HELP! I may have flushed some water into my exhaust ports!

Hey all, sorry for posting something so lame but I may have made a big mistake today and need some advice.

I have the engine out right now while I'm rebuilding the bike and I was giving it a really detailed scrub to prepare for re-assembly. I had sealed up the breather, started gear passageway and the carb boots really well and was using a low-pressure hose to rinse it off. In my haste I completely forgot to plug the exposed exhaust ports on the front of the block, and may have rinsed over those a few times.

After I realized what I may have done I quickly tipped the engine over on its front side onto a rag so the water could (hopefully) drain out the same way it came in. Left it like that for about a half hour before I had to put it back on the dolly.

How screwed am I and what should my next steps be within 24 hours to prevent damage?

 

What I probably would do is spraying WD40 in to the exhaustports, or similar and crank it over to get rid of the potential residing water. The wd40 just for extra lubrication just in case some water came into the cylinders.
But.. just my 50 cents.

 

Not sure if you have an air compressor but you could blow a shot down each spark plug hole.

 

You could remove the spark plugs and try a hot air gun to drive the moisture out. Try it in the exhaust posts too. Then once you are sure it is dry a spoonful of oil in each cylinder and turn it over by hand to put a film of oil on the cylinder walls.

 

A thought came to mind.........pull the plugs, hook a battery up to the starter and use the starter to spin it over.....do this a couple of times, spray WD40 down the plug holes.
Good luck!

 

Do not turn the engine over with the plugs in if you are unsure how much water might be in the cylinder! Hydro lock is not a good thing.

I wouldn't lose too much sleep, water would have to sit in for quite some time to really do some damage. Pull the plugs and put some WD-40 in there and crank it over as previously mentioned with a battery and the starter. Repeat a few times and follow up with some oil at the end.

 

Thanks for the advice all. The engine is completely out of the bike currently so I'm not sure if using the starter is still feasible but I will see what I can do.

From what I've heard turning it over by hand is a no-no because the valves can crash into the pistons(?)

I do have a heat gun, air compressor and WD40 at my disposal so I'll be trying a combination of these methods.

 

The valves cannot hit the pistons unless the valve timing is wrong, you can turn it anticlockwise by hand or use the starter motor with the spark plugs out. My engine is not in the frame either since I rebuilt it and I spin it on the starter motor. You can put a battery positive on the starter motor lead and the negative lead from the crankcase using jump leads. Get some heat into the combustion chambers after you spin it or compressed air to dry the cylinders out. I don't see how you could have damaged your engine but even if there is some water in the cylinders with the plugs out it will come out of the spark plug openings in the head.

 

i wouldn't put anything in it but motor oil. put a shot in each plug hole, take the drain plug out and filter off, lay it on it's front and spin the crank a few times.
then forget it, you didn't hurt anything

 

Thanks all. I ended up blowing through the spark plug holes and exhaust valves with a heat gun. Put a squeeze of motor oil in each spark plug hole with the oil can, and turned the motor anticlockwise by hand a good number of turns. Checked the spark plug holes with a light and no water on the piston heads. I'm considering this case closed

 

Unless the engine was apart and you put things together wrong, you don’t have to worry- these are not interference engines. Plus, even if the shims haven’t been adjusted, you won’t have interference issues. Why not? Because;
1. These are not interference engined
2. The clearance get thinner because the valves are getting closer to the CAM. THAT means they are RECEDING into to head. That means they are getting FARTHER from the pistons.
3. Even if they are hanging open, they have RECEDED far enough to ride on the cam the whole time, but they aren’t magically gonna open wider than they originally did..... the cam lobes DONT magically grow bigger.

 

I know of one interference engine on a Ford car the timing belt teeth sheared. But it was designed so that when the pistons hit the valves it would snap the cam followers and save the valves from damage. The mechanic fitted new followers and a new timing belt kit and the car was fixed. Car was a Ford Mondeo mark five with a Peugeot engine.

 

I thought XJs were interference engines. I know they have cam chains but interference engines with timing belts usually bend valves if the belt breaks which an XJ could do if it was assembled with the timing set incorrectly as Hogfiddles stated. Unlikely the cam chain would break on the XJ though.

My uncle had a Ford Capri years ago and l fixed the timing when he got the cam timing wrong. The valves didn't get damaged it had dished pistons. Had the engine been like the XJ he would have bent the valves so does that mean the XJ is an interference engine? I think so. A non interference engine never bends valves when the crank cam timing is off.

 

Aren't my XJ700 pistons dished on each side?

 

The dish was in the centre of the pistons on the Capri and yes the XJ's have pockets in the pistons for the valve heads.