I own a 2003 1500 5.7 V8 Hemi QC. It has been raining a lot latley and I never realy paid any attention to what it might do to the engine because I was always told to pay a attention to the highdroplaining that can happen. The first time I noticed a problem was in a Walmart parking lot, I was not going fast and it was raining hard and had been raining all day. While truck was moving it started to well the best way I can say is chug please don't laugh. Yesterday it was raining even harder and I was going down the highway at 55 and nothing happend, but when I turned off the hwy to a back road (dirt) there was a puddle that I drove through very slow so that I would NOT splash water into the engine. Nothin happend, went around a curve and went into an even deeper puddle that went all the way across the road and my truck started to bog down so I tried to go faster. Got out of the water and the engine stalled. It started right back up, but now IM afraid that I have damaged my engine. When It started back up there was a big white smoke cloud then there was none. My husband says I almost hydrolocked the engine, but there was nothing in the aircleaner box and the airfilter was dry. I may be female but I do know some things about engines. Anybody got any ideas.

 

Yeah.......could be the damp causing shorts in your ignition wires to the plugs.
When was the last time you had them changed?
I believe there is a service interval specified in the book as to when plug wires need changing.
Someone on here will pipe up the specs for you.
Have you had the truck serviced recently or do you need one soon?
That might also be your problem.
A quick solution to your damp problem, would be to spray a liberal coating of WD40 over the plug wires to drive out any damp/wetness.
Try that, and if she runs ok for a few days or so, that was your problem.
Hope all this helps?
Al.
PS............your right. Not all lady's are stupid about cars etc and there's NEVER a dumb question either.

 

Hi Angel,
No, if your air cleaner system is still stock, unless you get the water level over top of the hood, you will not have to worry about ingesting water into your engine. I also see you are running LP gas on your truck. Sounds to me it has more to do with that than anything. LP takes a bit more to ignite than standard gas does. Might be something with LP mixer when you step on it, the plugs you have, or a number of other possibilities. definitely not water ingestion though.

 

The white "smoke" you have seen could have very well been steam. If the air filter is smooth still and there is no water marks, then no water was introduced into the engine. If there was, you would have developed a lifter tick before hydrolock would have set in. The 5.7L hemi actually has two spark plugs per cylinder. There aren't really any "wires" they are a short jumper from the igniton coil.

 

You did not almost hydrolock your engine and splashing water into these newer engines will not hurt them about 90% of the time as long as a copious amout of water does not get into your air intake. Do what the fire department does, spray inside your plug wire boots with a silicone spray and replace tightly. As long as all your electrical connections are tightly sealed, you can splash all day. How do you think Jeeps do it? and I've had water 1/2 up the grill.......
There is no such thing as almost hydrolocking an engine. You either do it or not. If your lucky it will just kill the motor and you have to pull your plugs and drain the water. If you're not, it will crack the head or block. Hydrolocking is when enough water gets in the engine cylinders to actually stop the piston from compressing the air/fuel mixture.

 

Hmmmm really..............no wires?

OK, whats those things that run from one side of a coil pack to a reciprocating plug on the other????
Al.

 

If the engine is running fine now, then no damage was done.

You probably DID injest some water/spray. It doesn't take much to cause the white smoke, steam.

That steam came from somewhere.

The poor running while you were doing it was probably caused by wet wires like said above.

Carry a can of starter fluid. If that happens again, just spray the wires with it real good.

 

The white smoke was steam, from water splashing on the tailpipes and the engine stalled because probably something to do with LP gas but you most likely didnt harm the engine at all. I am 99% sure....

 

Whats this LP gas?
Is it petrol, or the LPG stuff I'm running on here in the UK?
Al.

 

Hydrolocking will tend to break the weakest part first, i.e., piston, rod or crank (which on the whole are weaker than the CAST IRON cylinder block...). Really fun to watch it happen to big bore marine diesels (unless you have to fix it...)