Hydrolock scare.......

[bleudyno]

So shit.....I had a little scare over the weekend and I'm still kind of stressed out about it and don't know what to do. So I pulled out of the ocean on Saturday and proceded to the boat wash to clean out everything. Hooked up the hose to the rinse out plug, started the engine and then turned on the water for a few minutes. Then we turned off the water and I let the boat run for about 10 more seconds before shutting off the engine. When I went to unplug the hose from the connector, I noticed that there was still water coming out of the hose, although it was a weak stream. The hose valve at the boat launch didn't seem to completely stop water flow when turned all the way off. So how likely is it that I'm screwed with potentially having a hydrolocked engine? The location of the hose connector under the cleanout lid makes it impossible to be able to unhook the hose before turning off the engine as opening the lid cuts of the engine. I did re-rinse the engine again when I got home for a few more minutes (making sure that there was no water in the hose before turning off this time) and the engine seemed to be running fine. If water did happen to get in the motor from the first rinse out, how quickly would the engine seize? Being that I was still able to run the engine for a couple minutes when I got home seems the make more a little more optimistic that not much had gotten in. So.......what do I do now? Is there a way that I can check to see if I'm going to have an issue without starting the engine? I don't want to take the boat out next time and just have it die on me and give me a heart attack. Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[biffdotorg]

If it fired back up at home, you are fine. A trickle going in has little chance to have backed up into the engine. Folks that have never experienced hydro lock should understand, you will know. It will be locked hard, as in, water does not compress like vapor. So it's gonna seize up solid and possibly cause catastrophic failure. So yes, you would have known.

 

[bleudyno]

If it fired back up at home, you are fine. A trickle going in has little chance to have backed up into the engine. Folks that have never experienced hydro lock should understand, you will know. It will be locked hard, as in, water does not compress like vapor. So it's gonna seize up solid and possibly cause catastrophic failure. So yes, you would have known.

So I should be okay? How quickly would an engine lock up if there is in fact water? I probably only ran the engine about 3-4 minutes after the first scare and only revved it a couple times after the second rinse out.......

 

[biffdotorg]

Nothing evaporates water like a hot engine, run her! But honestly, it would have by now. It's not like the water was sitting in there waiting to go in as you shut it down. You are fine.

This is only coming from experience watching 2 stroke engines during Watercross. They could take a couple water ingestions. These high strung four strokes with tight tolerances will not take water. It would be ugly, and you would know it. That's why we don't see 4-stroke sleds in watercross.

 

[bleudyno]

I'm going to do a rinse out one more time tomorrow and cross my fingers that my engine doesn't seize up.........pray for me.....

 

[SamN44]

If the boat started, it didn't hydrolock. Don't stress out. Run the motor for a few minutes on the hose and treat it like a harmless lesson.

 

[SamN44]

if you ever do it again and you're worried, you can pull the plugs and use the starter to turn the motor over without it firing. Any water will blow out the plug holes.

 

[bleudyno]

if you ever do it again and you're worried, you can pull the plugs and use the starter to turn the motor over without it firing. Any water will blow out the plug holes.

How do I do that?? Take out all the spark plugs and turn on engine with the key??

 

[biffdotorg]

I'm going to do a rinse out one more time tomorrow and cross my fingers that my engine doesn't seize up.........pray for me.....

You are way over thinking this situation. Too many threads talking about the right and wrong way of doing things many times throw folks in a panic if it is not done exactly the same way.

It won't, if it ran on the hose already, there is no reason that it should. Don't even bother with the hose. Dry fire it, and if it runs, you are good. These engines can run a few seconds with no hose, just fire it up.

Many of us dry fire them before getting to the boat ramp anyway just to be sure we are not going to be "that guy" at the ramp with a dead battery or forgotten keys/lanyard.

 

[SamN44]

How do I do that?? Take out all the spark plugs and turn on engine with the key??

