Hyrolocked Supercharged VX Calais

[Mattsuperx]

I recently took my VX Calais out bush and through a river crossing if near waist high water. Gunned it through but coming out the other side the dreaded sound of the motor stopping. Sucked up water through the air box as I didn't have the air snout on that goes over the top of the radiator. I managed to roll it out the other side just out of the water. First reaction was to try and turn the motor over which just resulted in nothing, the starter couldn't turn it over at first I thought it was wet electrics or starter motor. After being towed back through the water and back home and doing some research and realising the motor was hydrolocked I first removed all the spark plugs than tried to turn the motor over, about a litre of water burst out of all the cylinders, next step was to check oil there were a few bubbles on the dipstick but nothing drastic, next step drain oil out, than I connected a garden hose to a wet dry vac and a fish pump hose to the end of that I sucked any remaining water out of the cylinders through the spark plug holes, to get deeper into the cylinders that are closed off by the piston require turning the motor over with a wrench by hand a bit at a time and putting the vac in to make sure it's reaching right in the cylinders to get all the water out, fill the oil back up first before you do this, my oil had no water drain out the sump which I was surprised considering the bubbles I'd originally seen on the dipstick. After i had all the water out the cylinders I squirted some oil into each cylinder through the spark plug holes, not much maybe 25ml into each just to lubricate the pistons, other people have also said you can spray wd40 or something like that to help lubricate or disperse anymore water. A handy tip I also did was jam the hose of the vacuum down the throttle body as far as I could just to see if any water was in the manifold. Than I put all the spark plugs back in and turned the motor over for about 15 seconds it was backfiring out the throttle body. I originally thought one or more of the pistons was either bent or jammed. I than took one spark plug out at a time. While each one was out I turned the motor over for about 15 seconds, on cylinder 4 it sprayed out a **** load more water. I than put a bit more oil down cylinder 4 and put spark plug back in....kicked her in the guts for about 30 seconds and she finally kicked over running rough as **** and blowing smoke. It stalled a few times but I kept persistently turning it over and gave it a bootfull and she started running. It ran rough for about 3 minutes at idle than blew smoke for about 5 minutes at idle than after about 15 minutes at idle all the steam had cleared the exhaust. She's now running exactly how it was before I drowned it.
This work was all done after a week of sitting in my yard with the water still in the motor which I don't advise. I was just lucky nothing bent or broke it is only my experience with hydrolocking a supercharged v6 vx Calais any more info message me and yeah I was stupid for going through the water however I'd been through the same crossing a dozen times before with no dramas I hadn't bothered putting the air snout back on this occasion hence the fucked up position I put myself in hope this helps anyone out