Water Filled engine from K&N filters!

[nabilious]

Very sad story,
I rebuilt my 2.7 engine with Webers and K&n filters two years ago and it ran perfect! all was well with the world. Due to a foolish decision and lack of indoor space, I threw a car cover on the old girl and stored it outside in Minnesota. Apparently, enough snow found its way into the engine bay and when melted, filled the carbs with water. I think it may have happened AFTER I removed the car cover in the spring and it happened in the last few heavy rain falls we had.

I try and turn it over, it doesn't, I remove the plugs, water spurts out. Get it running, doesn't sound right. Remove the carbs and one of the butterflys has half broken off and its MIA. I've removed the manifold and still cant see it. Removing the engine today and will tear into it. So upset about this, just sick really. Maybe there was water in it and it froze, thus busting the butterfly? Also, one of the little plugs on the side of the carb must have been pushed out and it leaks fuel from that float bowl.
Beware the open airfilter system without the OEM air box.
Anyone else seen this before? Do you think that brass half-a-flap ruined the head/valve/seat?
Thanks,
Nabilious

[nabilious]

Not a single suggestion?

My thought was to remove the engine and disassemble. My local friends seem to thing that the brass butterfly potentially didnt do much damage and that it could have passed through without ruining anything. So their suggestion would be to remove the exhaust, look for the missing half and run it asap to get the water out.

I'm going to start down that path, but now I'm looking for a spar butterfly that has the 78 degree stamping on it. They are weber 40 ida's.
I'll keep you all posted...

[Steve@Rennsport]

Hi,

I'm, sorry to say that your engine should be totally disassembled and inspected. I've seen this situation before and its not pretty.

Water can do an amazing amount of damage (its not compressible) as well as corrode things in short order, depending on the local pH of your water.

Time to take it all apart and look at everything. The carbs are fixable and I'd send them to Paul Abbott.

FWIW, I don't use those open-sided K&N aircleaners on street cars, only race cars and I instruct all such owners to cover the air cleaners with plastic garbage bags whenever it sits outside or when the car is being washed.

[nabilious]

Thanks Steve!
Thats the speech I was looking for.
Cheers,
Nabil

[JFairman]

If a cylinder had enough water in it to hydralock it does the starter motor half enough torque to bend the rod?

[RedCoupe]

I don't know about Porsche engines in particular, but in general a starter motor can bend a rod on a hydro locked engine. Remember, there is a tremendous gear reduction from the pinion on the starter to the ring gear on the flywheel. There is a website for a company in Oklahoma City that rebuilds and restores old radial aircraft engines that has great pictures of bent rods from hydro locking. Worth doing a search to find it.

[nabilious]

The starter had zero momentum, it was as though the battery was bad. It was hydrolocked but I'm optimistic that it didn't bend the rods....I hope

[Henry Schmidt]

30 years ago I had a customer bring in a 914-6 race car (POC time trial) that sad under a tree for a winter. The engine had Filtron air filters (green foam) that worked like a sponge and absorbed every drop of water it could find.
The car came to me with the request of "get it running". We pulled the plugs, poured Marvel in the cylinders and let it sit. Three days later we charged the battery and cranked it over. Every manner of foul liquids pour from every orifice.After cranking it for 3 or 4 minutes, we put the plugs in, flushed the fuel lines, flushed the brakes and hit the key. With a little coaxing with starter fluid, she fired and ran like a champ.
She drove it home that night with advise and no warranty.
A few days later she asked if I knew someone who wanted the car. I jumped at the chance.
I changed the tires, replaced the filters and adjusted the valves. Two weeks later we were at Willow. A month after that we were Riverside. It finally exploded going into turn 9 when a co-driver found 3rd instead of 5th in the middle of turn 9. After dis-assembly, the engine show zero signs of water damage.

In another case this year we took apart a core engine from Washington that sat outside and the case was rotted away on the inside around the sump plate.

[Cajundaddy]

Yep, bag those filters if you lay her up for winter.

I don't see a butterfly getting past the intake valve easily so I would pull the intake manifold on that side and poke around. You might get lucky. Check your oil for water intermix. If it still looks really clean you might get lucky. Pull the plugs and shoot with marvel. Turn it over slowly with plugs out and see what you get. You might get lucky.

[Jack Stands]

I think this is why the watershed filter tops were developed. Even though, anything that repels moisture is probably a good idea!