Yes, but I want to stress that if the boat started you did zero damage. The damage from hydrolock comes from the starter turning the pistons over and they squeeze incompressible water and that bends all the moving bits. The boat would never start if you did damage.

 

[bleudyno]

You are way over thinking this situation. Too many threads talking about the right and wrong way of doing things many times throw folks in a panic if it is not done exactly the same way.

It won't, if it ran on the hose already, there is no reason that it should. Don't even bother with the hose. Dry fire it, and if it runs, you are good. These engines can run a few seconds with no hose, just fire it up.

Many of us dry fire them before getting to the boat ramp anyway just to be sure we are not going to be "that guy" at the ramp with a dead battery or forgotten keys/lanyard.

Yea, as with any illness or complication, searching the web usually turns out worst case scenarios but I still searched and still freaked out. So, the sequence of events goes as follows:

1. Saturday - Flushed out at boat ramp after taking boat out of water. This is wear the scare happened.
2. Proceeded home and did another flush for about 2 minutes (about 1 hr after the first) - engine ran fine
3. Sunday - Boat sat untouched
4. Today, trailered the boat to my warehouse to store and I started the engine again for about 15 seconds and it still ran fine. Engine still shot out some water even though I wasn't flushing it.

From what you guys are saying, if the engine was to get hydrolocked, it would have done it already right???

 

[Frank Marshall]

If you have to use that leaking water hose again, you may want to get a Salt Away mixing unit. It has an on off valve, and would allow you to rinse with Salt Away.

 

[bleudyno]

If you have to use that leaking water hose again, you may want to get a Salt Away mixing unit. It has an on off valve, and would allow you to rinse with Salt Away.

I ordered a hose with its own cut off valve so I won't have to worry about faulty public water lines in the future. Luckily, I have a friend who knows about these engines and I'm going to just take it over to him to have him check it out. Better safe than sorry.......

 

[Cobra Jet Steering LLC]

No problem like everyone said if it started it is fine, but I would run the engine OFF the hose for about 45 seconds to push out excess water from the water box "muffler"

 

[Inthrustwetrust]

How long was it on the hose with water flowing/engine off. If it wasn’t long I would say you are way to worried. If it was a long time then maybe.

 

[djetok]

Engine still shot out some water even though I wasn't flushing it.

From what you guys are saying, if the engine was to get hydrolocked, it would have done it already right???

You will have water in your water boxes , so when you goose on dry land (never full throttle , just quick burp and not over 4k rpms) and water comes out the pump and exhaust. We do this before we store in the winter.

 

[bleudyno]

How long was it on the hose with water flowing/engine off. If it wasn’t long I would say you are way to worried. If it was a long time then maybe.

The hose was probably on for a good 5-7 seconds before I unplugged it from the rinse out port (time it took me to walk from the ignition and jump down to the ground to unplug it. Problem is that I don't know how hard the water was flowing in those seconds. The water was turned off all the way (righty tighty) before I turned off the engine but like I mentioned, don't know wtf happened with that hose valve.

 

[Inthrustwetrust]

The hose was probably on for a good 5-7 seconds before I unplugged it from the rinse out port (time it took me to walk from the ignition and jump down to the ground to unplug it. Problem is that I don't know how hard the water was flowing in those seconds. The water was turned off all the way (righty tighty) before I turned off the engine but like I mentioned, don't know wtf happened with that hose valve.

Oh you are definitely fine. If you said 10 or 15 minutes I would be more worried.

 

[jEt_jAk]

I accidentally forgot to shut off the hose before turning off engine and it ran a few seconds like that one time. It was fine.

 

[bleudyno]

Oh you are definitely fine. If you said 10 or 15 minutes I would be more worried.

Since I have no idea how much water flow was going through after I turned off the engine, lets just say it was semi-full blast (which is pretty doubtful) should I still be okay? I'm not so sure on how the water is routing through the rinse out port and I would really just like to make sure before I end up with issues. I feel like such a newbie (which I am)