water in engine compartment?... crap

edwardvdh · July 31, 2009, 06:53:33 AM

crap... so im a retard.
i let my roommate change the oil the other day (not the reason im a retard), since hes been riding it a lot... thats fine, except for the fact that he checked the oil level when it was on the side stand... oops. so he put in way too much oil. so i go out a couple days ago and pull the oil drain plug and drain some of it out with some mild difficulty... its weird.. things get really slippery when covered in oil.. imagine that. go to check th oil level.... ....and wait a minute the dip stick is already resting on top of the threads, ready to be checked... ah crap! so the day before i had checked the oil level after the oil change... apparently i forgot to screw the dip stick back in like an idiot. now comes the really crappy part. its been storming on and off here in the ATL... and so now i dont know how much water got in. i tried to peer in the engine compartment and saw a couple drops of water resting on the gear (sorry, not sure what it is). and swabbed most of it off. maybe this was stupid, but i tried starting it this morning but its not completely turning over... hopefully just the battery... but i stayed away from bump starting, knowing bad things can happen if hydrolocked.... but can it really be hydrolocked already? im gonna take the cover off this wekend and try and move the crank by hand to make sure about the hydrolocking... maybe im just paranoid... so i guess my question is... how much water does it take to hydrolock an engine.. i imagine some water will get burned off, but whats too much? id rather not have to flush the oil again. and really how much water could have gotten in?... ayway, thanks for any advice...

edward

The Buddha · July 31, 2009, 08:58:12 AM

You clown ... that was for leaving the dipstick off.

Then - you clown - hydrolock cannot happen with water in the crank case. Hydrolock is when the carbs overflow into the combustion chamber and fill it with gasoline, then you hit start and it comes up on a bunch of gas, which cannot compress unlike air and you bend a rod.

Water in crank case happens all the time, cos water is a by product of combustion ... just not a whole lot of it and not as a cold liquid. You can drain the oil and start over afresh (best idea) if you have not run it since the water got in you can leave the filter alone.

If you wanna be lazy, just start it and get it very very hot for a long time - ride it a few 100 miles. Heck, that is more work than the oil change ...
Do both if you wanna be sure ...

Cool.
Buddha.

edwardvdh · July 31, 2009, 09:59:24 AM

bahh... well thats good news... ! thanks buddha. yeah, so hydrolocking was a silly idea... i guess i let my mind wander. so whats the worst it can do? rust the inside of my engine if i let it sit?..

The Buddha · July 31, 2009, 10:05:43 AM

Maybe ... prolly on the surfaces ... water tends to drop into the bottom cos its heavier than oil, however oil is made to stick to metal parts co usually water does not get very far rusting them. I'd drain it, change it, start and run it for an hour. It should by then be all done and dried out.
Cool.
Buddha.

JB848 · July 31, 2009, 12:38:41 PM

Now this is one of those stories where you're waiting for the punch line!

Water in the oil, hydrolock and clown all in the same sentence!

Archangel1183 · July 31, 2009, 12:50:54 PM

Since we're on the Oil topic, how exactly are you suppose to check the oil? I read the manual and all I could find was the amount of oil it uses.

The Buddha · July 31, 2009, 01:01:31 PM

I got your punch line right here JB848 ...

Archangel, you turn the bike upside down and check for oil ...

... That edwardvdh guy will help you by hydrolocking the bike to a post, that way it wont get stolen when upside down ...

Yep ...

Cool.
Buddha.

annguyen1981 · July 31, 2009, 01:34:43 PM

You're in "ATL"

as in...

ATLANTIS?

KasbeKZ · July 31, 2009, 01:38:36 PM

Quote from: The Buddha on July 31, 2009, 08:58:12 AM

Then - you clown - hydrolock cannot happen with water in the crank case. Hydrolock is when the carbs overflow into the combustion chamber and fill it with gasoline, then you hit start and it comes up on a bunch of gas, which cannot compress unlike air and you bend a rod.

Cool.
Buddha.

incorrect sir. the word hydrolock itself says that the issue is dealing with water. the issue then is when water comes through the carbs (from say... running off the road into a ditch at sea level) and fills the combustion chamber, then causing the damage you described.

JB848 · August 03, 2009, 01:40:47 PM

Quote from: The Buddha on July 31, 2009, 01:01:31 PM
I got your punch line right here JB848 ...

Archangel, you turn the bike upside down and check for oil ... ... That edwardvdh guy will help you by hydrolocking the bike to a post, that way it wont get stolen when upside down ...

Yep ...

Cool.
Buddha.

I still like Buddhas solution better

johnny ro · August 03, 2009, 05:08:37 PM

not hydrolock

Hydraulic means fluids of all kinds. Gasoline or oil or water can be in most engines and somehow fill a cylinder one way or the other and then bust things when you force the crank to move. the fliud does not compress so metal gives.

I once locked my old Aircooled VW with oil. It was parked on a fairly mild angle, nose uphill. Dont know how it did it, but one cylinder was full. Then it never did it again after that, after I pulled plug and wheezed it all out by spinning starter.

johnny ro · August 03, 2009, 05:09:56 PM

mine says to put on centerstand, presumably on level ground, let sit a while, remove dipstick, clean, insert without threading, pull and read.

It only inserts one angle, its hard to get misread.

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water in engine compartment?... crap