Water in engine

Sand 125

New Member
Hi all,

I spent the last two days cleaning my engine (still assembled) as I want to paint it black.

I got it nice and clean using degreaser and all sorts of brushes and rinsing everything off with a garden hose from time to time (no pressure washer).

Before doing this I plugged the air intake and exhaust holes, but when I took out the plugs I noticed that they were leaking badly...

So it looks like water got into the engine.


What should I do now?

Could I maybe just take out the spark plugs and put it on it's head? Or should I open up the engine (which I've never done before..)?


Thanks!
 
Um. So water got into your intake and exhaust ports? Thats..not good. Is the engine in the bike?

Really what you want to do is get the engine running and warmed up. This will help burn off any water trapped in the combustion chamber, ports and on the valves. Then, change the oil. Repeat until you no longer have milky oil (which you will if its contaminated the oil in the crankcase). Hopefully the rings were in good enough condition to keep any water in the combustion chamber only.

If you cannot run the engine, you should probably take the top end apart and flush everything with solvent or kerosene, make sure there is no rust on the valves..etc.

Kick over the engine with the spark plug out and see if water comes out of the spark plug hole.
 
Pull the plugs, crank it over until water vapor no longer comes out the plug holes. Dry the electrics with air compressor, leaf blower, or vacuum exhaust. Blow the plugs dry and reinstall (tighten correctly). Check for water in the oil (doubt you'll find any), change if you find any. Fire it up and warm it up. That's what I'd do.
 
Thanks for the input!

The bike is completely disassembled at the moment, so can’t fire iT up.

So I guess I’ll have to open it. I’ll give iT a try tonight, hope it’s not too late yet..
 
In that case, pull the pkugs and blow the moisture out of the cylinders and intake/exhaust ports with compressed air, then spray your favorite rust/moisture preventative in. WD40 is great at displacing moisture, not so good for preventing rust, so add a good anti-rust storage-type spray after like fogging oil.
 
In my eyes the big worry is letting moisture sit on the valves. If the seating surface of the valves rusts you'll lose compression and risk damaging the seats. As pidjones said , water probably won't get past the rings, so if you can blow out all the ports/valves while turning the motor over, you might be ok.

Funny enough, I left my XL350 outside of the shop (the only time I ever have left a bike I'm working on outside) without the spark plug one night, and it POURED. I kicked the engine over a shitload of times until all the water was out of the cylinder, fired it up until it was warm and changed the oil about 4 times (water DID get past the rings). Didn't cause any issues, but I caught it almost immediately.
 
I took it apart and made some pictures.
It looks pretty bad... could this be fixed by for example honing the cilinders?

I’m already afraid for the answer..
 

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Yes, most likely it is just surface rust. The jugs should come off because if there is rust on your piston rings then they can potentially score the cylinder walls and create even bigger issues.

Unfortunately water is the arch nemesis of steel.
 
Honing will remove the rust and let you know if there is pitting as a result of rust. If you can feel pits with your fingernail, then you need to get it bored. I've gotten away with running with small pits when it was above the oil ring. I'd be getting new rings no matter what.
 
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