02 Camaro SS Hydrolocked
Thread Starter
TECH Junkie
Joined: May 2012
Posts: 3,050
Likes: 716
From: Poplarville, MS
02 Camaro SS Hydrolocked It had rain really hard the night before and the next morning I went to start my 02 Camaro SS and the engine hydrolocked. I let it set for a few min and tried to start it again and it started but was making a very bad knocking noise that went away after about 5 mins. I did not drive it in the night before, so how did the water get in the engine? A week later the # 6 rod broke in haft and trashed the block. Has this happened to anyone else? I don't want this to happen again to my new engine once I get it back togather.
If you'll do a search on this site for hydrolocked ls1, you'll find this has happened to LOTS of people. Now how the water is actually getting into the cylinders?...the jury is still out on that one. Don't start the car again. Maybe you'll save the block.
Thread Starter
TECH Junkie
Joined: May 2012
Posts: 3,050
Likes: 716
From: Poplarville, MS
All of the seatches that I saw the car was being driven at the time of the hydrolock. Mine was not driven in the rain, it was just sitting there. A week later just cruising down the interstate the engine let go. After the tear down I found that the # 6 rod broke in haft and trashed the block.
Maybe,,,,, All of the seatches that I saw the car was being driven at the time of the hydrolock. Mine was not driven in the rain, it was just sitting there. A week later just cruising down the interstate the engine let go. After the tear down I found that the # 6 rod broke in haft and trashed the block.
It had rain really hard the night before and the next morning I went to start my 02 Camaro SS and the engine hydrolocked. I let it set for a few min and tried to start it again and it started but was making a very bad knocking noise that went away after about 5 mins. I did not drive it in the night before, so how did the water get in the engine? A week later the # 6 rod broke in haft and trashed the block. Has this happened to anyone else? I don't want this to happen again to my new engine once I get it back togather.
What intake is on the car, do you have any sheet metal intake that sucks cool are from the ground. Like a Super Sucker Ram Air???
The biggest thing is that as long as your not trying to drive through water you will be fine.
Thread Starter
TECH Junkie
Joined: May 2012
Posts: 3,050
Likes: 716
From: Poplarville, MS
The intake and all the rest of the car is stock. Like I said the car was parked when it rained the night before. Is it possible the rain came in under or though the cowl and got on top of the engine and leaked in?
There have been several threads about that after a rain storm. Check this thread out.
https://ls1tech.com/forums/generatio...yesterday.html
https://ls1tech.com/forums/generatio...yesterday.html
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was it just water in the cylinder? only physical way i can think of water entering the intake is getting on top of a leaky injector seal and slowly seeping in or thru a crack in the intake. but i guess water would have to be pouring over it like a flood. theoretically a head gasket leak can do it too. was there no coolant in the water when you tore it down?
Nobody know for sure exactly how or why it happens. I think one of the ideas is, it gets past the cowl, puddles up in the valley cover area and leaks past the intake manifold seals. Only way this would be possible is if one or more of the intake seals was not sealing completely, allowing just enough water to leak into the engine.
Thread Starter
TECH Junkie
Joined: May 2012
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From: Poplarville, MS
That’s what I was thinking. I just want to find the cause so this doesn't happen again to my new engine once I get it back together. Does anyone know for sure this is what happens?
Last year my rod on the #5 cylinder bent cause of hydrolock. It had rained really hard that day also and when I went to start the car, it made a violent shake right when it cranked over. Well I went to try and restart it and it made a real bad deep tap noise. It was very distinct on the drivers side. Well we went to check lifters and found that the #5 piston at TDC was .076" recessed from the block deck. The tapping noise was what we believe to be the skirt of the piston barely tapping the crank. The car ran good and the frequency of the tap was directly proportional to the RPM. I had the injector tested and we put 120psi up to it and it never made a drip. Now that left 2 options which was that it could've stayed open after shutdown or water somehow leaked in through the gasket on the intake runner. We went with water leak as it had never done this the whole time I'd had it.
Last edited by Zach99Z; May 21, 2012 at 07:49 PM.
I wonder how water just sitting on an intake or valley cover can leak through a leaky gasket....but when the engine is running before the hydralock happened it didn't have a serious vacuum leak under the strong suction of the pistons through that same gasket.
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Thread Starter
TECH Junkie
Joined: May 2012
Posts: 3,050
Likes: 716
From: Poplarville, MS
I don't know, the engine seemed to be running fine the day before.
By the way it's spelled "hydrolock".
On another note, I was helping a friend work on his S10 truck. He thought the motor was locked up solid. It had that heavy clunk noise when you tried to crank it over. What it turned out to be was fuel leaking from the injector filling up the cylinder. I guess that starter didn't have enough power to crank it over and start breaking stuff.
But in the case of the OP, it sounds like water was the issue.
But in the case of the OP, it sounds like water was the issue.
You don't have to drive the car in the rain to get water in it. Just sitting in the rain can make it happen. We all know these cars leak by the cowl and hood. It doesn't take much liquid to get in the cylinder to cause a hydrolock. Say the OP has a 63cc combustion chamber and the motor is on the compression stroke all it takes is 0.0166 gallons of a liquid to fill that space up. That isn't much at all and anymore than that something will have to give, such as a connecting rod. If a gasket has a crack, a pinch, or just isn't seated perfectly all the way around that's where this leak could happen.
You may.. You don't have to drive the car in the rain to get water in it. Just sitting in the rain can make it happen. We all know these cars leak by the cowl and hood. It doesn't take much liquid to get in the cylinder to cause a hydrolock. Say the OP has a 63cc combustion chamber and the motor is on the compression stroke all it takes is 0.0166 gallons of a liquid to fill that space up. That isn't much at all and anymore than that something will have to give, such as a connecting rod. If a gasket has a crack, a pinch, or just isn't seated perfectly all the way around that's where this leak could happen.
