Drove through a SMALL puddle, then died (1 Viewer)

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swankstar

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Boise, Idaho
First time it's really rained since I got this thing. Hopped in and rallyed through a tiny puddle on the side of the road. I got to the END OF THE BLOCK and rig dies at the stop sign. Crankcrankcrank and nothing, luckily a lonely intersection. Get out look under hood for anything obvious and don't see anything, look at all the fuses under dash, all good there. Look at fuses under hood, no issues. Google a bit and find some guy on here who washed his rig and it wouldn't start from water in the distributor.

By this time it's been about five minutes of sitting so I tried turning it over again. Crankcrankcrank and nothing. Crankcranksputter. Crankfire. Stumbled a bit and then no problems.

The thread I found about the guy washing his rig and having start issues said there are three holes in the distributor?? This is on purpose? How can I be expected to drive a vehicle that can't go through puddles?? Or is my rig missing some kind of sheetmetal/sheetplastic/rubber protection of the distributor that allows ingress of h2o?

Any way, any new info on this would be appreciated. Thanks!
 
First time it's really rained since I got this thing. Hopped in and rallyed through a tiny puddle on the side of the road. I got to the END OF THE BLOCK and rig dies at the stop sign. Crankcrankcrank and nothing, luckily a lonely intersection. Get out look under hood for anything obvious and don't see anything, look at all the fuses under dash, all good there. Look at fuses under hood, no issues. Google a bit and find some guy on here who washed his rig and it wouldn't start from water in the distributor.

By this time it's been about five minutes of sitting so I tried turning it over again. Crankcrankcrank and nothing. Crankcranksputter. Crankfire. Stumbled a bit and then no problems.

The thread I found about the guy washing his rig and having start issues said there are three holes in the distributor?? This is on purpose? How can I be expected to drive a vehicle that can't go through puddles?? Or is my rig missing some kind of sheetmetal/sheetplastic/rubber protection of the distributor that allows ingress of h2o?

Any way, any new info on this would be appreciated. Thanks!

Yeah...not typical. I did have a detail done once a few years ago. Guy assured me he used steam to clean the engine bay. I walked out to see him fxxxing pressure washing the engine and I was pissed! Sure enough...stumbling when trying to start, but after it dried out, I was good.
 
Yeah...not typical. I did have a detail done once a few years ago. Guy assured me he used steam to clean the engine bay. I walked out to see him ****ing pressure washing the engine and I was pissed! Sure enough...stumbling when trying to start, but after it dried out, I was good.


My first thought is that thing is going to be diesel with no issues/ways for water/anything to get into engine except fuel filler and air intake.

Second thought is Russian.
 
Few weeks ago I made a poor choice and went through a water crossing that was a little deeper then I expected. I cut the motor when it started to stumble and got towed out. It sat in that water for proabably a solid 5 minutes. Pulled it out, let it dry and it fired right up. Stumbled for a while but cleared up pretty quick. 2 weeks later with all the fluids changed you would never know what happened. All my electrics were good though since I didn’t hit it with any speed.


I would check distrutor and the electronics. Overland Bound has a video on YouTube how he hit mud really fast and got mud in his distributior and did the same things you’re saying. If not that check the electronics.

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I would agree with what's been said above. I would check the ignition system components, upstream of the individual plug wires.
 
sig line says 91 so likely..

so honest answer time.... rally through tiny puddle? or was it 8'' deep and 30' long spraying water 10' in the air?

The holes are there to drain and breath to prevent condensation. Several posts about sealing them up.
 
Look a the coil connections. They're the lowest in the ignition system. I made a point to pull all three of those connectors, spray them with plastic safe CRC and seal them with Permatexc dieletric. There is also a ground from the coil that splits at its strap on the inner fender. There are two single pin bayonet type connectors there. On every truck I've ever owned, at least one of those connector clamps is broken.

I'd start there.
 
Is it a 3FE?

Yup. What kind of different challenges does that provide in this situation?

sig line says 91 so likely..

so honest answer time.... rally through tiny puddle? or was it 8'' deep and 30' long spraying water 10' in the air?

The holes are there to drain and breath to prevent condensation. Several posts about sealing them up.

What do you call a tiny puddle?? I don't know about spraying 10' in the air but the rest sounds about right. I will look into sealing them up. Do all the guys with snorkels know about this?

Look a the coil connections. They're the lowest in the ignition system. I made a point to pull all three of those connectors, spray them with plastic safe CRC and seal them with Permatexc dieletric. There is also a ground from the coil that splits at its strap on the inner fender. There are two single pin bayonet type connectors there. On every truck I've ever owned, at least one of those connector clamps is broken.

I'd start there.

I will do this for sure. Thank you.
 
Don't know, don't have a snorkel. They're designed to keep the air intake dry when wading through water. Note: if you're in water deep enough that it's coming in over the window sill, you're swimming ;)
 
Few weeks ago I made a poor choice and went through a water crossing that was a little deeper then I expected. I cut the motor when it started to stumble and got towed out. It sat in that water for proabably a solid 5 minutes. Pulled it out, let it dry and it fired right up. Stumbled for a while but cleared up pretty quick. 2 weeks later with all the fluids changed you would never know what happened. All my electrics were good though since I didn’t hit it with any speed.


I would check distrutor and the electronics. Overland Bound has a video on YouTube how he hit mud really fast and got mud in his distributior and did the same things you’re saying. If not that check the electronics.

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lol, what were you thinking? you should have known that where it gets narrow and next to a boulder it was going to be deep. you can tell by the deep blue color too... bet you wont do that again!
 
There are threads on waterproofing your distributor and electronics. Not difficult and shouldn’t take a lot of time.
 
I went through hood high water for 2 days straight evacuating people affected by Harvey flooding. No issues at all.

 
My 3fe had a rubber surround that covered the distributor. I still have it if you need it. Or if you find out that’s what it was.
 

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