A question for any off-roaders out there

[Rich]

I apologize in advance if this is posted in the wrong forumn. If so, could someone move this to a better place.

Anyways I was on my first offroading adventure last weekend with my buddy who has a Jeep [massive tires, lockers, winch, standard tranny, 4x4, the whole deal]. We were out with some pro's who were teaching us the tricks of the trade, and we got royally stuck in the mud. One of the guys mentioned something about "hydrolock" and since I was too busy wading through the mud to ask him what it meant, I am wondering if someone here can elaborate on what "hydrolock" actually is.

Thanks

[DVSNCYNIKL]

I moved this to the Xterra forum since these guys are always offroading and might be better able to handle your question.

[OffroadX]

Hydrolock is when you manage to suck water into the engine air intake. Since water does not compress, you may as well have a rock in the cylinder and when the piston comes up you can end up with serious engine damage, often a bent con-rod.
If you ever suspect you have taken on water, shut down immediately. Remove the spark plugs and crank the starter to squirt the water out of the cylinders, and check the rest of the intake (airbox, etc.) for any more water before you try and fire it again. Hopefully you were lucky enough to avoid damage.

Brent

[Rich]

Thx for the reply dude. I forgot to mention that when we got stuck,one of the guys suggested we pull the plugs and crank it. his exact words were "better safe than sorry pal" he got my buddy to shut it down, and i remember this well because I was deep in the mud, pulling the plugs out. I didnt realize this was such a danger to the engine, and I am wondering what the best way to prevent this type of thing from happining again. Im guessing some sort of intake mod? oh, and btw, there was no damage to the engine...thankfully:smoka:

[OffroadX]

Yup, that's what snorkels are for...

Brent

[Harbones]

I've got to say its pretty cool that the Xterra owners have gotten the reputation of "always offroading" :smoka:.

-Harbones
(Xodus)

[superjens]

Change your oil.

Water + oil = bad

Might want to check any other fluids that might have been contaminated, like your clutch or diff.

[warmonger]

Hummerman,

A couple of rules when dealing with potential water situations.

Rule #1: If the motor stalls and the tail pipe is under water, it is automatically a dead pull. If you try to start the engine in the water and the air cleaner is blocked or saturated, the engine will suck water through the tail pipe. This is not good! Don't bother pulling the plugs if the tail pipe is under water until the truck is out of the water.

Rule #2: Change ALL fluids after submersion, whether the truck has stalled or not. This means transfer case, gear lube, engine oil and transmission. The water seeps in from all corners since a drivelines parts are designed to keep oil in, not water out.

Rule #3: ALWAYS repack your wheel bearings in the front after submersion. The seals will not keep water from intruding on the bearings. Failure to repack the front bearings will result in very premature bearing and driveaxle failure. The rear bearings are lubricated by the gear lube, so if you change the lube like your supposed to, it will service the bearings.

Here in the South we only know mud and sand. You become a bit of an expert in water intrusion repair after a while.

[Goliath the X]

How deep were you?

[Rich]

Cant remember exactly, but got some pics of it, ill scan and post one when they get back from the devloper. It was pretty deep thats for sure, I don't know what my friend was thinking when he decided to tackle that one , I guess it was just calling to him....lol

Anyways it was a hellova lot of fun. Were planing to go out again this weekend, dude...we went out once, I wasn't even driving and I feel like im hooked on off-roading

Looks like my next vehical purchase will have to be something with some sort of off-roading capability

Again, thanks for all the replys

[xoc]

Originally posted by warmonger
Rule #2: Change ALL fluids after submersion
Rule #3: ALWAYS repack your wheel bearings in the front after submersion.

Can you define submersion (in your words) ?

Replacing fluids (every time) after driving through water is extreme overkill, expensive and not neccessary.

If you get stuck, and sit in water for hours, yes. Driving through deep water on and off, no.

[warmonger]

Nothing is too expensive if it keeps you from replacing driveline parts. I have seen a Jeep drive into a deep mud hole and suck water up the transmission. I personally have driven through water in my (not sat for hours, just seconds, long enough to drive through it) X and wound up with water in the transfer case, both diffs and front bearings. When I say submerged, I mean driveline submersion. I would rather spend a few bucks for fluid than a few thousand for engines, transmissions and rear and frontends.

[TheMan5952]

yea, it's a good I dea. there is this place nto to far from here that me and my buddy go through often when ever we hit the big pond then his engine almost stalls because he submerges his Tail pipe. If you go through mud you have to have engough power to spin the tires in mud, if you don't you have a good chance of gettin stuck. When you spin them if clears the mud out of the tread in the tires allowing ti to grab again. So either big power, or Low gears (numerically high).

[XMan9]

hydraulic lock, what a concept! i remember back in the 80's i was working a VERY cold winter (40 below w/no wind chill) in an automotive shop in moline illinois one winter. we had vehicles lined up all the way to BFE. this dude said his 2 year old bronco wouldn't start that was towed in. i told him i would call him back after i found something out. i went to crank it over and it would crank about 2 turns and then stop. i thot the starter was junk. then i thot the motor was locked up because it wouldn't do anything after that. well, just for the hell of it i yanked the spark plugs and saw they were soaked with gas. i mean running off and dripping. so i tried cranking it over. when i did, all of a sudden there was a gusher of raw gas shooting out about ten feet from the cylinder holes from under the hood. the guy had that thing so flooded it had hydrolocked with pure raw gas. what a bonehead! i had to sell him a tune up AND an oil change. so make sure you always chg your oil after hydrolock and let that be a lesson to you. HEHE...