That same thing happened to my buddy's F-100 by leaving the hood open during a rain. Enough water ran in through the air cleaner stud to hydrolock it. Starter was enough power to bend 2 rods. Yeah, ALL cars ran till they were parked for the last time. Some guys just fail to mention they parked it after something went "bang" and it wouldn't start afterwards!
That could also be due to many cycles of water getting in those two cylinders, freezing, bending the rod a bit, thawing, getting more water in it, freezing, bending the rod some more, and so on. So it is possible to have been "running when parked", then mother nature took over up there in Minnecolda. FYI, I can say Minnecolda, because I used to live there......
Ya think? The coefficient of expansion for water turning to ice is 9%. When water freezes at 0°C its volume increases by about 9% under atmospheric pressure. If the melting point is lowered by increased pressure, the increase in volume on freezing is even greater (for example, 16.8% at -20°C. That's a lot of expansion, so it's not beyond the realm of possibility. More likely though that it did happen by someone cranking it over with liquid in the cylinders. The statement about "ran when parked" could still be true. It was running when they parked it, liquid somehow got into 1 and 7, and when they tried to start it again, the noted chaos ensued. So it never moved from it's parking spot. I doubt it was caused by someone driving into a pond with the engine running, as that would most likely bend rods on cylinders that are consecutive in the firing order. Hey, I'm an engineer, excuse me for my unusual thought process.......
Ebbspeed; I work with engineers and sympathize. Thats whyu you turn off the fuel on bikes. Its gravity and hydrolock is instant.
Would you like to sell those 2 paper weight. I think they look cool. Seems "It ran good when I parked it" means different thinks to different people. My 331 hemi had a broke valve spring, bent push rod and a spun crank bearing, but "IT RUNS GOOD". yeah
This one ran good the other day too! I found the missing cylinder,pulled the plug, got a flashlight, and I could see the WRISTPIN!! Negotiated a better $. I agree & lean with the hydrolic lock, and also understand freezing water is a powerful thing, Truth is stranger than fiction. .....I finally got the pic to load!!
I was at good-guys in Des Moines a few years ago and had my SBC get water in the cylinders during a huge thunder storm. I had a lovered hood and a velocity stack with a filter, but it really came down in buckets and blew. I went to start it and it would not turn over. We backed it off like a sprint car, and I pulled the plugs and dried them off. It started right up and since has had several thousand miles with no problems. I've seen sprint cars slide the rear wheels when being pushed off. Then backed off and run fine. For the rods to bend like that I would think the motor had to be running when it happened.
I live in an area where frozen blocks and busted water jackets are a common thing every winter and I've never seen it happen from freezing. I'm NOT an Engineer but I believe that if a piston were at BDC and the cylinder filled with water, then froze solid, the cylinder walls would collapse outward before the rod would deform. When hydrolock happens and damages an engine it relys on the leverage of the rotating ***embly to cause the damage. A completely full cylinder would simply cause the engine to appear to be siezed. On the other hand, if the engine could rotate ALMOST to TDC on that cylinder, then was suddenly hydrolocked due to water or whatever, the inertia of the rotating ***embly would certainly cause a rod to bend rather than just collapse a cylinder. The cylinder wouldn't collapse in that example because at almost TDC, very little of the cylinder is actually exposed to the hydraulic forces...whereas the ENTIRE piston surface is! Full of freezing water however, the entire unsupported cylinder wall is being deformed by the expanding ice...thus crushing and fracturing the walls outward as well as pressing on the piston. The surface area of the cylinder is much larger than the piston surface area. BOTH of the engines I know of that hydrolocked did it on the starter alone. They didn't actually start until an attempt had been made to clear the cylinders by draining...but the damage had already been done.
Dude told me this one ran when parked! After I buffed out the paint, set the timing, it fired right up!!-MIKE
Same with my 392. Every moving part in the motor was covered with a rubberlike film which wouldn't budge when 'attacked' with most kinds of solvents. Only lye would take it off eventually, or just a plain wirebrush and a lot of elbowgrease. There also was a slab of 'rubber' about an inch thick at the back of the oilpan.
I knew a guy with a 40 P/u, louvered hood and a dished top air cleaner. A daily driver he parked it in front of his house one extremely rainy night and bent 2 rods trying to start it in the morning. It had no problems when parked.
Boy those rods sure are clean at the bends. Man, that one actually tore. Boy that just kinked like it was in a press. Those are some strong piston domes.
