Last night during a torrential downpour on my way home I ran into a pretty deep puddle probably pretty close to floorpan while I was at about 40mph, powerd through it and about a half mile latter car was acting eratic, engine was lopeing and stutter popping when I blipped the trottle. It stuttered but I got home which was about a mile away noticing popping and small backfires when I blip the throttle. I figured it'd gotten wet and let it dry off. Today it turns over and kicks everynow and again, but it won't start. I tried a few hours latter and had a shotgun backfire that brought the neighbors out of the house. I'm thinking either I ingested water through th Morroso intake in the fender well (no water in the oil though) or I soaked and shorted out the Opti. Any suggestions or trouble shooting tips wouldbe greatly appreciated.

 

40 mph!!!!

Ingesting water into the CAI wouldn't necessarily yield water in the oil. Pull the cai off the MAF and take a look. Water there is a really bad sign.

Let's hope that you didn't suck water into the engine. You probab;y soaked the OPTI and wires. Get some WD-40 (you'll need a lot) and spray the opti and the spark plug wires liberally with the stuff. Give it some time to pull out the water and give it a try...if it starts and runs OK I'd recommend you replace the opti and wires...they'll never be the same.

Powering through water is never a good idea unless you have a lifted 4-wheel drive truck.....

 

I finally had time to look closer today. I pulledf off the intake and the elbow. Intake looked good, but unfortunately the resonator on the elbow was half full of water I also pulled off the drivers side spark plug and coil wires and they all looked good, none burned, or signs of wettnes. The engine cranks and sounds like it should but never fires. I need to make sure it's getting spark, however I'm not sure how to do that, especially with the limited access to the plugs. Definately not getting to the passenger side plugs....

Also how do you tell the diff between an intake an exhaust backfire?

I didn't intentionaly drive through that flooded street, it just popped up. Must have been a plugged drainage canal. We had 2 1/2 inches in a couple hours.

 

intake you will hear and maybe see a flame on the front (intake it will be pretty LOUD) you will also see some smoke in the intake if you look right after the backfire. exhaust the bang will come from the bottom (exhaust ). intake backfire is usually timing is off or you got some crossed wires not sure if a bad opti would cause that too thou.

 

When I was cranking it without the intake on it deffinately sounded like it was pushing air every now and again out of the throttle body. How do you check for spark at the plugs? It does not try to fire up. It is only cranking.

 

I would check the opti make sure its working.there is a sticky on how too do that at the top lt1 based engine tech.

also do you have ses light on check for codes.

 

I had this happen to me, minus the intake full of water.

Pull the cap off the opti. There is moisture in there. Spray the hell out of the cap with WD-40 and let dry. Put the cap back on and then spray the hell out of it with ignition sealer. Spray all the plug wires and coil wire too. Make sure your vents are hooked up if you have a vented opti.

My opti was missing the fitting and hose that run up to the intake elbow, but it had the other hooked up. That created a vacume that sucked water into the opti instead of keeping it out.

 

No, I never got a check engine light before or after hitting the water. Only thing I saw that night was the "traction" light flashing like a disco ball. I'm going to push it into the garage today and start tearing it apart. I imagine getting to the opti will not be fun.