigator21]

Hi,

I continued through to the other side of the puddle, if coughed and spluttered and died. engine cranks ok, i've had all the plugs out and its all bone dry now. Great spark, like you say, it was running perfectly before i hit the puddle.

There seems to be no suction at the carbs, i took of the air filter and put my hand over the inlet and no vacuum at all while engine being cranked.

Fuel just starts to pour out of the air inlet after 2-3 secs of turning over the engine.

I even had the rocker cover off and all valves are fine.

Thanks for the quick reply, if anyone needs any more info, pls ask.

My mate even dragged it around while i was in third gear for a mile, nothing!!

cheers

chris

[Clive]

I think a compression test may be a place to start, just in case :o

Also sounds like there is a carb issue if the fuel is pouring out, may be worth the once-over, check valves are shutting off and so on. Odd if a flood caused that, but you never know.

[navigator21]

Oh yes,

No water in oil either!! thank god.

The paper filter saved me from worse i think

chris

[Pete Lewis]

are you sure its not just water in the dizzy cap

but fuel out the carbs is down to a problem with debris in the float needle

Pete