cracked intercooler, what to do/watch out for?

[Venomous04]

Long story somewhat short:

• Pulled the Cobra out of storage late March

• Intercooler cracked during an overnight freeze

• Started car and drove a few miles noticed some white smoke

• Parked car

• Car wouldn't start

• Checked around, couldn't figure it out

• Noticed IC coolant was low

• Jumped IC relay to get pumps flowing to search for leak while adding more distilled water + water wetter

• Couldn't find a leak

• Tried turning the car over a few more times, nothing (wouldn't turn over, starter would click then smoke)

• Finally realized what had happened (ic cracked, coolant filled up cylinders and the engine is essentially hydro locked)

So as of today I have the Whipple and intercooler off the car and as expected the lower intake was filled with the coolant (water + water wetter), and the IC had a large crack.

I've dried things out as best I can and plan to do the following:

• Hand crank engine and remove any water I can from the cylinders

• Do a few oil changes using cheap oil and new filter then a final change using synthetic (it’s currently running synthetic) as well as another new filter

• Swap new intercooler onto Whipple and re-install

• Compression test

• Cross fingers and see if she’ll run

Is there anything else I should be doing? I’ve been told I might want to put a bit of oil in the cylinders, thoughts?

If she doesn’t go I’ll have to get a new long block, perhaps a MMR race block


Cheers,

Marc.

 

[Venomous04]

Oh and I should note that the car had been sitting like this for for about 4-5 months as I was just too busy with a new job and moving to our first home to deal with it (and at the time I thought it was something simple like a starter), so I'm a bit worried about rust in the cylinders.

Marc.

 

[Lstruck03]

First thing you need to do is pull all the spark plugs, and pull the fuel pump fuse and crank it over..

if it will not crank with all the plugs out, it is very likely you have a rod stuck in the block.

I would not spend any time or money on anything until you determine if it will crank. If it does, keep cranking until all the water is out, and do not hook up the intercooler lines. Do a quick oil/spark plug change and crank it up.. make sure it runs with no bottom end knocks.

I ran into the same problem, but it happened at start up, so I got lucky and it had no damage.

 

[Avispa]

December 30, 1975: Friend with Firebird 400 decides not to bother with antifreeze. This is in Boston, mind you, not exactly known for its mild winters. Whatdya know, next morning the cylinder block is cracked wide open. I feel for ya, man.

Yeah, plain water has better heat transfer than an antifreeze mix, but it just ain't worth the risk. Unless you store the car in a heated garage and only take it out on race day, ya gotta deal with the practical realities. It even freezes here in south Texas every so often. I never run plain water in any of my vehicles. Not to mention the corrosion problem with plain water.

 

[metaman]

These guys have good advice, however if the motor had hydrolocked severely enough to damage the motor it would have stalled out on its own instead after you parked it and tried to start it back up. It is just hydro locked. The advice above is good about taking all of the plugs out. It wont crank because water will not compress in the cylinders. Be glad that after you parked it enough water got into the cylinders to prevent the starter from turning it over. That probably saved it. I would fix it in this order.

Remove the plugs

Crank it over (water is going to shoot out of the plug holes)

Let it sit with the plugs out for a while so that the cylinders can dry out

While it sits change the oil

Put it back together and start it

The water will not wash the oil off of the pistons. Water and oil do not mix, blah blah blah. You only need to add oil back into the cylinder if it had been hydrolocked with fuel which washes the oil away. As soon as you start cranking it, more oil will move into the cylinders.

You could shoot a little shot of wd40 into each cylinder while you are waiting for it to dry out which will disperse the water out of the rings and what not.

 

[TVSCobra]

If the intercooler cracked back enough for large amounts of coolant mix to get ingessed into the cylinders, you most likely have hydrolocked the engine. Now you need to remove the plugs, disconnect the fuel injectors and crank the engine over to clear the coolant mix out of the cylinders and hope that you have not damged anything in the cylinders from the hydrolock. Remember water/coolant does not compress, I have seen pistons cracked, cylinder walls cracked, head gaskets damaged and rods bent from hydrolock.

Let us know what happens after you remove the sparkplugs and clear the water from the cylinders. Also pour one cap of oil in each cylinder after you have cleared them out, you may have washed the cylinder down with water or fuel. This can cause really low compression where the engine will not have enough compression to fire.