what is hydro-locking?

[vash]

ok, my head is about to explode from chasing gremlins! seems like my motor is locked. i cant turn it by hand. if you guys cant remember, i had the wonderful car that wouldnt fire up, and friggen gas would "weep" from the exhaust. i found the accumulator leaking, so i changed it. and just for fun, i tried to turn it over. then bllaaaah. locked.

i heard talk of hydrolocking, what is it? why does it happen, and how do i fix it. keep in mind that up to changing the accumulator, my motor would spin fine but would not fire up. i also have a new hi-torque starter. aaaaahhhh!

cliff

[RoninLB]

when I opened the fuel lines on my CIS I would prime the system afterwards by raising the CIS air flapper.. if I primed for to long the cylinders would fill with fuel and hydro-lock.. then remove plugs and spin engine to spit the fuel out.......Ron

[Tim Walsh]

Hydrolocking is when so much liquid is in the cylinders that the cylinders can't turn over. This happens because liquids are compressable like gases are. The fix for hydrolock is to pull your spark plugs and spin the motor to clear the water or gas. But that doesn't fix why that much water or gas was in there in the first place.

[vash]

yay, i get to take the spark plugs out again? yippeee!

[Formerly Steve Wilkinson]

Don't be too casual about hydraulic lock. My only experience with it is in aircraft radial engines, not Porsches, but what happens in aircraft radials is that oil pools in the bottom-most cylinders if a leaky engine is left un-run for awhile and nobody goes to the effort of purging the oil before re-starting the engine. You can bend a rod by turning a hydraulically locked engine _by hand_ through the prop, the leverage against incompressible fluid is that great. A starter will do far greater damage, or do the same damage more quickly.

Stephan

[RoninLB]

Originally posted by unfixed
i wonder what the axial load is that a rod will experience during normal combustion.? .

that's a great question..

how ahout if you have the time to contact some rod mfgs. Even the Detroit hot rod guys.

That'll be a great thread........Ron

[Formerly Steve Wilkinson]

You can turn the prop by hand, I've been told, on something like an R985 and bend a rod if a bottom cylinder is full of oil. Certainly a starter will do it.

Stephan