Corvettes with the early Rochester Fuel injection break pistons and bend rods as the pictures show on start up...As long as the cars are driven the problem seldom happens. But since there one of the most desired collector Corvettes purchased by individuals that turn them into trailer queers the drying up of fuel plugs the internal check valve allowing fuel to be ****ed back into the cylinder and liquids dont compress with closed valves...the result is exactly what this subject is about......A NOS solenoid hidden under the dog house prevents this from happening...I know from personal knowledge, not once but twice...the second one made me figure it out....
i ended up with two piushrods from a 383 that looked like that, like mini hurst 4 spd shifters don't ask how i did this to two different pushrods in the same valve location i've smartend up since neat story though
i bought a 76 Dodge Monaco RCMP police car with a 440 hp when i was building my 74 Monaco bluesmobile for parts, the 76 had all the goodies hd coolers on everything p/s, trans , even the coolers had coolers the guy said he thought it way have gotten some water in the car as it was in a low area in 1996/97 when southern manitoba flooded badly.i pulled the heads and found two cylinders full to the ***s with water, two full with mouse fluff like in the pic above and the rest were clean and dry, really, weird.oh, and the crank case was full of cold clear Manitoba flood water and some oil....."may have gotten some water in it..." ha!
10 will get you 20 that the SELLER KNEW that the engine had serious issues. I bent a rod in my HOODLESS 39 Ford after making a downhill left turn off the road, dumping water into the #8 cylinder and bending a rod. I was able to drive the car 100 yards "PARK" it after the damage, but I damn well knew that I bent a rod WHEN I PARKED it despite my DENIAL of reality. I (also) CALL ******** to ANY "ran when parked" claims by the seller made for any reason other than deliberate DECEPTION in order to make a sale. Considering the ACTUAL CONDITION of the engine, if anyone thinks otherwise..... I still say ********.... It did run BEFORE it was parked, not WHEN PARKED.
We went to check out a D7 Caterpillar dozer that had a miss. The rod on number three was bent piston down in hole a inch at TDC. bent so bad it had cracked the sleeve below the block. It had rained in due to a uncovered exhaust. Same thing happened to a 353 detroit deisel in a log skidder. On diesel engines the compression ratio is so high (about 24 to 1) that a rod once is bent even just a little it will keep on bending. I once had a big load of firewood on a 51 ford PK with a flathead 8. Got up speed to cross a creek flat on the floor in second gear,no air cleaner and it took a big gulp of water. The resulting hydro lock bent two rods. even pushed one piston almost out of the botton of the bore. I think i still have the bent parts. I will take pictures if i locate them. OldWolf
I have had two fairly fresh motors with hydraulic lock. A starter will not pretzel a rod in my experience. ONe was with fuel from a pressurized gas tank forcing gas through the carb. The other was from hood louvers and a dished air cleaner cover. In both cases I pulled the plugs, spun out the liquid and fired them up. The high performance engine was torn down later due to unrelated head issues and had no rod damage.....I seriously doubt that ice would do that................
------------------------- A mere paperweight?? Hell no, that's a wall hanger for sure! Speaking of hydro-lock, maybe a bit of OT, but that was (is) a common problem on old radial aircraft engines, due to oil draining down after shut-off and ac***ulating in the bottom cylinders.The standard starting procedure was (is) to remove the plugs from the bottom cylinders and with the mags switched off, hand prop the engine through at least four or five complete revolutions, to clear he cylinders of any ac***ulated oil, before replacing the plugs and hitting the starter ****on. Some engines even had drain ****s built into the heads on the lower cylinders to accomplish this without having to remove the spark plugs. Failure to drain the cylinders though, would often result in a hydro-lock condition, causing a rod (or several rods!) to bend, The engine would often still start and run reasonably well with one or more bent rods, which would then later break in flight, causing a complete catastrophic engine failure. Mart3406 ==============================
I saw an IHC truck engine do that when a fellow mechanic accidentally dropped a bolt down an intake port when the intake manifold was off for repairs, and he didn't notice it until it was too late. The engine ran at fast idle for about 10 seconds then locked up, and the antifreeze drained out the mufflers! I told the guy "I've told you a hundred times, that's not the way to drain the block" but he didn't laugh. It punched a hole in one combustion chamber and the rod in that cylinder was bent almost 90 degrees. It didn't break or even crack. One other rod was also bent but not that bad. A few new parts and the engine went back into service. Not my favourite engines but they're tough, I'll give them that.
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