So my engine blew up....

[Chee-Hu]

Oh boy...

[alliedcam1]

Originally Posted by dwx

Was the car making any kind of other noises up to the failure? I'm sure the water incident had something to do with it. I doubt at this point Subaru is going to do anything, the engine could have been so trashed they don't know what caused the issue.

Some of you guys need to relax a bit. Recall? Subaru checking water in the oil? C'mon.

If you have comprehensive insurance they will often times cover a hydrolocked engine.

No noises prior to that. Just reved and failed. The water issue was three or four months before the engine failure and I had always figured a hydrolocked engine would be immediate. If the Subaru engineers come back and say that was the issue I'll deal with it then.

[andrew20195]

I'm guessing you got enough water in the cylinder to cause a slight bend in the connecting rod. Not enough to cause a noticeable loss of power or noise. Even with a very slight bend, the engine is no longer perfectly balanced, and the rod has a weak spot. After running the engine in this condition, the rod finally failed and knocked a hole in the block. The location of that hole does not appear to be in a highly stressed part of the block, and it's exactly where a broken rod would strike as it's slinging around inside.

I saw basically the same thing happen to a friend's lightly modified Civic Si. Guy ran through water, car died, but restarted. We pulled the plugs, changed oil and trans fluid. A few months later the engine failed on the track. In such a situation, a compression test might have alerted us to the bent rod.

[carlitosway6891]

Andrew 20195 sounds like you nailed it. A car will still run with a bent rod or two, just a matter of time before it gives.

Being the dealership already changed your engine, if the engineers do find out if water was the reason for damage, they will do what's called a charge back to the dealer meaning the dealer has to pay for it cause the repairs are made. You already signed a receipt saying the repairs were made free of cost, so they can't go after you....that being said, you will probably be frowned upon when you go there again if they got charged back. I'm really surprised they didn't send an engineer out there to investigate before they made that call cause that's usually protocol for something rare and expensive like that to a new product

[pche]

When a motor stalled due to water, it's not necessarily too late. DO NOT try to crank it. Get it tow to a place where you could safely work on it or a shop. Remove the spark plugs, drain the oil, put some fresh oil in, then turn the engine over. Sometimes that all it needs. The damage is usually done when people try to crank their engine over after it stalled, that's about the worst thing you could do.

[alliedcam1]

Originally Posted by carlitosway6891

I'm really surprised they didn't send an engineer out there to investigate before they made that call cause that's usually protocol for something rare and expensive like that to a new product

They did send an engineer from Sabaru of America. He couldn't figure it out.

[Coheed]

Cold water on an engine block shouldn't cause any cracking. The dT is not high enough to cause that. the block doesn't get over 220*F. Even ice water shouldn't cause cracking. Realistically, this motor bent a rod and threw it up. Congrats on the new motor, just be a little more careful eh?

[dave77]

I've never heard of hydrolock, this is all very interesting.

[Mobius357]

Coming from driving trucks, I wouldn't have thought of ingesting water. Wheel bearings and axle seals would have been my concern.

[BRZPDX]

Originally Posted by ZionsWrath

Yea it's definitely a big hole once you are easily putting 3+ fingers in it

or a babies fist

[ZionsWrath]

or bowling pins, wine bottles, baseball bats, etc

[Dephective]

Originally Posted by pche

When a motor stalled due to water, it's not necessarily too late. DO NOT try to crank it. Get it tow to a place where you could safely work on it or a shop. Remove the spark plugs, drain the oil, put some fresh oil in, then turn the engine over. Sometimes that all it needs. The damage is usually done when people try to crank their engine over after it stalled, that's about the worst thing you could do.

It's not an absolute failure in the event of a hydrolock, no. But the massive knock generated from trying to compress a non-compressible liquid, possibly a few hundred times (revolutions), while running under any kind of throttle is where the serious damage would have been done. When cranking the motor, the torque generated by the starter motor is not even close to even idle. Those start attempts if anything rid the combustion chamber of the liquid and reduce stress on the internals.

There are lots of theories as to what to do during such an event, and I find that you're no better off doing one over the other in reality. IF a rod is bent, a piston hits a valve, or a cylinder gets scored, you're fucked and no amount of fluid change or inspection is going to change that. Either way, you'd save yourself a wait for a tow truck and potentially the bill if you don't have AAA. Limp home and park her till she can get looked at to at least salvage the block assuming the cylinder isn't scored.

[DAN_BRZ]

Originally Posted by carlitosway6891

Andrew 20195 sounds like you nailed it. A car will still run with a bent rod or two, just a matter of time before it gives.

Being the dealership already changed your engine, if the engineers do find out if water was the reason for damage, they will do what's called a charge back to the dealer meaning the dealer has to pay for it cause the repairs are made. You already signed a receipt saying the repairs were made free of cost, so they can't go after you....that being said, you will probably be frowned upon when you go there again if they got charged back. I'm really surprised they didn't send an engineer out there to investigate before they made that call cause that's usually protocol for something rare and expensive like that to a new product

this barely, if ever happens. 99% of the engines i have ever warrantied have been scrapped afterwards, ud be surprised how many warrantied parts are never sent back for inspection.

[carlitosway6891]

Originally Posted by DAN_BRZ

this barely, if ever happens. 99% of the engines i have ever warrantied have been scrapped afterwards, ud be surprised how many warrantied parts are never sent back for inspection.

which is why i said rare and expensive meaning new to the market and i too have warrantied quite a few engines, actually priced one out for a customer recently, CP long block, came out to roughly 10k including labor.... expensive it is too, thats 2GR territory. lots of things do get thrown away without inspection but when they have a new product and something "mysteriously goes wrong, they will usually send someone out

either way, whats done is done, the guy is good to go =)