Offroad-Express

I think it's about time we had a bit of tech on this

What are the problem areas?
How do you fix them?
Which petrol engines are more waterproof in stock form?

etc. etc. etc.

Don't forget to post up pics of what you have done

timely - thanks mullet

I live just by the Ashley river and own a petrol so water proofing interests me at the mo

Sister's boy friend has a jackaroo petrol, have been out with him a few times.
He was doing a crossing the other day (has a home brew snorkel) and the engine died mid stream, could restart but only idle then died again. He then restarted and while he held the starter on he managed to drive out (not just under stater but engine was running and accelerating) then when let the starter off it would only idle. Once out and a few seconds it was away again as per usual. can any one explain?

Preparations For Deep Water Crossing

Excellent advice here :
http://www.off-road.com/toyota/tech/water_crossing/

& here:
http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTricks ... fing.shtml

& here: http://www.4wdnz.net/index.php?option=c ... &Itemid=93

I had a terrano V6 and apart from bringng all the breathers back into the cab sealing the the dizzy and runnng a breather for that back into the cab as well and fittng a Snorkel it was pretty waterproof. I went through water halfway up the front windscreen in it no problems. Often in water over bonnet depth and stuck in the river, motor kept going. The only thing that gave me trouble was the cpu unit under the drivers seat.
Al

A watertight snorkel and tight HT leads is all I've done to my engine, the Dizzy sits up nice and high behind the carb and the HEI coil is in the top of the cap, I only go into deep water as a necessity and so far have always come out on all cylinders


the things to watch out for are

electrics get wet and kills the engine

intake sucks up water and kills engine

vehicle swamps, floats or rolls over, washes away
thats where it gets dangerous

intresting i think those rocker cover may get water in them

fweddy wrote:timely - thanks mullet

I live just by the Ashley river and own a petrol so water proofing interests me at the mo

Sister's boy friend has a jackaroo petrol, have been out with him a few times.
He was doing a crossing the other day (has a home brew snorkel) and the engine died mid stream, could restart but only idle then died again. He then restarted and while he held the starter on he managed to drive out (not just under stater but engine was running and accelerating) then when let the starter off it would only idle. Once out and a few seconds it was away again as per usual. can any one explain?

thats what mine used to do, got to the point that when ever i went thru a deepish puddle the mtr would play up. since replacing the ht leads i have had no problems. 99% sure it was mainly the coil lead that was the culprit in my case.

I have never had any trouble with river crossings in a petrol Nissan MQ and I have been in some pretty deep water at times. Have a look at the article in the Nelson 4wd site which details some of the preparations I make.

http://www.4wdnz.net/articles/articles/river_crossings_-_part_1.html

While looking at water crossings

There is the issue if the belt driven fans pulling forward to meet the radiator (as Billy vB recently experienced).

I was gazing under the bonnet of the surf ('86) contemplating such issues but it appears to me that the rather short plastic blades on my fan would have to be at basically right angles to be anywhere near the nice unmarked radiator core (its quite a gap). Is this potentially a problem with these surf fans? any surfies got any experience they can share?

I can put in a vote of confidence for Suzuki engines. The carbed 1300 in me 'ol 413 never missed a beat in water, & it did a few crossings where it was almost floating. I had a homebuilt snorkle & sprayed heaps of silicone spray on the electrics.

I suspect getting the lexus to be that amphibious will take more work...

Cheers
Clint

Clint wrote:I can put in a vote of confidence for Suzuki engines. The carbed 1300 in me 'ol 413 never missed a beat in water, & it did a few crossings where it was almost floating. I had a homebuilt snorkle & sprayed heaps of silicone spray on the electrics.

I suspect getting the lexus to be that amphibious will take more work...

Cheers
Clint

my vitara was bad news in any little puddle untill i sealed up the dizzy and put a breather hose comming off that going into a fuel flter and then another hose off that so it never gets water it it and also my air intake is behind my glovebox inside the cab they seem to go alright in water with these things done even tho they feel like there about to start floating

what's everyone's comments on having the air intake in the cab as Mr OR has done?

fweddy wrote:what's everyone's comments on having the air intake in the cab as Mr OR has done?

its great if you dont mind a bit of induction sound it cost my like $20 for the pipe as apposed to about $400 for a snorkel (only one place had them for my car and wanted to charge me like $400!!!) and it does the same job

details on my first post of my build up thread
http://www.offroadexpress.co.nz/modules ... sc&start=0

mroffroader wrote: it cost my like $20 for the pipe as apposed to about $400 for a snorkel

My thoughts exactly. Of course there is the external waste pipe idea but that can look a bit tacky esp on a machine that doesn't look like a bush monster.

