Sorry this is a long read but boy was it a scary Friday night! My motor got hydrolocked but I was able to save it. Here how it happenend first, I installed a water/meth injection kit on it two weeks ago. In this kit instead of a electrical solenoid valve I used a check valve. Thing is this was a temporary check valve since it was off a chemical pump and was made of pvc and used a spring and ball system. Seems like the seat the ball rested against got messed up or deformed and the ball didnt seal well. So, overnight it seems the water that was in the windshield washer resovoir leaked into the intake since the intake is in a lower spot. Not knowing this I went to start the car Friday night and it turned over once before stopping violently. I was like wtf? I turned the key one more time and all the lights woud go out (from starter not being able to turn). I popped my hood to see what happened and when all looked fine at first I got the a bad feeling so I checked the windshield washer fluid tank and it was empty. Holy crap my heart sank. I took the intake off and I put my hand in through the throttle body and it was full of water. I unplugged the coils, took out the fuel pump fuse, removed all the spark plugs and turned the engine...it spat out a bunch of water. I removed the throttle body and looked inside and it was holding a good half gallon of water. I stuck rags in the intake and dried up all the water. I cranked the motor over a couple more times to make sure all water was out. After that I started to put everything back together and pray I hadnt broken any parts or bent a rod. When I went to start her up she came back to life purring like if nothing happened. What a relief! No noises, no vibrations and no blow-by. The motor has less than 10,000mi and is a forged bottom end so it looks like the starter didnt have enough force to bend or break anything so Im lucky it happened at startup instead of while running. I did an oil change to be safe a drove her around yesterday, so far so good. Scared the living crap out of me though. I saw my wife telling me we didnt have anymore money for the car, LOL. NOOO!

BTW, thnx to Z28rare (Carlos) for lending me a hand... and the McDonalds.

 

Very lucky man keep her purring strong haha

 

Yeah I learned my lesson. I ordered a real check valve with a brass body and stainless internals and now overnight I close the main ball valve between the tank and pump just to be safe.

 

Wow, you lucked out. Go buy a lottery ticket.

 

It's funny...it's always something like a $20 part that will ruin a $20,000 engine. You lucked out man!

 

Actually the valve was $10, with two push-to-lock fittings it came out to $14.

 

Damn Nate dude way to push that luck man. I am damn glad you got it fixed your vette is in my top three favorites.

 

The real question is.... are you going to delete this thread when you sell the car.

 

I'll just advertise is as "motor had a full interior cleaning and tune-up. Full motor flush. Ready to go."

 

For anyone looking at a similar application, get the good stuff the first time!


http://www.mcmaster.com/#7768k51/=6xk7re
7768K51
Brass Spring-Loaded Piston Check Valve 1/8" NPT Fem X 1/8" NPT Fem, Fluoroelastomer Seat

 

Thnx man. It was a hell of a scare.

 

Check to make sure the bolt holes for the starter do not have any micro cracks in that area. I have read about cases when a motor is hydrolocked the corner of the block where the starter attaches to cracks and falls off. The tab broke on my friends car out here in 29 Palms and he tried various fixes. Congrats on getting it cleared out and running again!

 

WOW, close call! Glad it worked out in the end.

 

Thnx, I'll probably look at the flexplate too. So far all seems good.

 

Don't forget. Miguel lent a hand as well.

 

I didnt, he's just not on the forum but thnx to Miguel as well.

 

Cool.

 

That's a good one.