Post by Volktales on Feb 5, 2015 19:38:41 GMT -8
So today I ran across something new at the shop... A regular customer's old YJ was towed in for a no-start condition. It was running fine when parked, but would not start at all. The owner loves his 80's Jeep even though it is kind of tired with almost 400,000 km on the original carbureted in-line six. Anyway whenever a no-start comes in, I like to check for oil and coolant, and both were fine. A quicky under-hood look did not reveal anything out of the ordinary other then lots of dampness (it did POUR the night before). Attempting to crank it over yielded a dull thud as it became quickly apparent the engine was seized solid! Pushing it inside allowed further investigation. I pulled the sparkplugs out to have a peek. Five of them were dripping with water! I tried cranking again which produced geysers of water shooting out of the cylinders. The engine was in fact "hydrolocked". The water in the cylinders cannot be compressed when the pistons move up the bores which effectively seizes the engine. After blowing the water out, including the carb and intake manifold, the engine eventually started and ran just fine. So how did the water get inside the engine??? This model of Jeep has a removable top and a windshield that can be folded down. There are brackets on the hood to support the windshield in the down position. The hood had a large shallow dent in it and the bracket was loose. Pouring water on the hood revealed it pooled in the dent and leaked past the loose bracket. The water then funneled perfectly into the air cleaner assembly and formed a mini lake around the hold down stud above the carburetor. Capillary action worked like a toilet, and down the water went, flooding the carb, intake manifold, and cylinders, thus seizing the engine up quite nicely. I removed and resealed the bracket, no more leaks. Weird. And only in a Jeep...
