2000 Tundra took a brief swim (1 Viewer)

[Rigger]

2000 Tundra w/ 4.7 V8. My 16 y/o son, a novice wheeler, put it nose down in the water. (Don't ask). Not a super high value truck; lotsa miles, already had dents all over the place, etc.

He entered the water, which was basically a creek, and hit the far bank. Banged up the front end a bit. He said it quit on impact. He and his buddies dragged it out. I think it spent less than an hour in the water. He made no attempt to re-start it. The air filter was wet and there was water in the airbox. There was some water in that flexy intake duct just beyond the airbox. But might have got lucky and none got past there. I dragged it home on a trailer and we have it in the garage now.

It has been 5 days since this happened. We pulled the spark plugs out. We are doing what we can to dry things out. Trying now to get the starter to turn the motor over. When we turn the key, there is a buzzing from the fuse box, and nothing else happens. It does not look like any water got in the fuse box; that fuse box is under the hood and is up high on the driver side and I don't think the water got up that high in the engine bay. I may have to replace that starter fuse.

Any ideas what else to do or try? I am hoping things will dry out and it will start.

Thanks!

 

[Rigger]

 

[TYM4FUN]

My guess is something is just still wet...

 

[LINUS]

Ditto the wet stuff —— pull the fuse box underhood cover, and any shield that will “umbrella” condensate — get a couple box fans moving air to get things dry fast over letting rust or mineral build-up happen.

Compressed air in the starter case vents, and gentle in the fuseblock & all sensors that are critical to runnig like the TBS & CPS will help too. Drop grease in any engine harness connections you open.
(dielectric is preferred, but compressed air and any grease beats nothing)

Dump the oil, just to get the water incursion out of the motor - leave the fill cap off, and only re-oil & filter right before you are getting serious about cranking it up & semi confident it’s time to do it.

Drop a battery charger on it now since it may have electrical draws for a time until it runs — and once it does run, let it get up to temp & run it a good hour or more to really let the heat saturation underhood get the rest of the water dried out.

BT,DT myself a few times either as a pilot or helping friends — HTH, feel free to drop a PM or Cigar it.
More voices of experience the better.

 

[FXJ 96]

Build a plywood box around the truck and fill it with rice.

Any luck since this post? I always find myself fascinated with getting a car going after submerging.