Figure too if the water is that deep inside the cab you have more to worry about than your engine

fweddy wrote:

mroffroader wrote: it cost my like $20 for the pipe as apposed to about $400 for a snorkel

My thoughts exactly. Of course there is the external waste pipe idea but that can look a bit tacky esp on a machine that doesn't look like a bush monster.

Figure too if the water is that deep inside the cab you have more to worry about than your engine

bang on the money there fweddy my vitara looked and still does half decent thats why i didnt put a massive tacky horey pipe up the windscreen like some do its cheap and it works what more do you want

oh and most of all it looks good.....BECAUSE NO ONE CAN SEE IT!!!

I've seen some quite nice systems made out of exhaust tubing. I'd definitely be looking into making my own or getting a quote from an exhaust shop before dropping $400 on a plastic one, especially if it's a fairly simple shape.

Cheers
Clint

yeah - exhaust tubing might be an idea.

What size min diameter?

A smart cookie (with plenty of steel) could make it look like part of an external roll cage

Still thinking of staying inside the panels tho...

fweddy wrote:yeah - exhaust tubing might be an idea.

What size min diameter?

A smart cookie (with plenty of steel) could make it look like part of an external roll cage

Still thinking of staying inside the panels tho...

I'd go for the same dia as your throttle body/carb intake, or bigger. The other thing to consider is if you want to run a plastic scoop on top make it a dia that they come in.

I'm going with the exo cage- snork idea, a mate who did a nice job of a similar setup on his hilux is going to give me a hand.

Cheers
Clint

I am in the process of sorting my water probs, I dont think I have quite got it sorted yet.

http://www.offroadexpress.co.nz/images/albums/album71/Mud_hole.wmv

MATT4U wrote:I am in the process of sorting my water probs, I dont think I have quite got it sorted yet.

http://www.offroadexpress.co.nz/images/albums/album71/Mud_hole.wmv

Matt, take your dizzy off, attach tube to breather, submerse in a bucket of water, blow in tube......where air comes out seal it with RTV allow to dry, complete process until your cheeks are popping and no air coming out install dizzy and run a breather tube into your glove box (or near heater outlet inside).
As for the plugs..... seal in to head with RTV, and seal all round plug caps on dizzy, seal HT lead and you're done, you don't have to worry about anything 12V that isn't HT

Mot of that I had done, the water got to the leads from underneith, wasn't quite enough rtv there, woops, just pulled the leads off the cap and it was all good.

run a breather tube into your glove box

make sure the girlfriend does spill her hand cream in there tho (what is it about women and applying hand cream while travelling - or is it just one's i travel with...)

Ok,
DISTRIBUTOR
Put a 5 finger latex glove over the dizzy and if 4 Cyl for example put a lead through each finger hole and the coil lead through the other and wrap a rubber band round each.

COIL
Put a condom (dont be shy!) over the coil and put a rubber band round the wires going out as one.

Spray siliocon or crc over plugs and leads etc to waterproof them.

SNORKEL
Snorkel is a no brainer if going deeper so make sure all of the hose to it etc is sealed up so thers no chance of water going in.

FAN
If a fan runs off the engine loosen the belt off just before the crossing so if it comes under stress it won't push water through and remember to tighten back up. Just make sure the waterpump can run. Other wise take the fan blades off. I would think a viscois fan would stop working in cold water anyway but any how dont quote me on this. Electric fan is best cause you could put a switch on and turn it off and on.

RADIATOR BLIND
Radiator blind will fend off alot of the water in the first place you could use a taupalin real estate sign or whatever suits

ECU
As alot of the newer vehicles and engines are injected the location of the ecu has to be noted. It could be under the bonnet, behind the glovebox or even under the seat! water and computers dont mix. So raising it might be an idea to maybe glovebox height and if water is in the cab up to glovebox height i think you have more to worry about!

BREATHERS
Raise them! diffs or what ever make sure they are high enough so they dont suck in water

Anyway thats all I can think of off the top of my head my 2c

Cheers,
DAN