Car was flooded last night, any immediate steps or is it a goner?

[Dave Colangelo]

Long story short southern NY saw some epic rainfall last night and my car regrettably ended up underwater as a result. Im pretty devastated as I've had this car since I was 19 and it holds a lot of personal importance. The water has receded and we were able to pump the rest out today but for at least a few hours last night the water was up to the red line here (fresh water (dirty water, but fresh water)) no water got into the intake as far as i can tell but the crank case was under:



It has since been pumped out and i can get back into the garage. Is there anything in the immediate term I should be doing? Drain the crank and the oil tank? Leave it all alone? Pull the spark plugs? am I screwed no matter what I do?


In the broader sense, is the car even salvageable or is it just a junk pile at this point? To complicate matters I had not been driving the car in the last 2 years so it is currently un-insured and there is no payout to be had for it. Taking on a project is not out of the question here but from all the poking around Ive been doing it sounds like thats potentially no possible.

Any guidance here is appreciated especially on what i should do in the short term.


BEFORE ANYONE ASKS IM CURRENTLY NOT SELLING THE CAR OR PARTING IT OUT SO PLEASE DON'T PM ME ASKING THAT.


Regards
Dave

[gumby]

Drain everything! do not wait! pull the plugs and oil the top end thats just to start the prosess
as long the water was not salt water you should be able to save her

[fintstone]

Read the fine print of your homeowners...unless excluded, it could well be considered "contents" of your home/garage. If the car was uninsured and unlicensed for the road, it seem that it might be considered more of a "collectible."

[911obgyn]

Dry it out as much as possible, remove interior and let that dry seperately, it will be a project!!! Take out the dme (brain) and see if it is full of water. I dont know if it would be feasable, but a sprayer with wd40 liberaly sprayed in cracks crevessas and all over under and inside might delay rust.

[TimT]

Get the car out of the garage as soon as you can


Pull the seats.. rip out the carpeting..

If the water didn't make it up to the intake.. you're lucky.. unplug various electrical connectors so they can drain and dry..

Do not think about trying to start it until it has a chance to dry.. leave the hood the rear lid, the doors open..

The next few days here are supposed to be really low humidity get the car on jack stands and pull the wheels..

Oh and if it were salt water... rinse rinse rinse.. then let dry..

[gumby]

Good point ...insurance may indeed take care of this, call your agent ...nothin to lose

[jpnovak]

The car is totally saleable but you need to act quickly to dry it out..

Strip seats and carpets and run fans so interior can dry without mold. I would even pull the rubber isolation pads from. The rear seat pans. Water will be under there for sure.

Unplug all electrical connectors. Get spray bottle with denatured alcohol and spray them down and then used compressed air to blow them dry. Follow with a shot of WD40 or similar. I like CorrosionX available at a marine supply store.

Drain oil from engine and transmission. Pull plugs. Squirt some marvel mystery oil down cylinders and rotate engine by hand.

Disconnect ECU completely. You are still drying it out right?? Add a few quarts of oil to sump amd them use starter to roate engine and pump clean oil through. It will then drain out the bottom taming remaining water with it. Leave plugs out and let engine dry.


Pull distributor cap and dry out distributor.

After you finish the interior you can put fluids back in


Don't try to start until you check if water got in fuel system. If so, drain the tank.

[ian c2]

Home Depot rent fans and dehumidifiers etc .

[Jonny042]

As long as it's not salt water (which you've stated it isn't) all you really need to do it get everything dry, following the advice already given. I would try to get some air moving in and out of the interior by whatever fans or other means possible at this point. If you can get it dry before the mustiness takes hold you might not have to remove carpeting.

Keep it. Just another chapter in your ownership. Maybe insurance will help with the cost.

Hope the rest of your life isn't underwater too!!! What a thing to have happen, especially these days. Hang in there.

[Tinkerer]

Seems like you want to keep it so I’d forget about insurance cause they’ll total it. Pull it out into the sun and remove interior, empty all fluids, pull wheels off, and put some big fans on it

[Showdown]

Ditto to what everyone else said. Get some fans and get some air moving and that will help the water evaporate quicker and keep mold from growing anywhere.

You also might want to call your insurance agent and ask them if they totaled the car can you buy it back from them. This may be a way to save up for the inevitable repairs that it will need

[timmy2]

Once carpet is out, pull the shift coupler cover and see if the tunnel is wet.
If so, Jack up the front end so it can drain out the back.
Plus everything else mentioned…
1978 if I read correctly, so no electronics on the floors to worry about.
Pull all the relays etc on the rear fuse panel.

[70SATMan]

Originally Posted by fintstone

Read the fine print of your homeowners...unless excluded, it could well be considered "contents" of your home/garage. If the car was uninsured and unlicensed for the road, it seem that it might be considered more of a "collectible."

Most of the mainstream carriers stopped considering non op cars as "contents" under the regular homeowner policies. Takes special writers like high end jewelry, etc.

I had to change mine over a couple of years ago.

[bazar01]

Was the battery connected when flooded?

[Quickstep192]

One thing I didn’t see anyone mention was to rinse with clean water first. That’s SOP for salvaging an outboard motor that gets dropped in the drink. I don’t know if it appropriate for a car or not, but I’m thinking it’s already wet, clean water ain’t gonna hurt.

[Bill Douglas]

Heart goes out to you Dave. So sorry the car and your belongings got flooded.

I'd pull the carpets, seat, door linings etc out and hose the car and carpets seats down with clean water. Also hose out the inside of the car. Hell, it's already wet. Get some clean water in there and let it drain and dry out. Photos before you start. You want to keep the mould out before it starts.

[targa80]

I would buy a dehumidifier and put it in the garage with the car and let it run to dry it out. Wash all the mud off the underside, wheel wells and engine compartment. If the water did not reach the intake on the CIS then that’s a good thing. Did the water get into the exhaust and up into the manifold where it could reach an open exhaust valve. Drain oil and look for water or brown foam. If that is all ok, I would remove spark plugs and check them. Did the water come high enough to effect the transmission? If all looks good I would add new oil and fire it up to help blow out the exhaust system and dry out the engine compartment. Check the frunk for water penetration and clean out.

[49willard]

Use plenty of clean fresh rinse water,drain all fluids, pull plugs and attempt to turn over by hand to expel any water from the cylinders, squirt plenty of oil into each cylinder and turn over by hand. Similar treatment for transaxle and remove all soft upolstory items. Force dry everything as discussed above. I have saved several outboards and inboard engine dunked in salt water.

[Tremelune]

+1 to everything above. The big thing, in my opinion, is rust. Pull all the carpets from everywhere, rinse it, and dry it.

This is a bummer, but one of the great things about these cars is that everything can be fixed, and it's almost always worth it. This seems very salvageable, but you are now in the midst of Surprise Restoration of sorts. Depending on whether water got into the motor, you might get away with some TLC (if not, there is the magic number 3.6).

People on this forum have built six-digit show cars from much, much worse, so take some heart.

[MBAtarga]

Originally Posted by timmy2

1978 if I read correctly, so no electronics on the floors to worry about.

ECU would be under the passenger seat though - correct?