Possible Hydrolock

[JRockinVR4]

I wanted to petition the Automotive Forums before attempting to fix this issue. Someone gave me some pointers and I guess I just want to ask if they are good pointers before I break the damn thing open.

I own a 2002 Mitsu Eclipse GS (4-cyl 2.0). I ran my car through deep-ish water, about 5-7 inches. AEM cold-air intake sits a couple inches higher. My guess is hydrolock, which would be the first time I've ever encountered such a thing.

As soon as I hit standing water, a car passed travelling in the other direction, swelling the water another 3-4 inches or so. My engine, which was below idle-rev at the time (about 800-900 RPM) didn't seize immediately. It kind of bogged down to nothing in the span of 2-3 seconds, no serious clanks or pings that I could hear. Tried to turn engine twice after stalling and it was locked up. Had the car towed home and it's sitting in the bay now.



Here's what I was going/advised to do:

Remove spark plugs to check for water in the combustion chamber.
Sparkless-crank several times to push water out of combustion chambers.
Let car sit for a while to let remaining water evaporate.
Change oil/filter.
Install new plugs.



I was also advised by someone else not to touch the car and to have it towed to a mechanic for a flush so as not to risk ruining any of the valves/rods/etc. However, I was also told that if I didn't run the car with water in the engine and all it did was stall from idle, then the engine might be salvageable, provided I can push the remaining water out and change the oil before trying to start it again.

If I'm missing any steps or if you can suggest a different approach, then please respond! This is my A-B, but I'm broke and tired, so I'd rather not do a crate swap at the given moment

[SilvrEclipse]

I would try what you suggested. Pull the plugs and remove as much water as you can. I would spray some WD40 down in the cylinders as well to help dry them out. Change the oil for sure and let it sit for a day or 2. Put in new plugs and give it a shot. Its possible that a rod got bent or the head gasket blew but you wont know until you crank it up. If it runs fine once you start it back up I would perform a compression test on it to verify no damage.