Water flooded the entire engine

Tiny
DESTANIE DANIELLE
  • MEMBER
  • 2004 DODGE RAM
  • 5.7L
  • V8
  • 4WD
  • AUTOMATIC
  • 205,917 MILES
Please help me better understand what this means. Do I need to replace the entire motor (5.7 Hemi)? Is there anything I can do before replacing the complete motor? This motor was brand new had under 1,000 miles on it was driven to Houston then flooded out with water filling entire motor.
Friday, August 28th, 2020 AT 10:32 PM

3 Replies

Tiny
KASEKENNY
  • MECHANIC
  • 18,907 POSTS
That is unfortunate. The only way you can save an engine when it has any amount of water in the engine is to drain the oil/water and change the filter with new oil and hope that there is not rust build up. Then run the engine for about 5 minutes and drain the oil again and change the filter again. Basically there will still be some oil in the oil galleys and cylinder heads that may not drain out so adding the new oil and filter will circulate this through and then when you drain it again it will get that out until the point you have just oil in the engine.

This is going to be costly but it is better then replacing the engine. You want to repeat this process until you change the oil and it has no water in it. You will be able to tell when you drain it into a clean drain pan as the oil and water will separate.

The most important thing is to not try to start the engine until you drain it and get the oil out of the pan. If you get water between the bearings and journals then it will go metal to metal and it will start knocking.

This is all assuming you do this before the metal components inside the engine rust. Once this happens you may not get it to break loose but this takes some time.

Let me know what questions you have.
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Saturday, August 29th, 2020 AT 11:50 AM
Tiny
DESTANIE DANIELLE
  • MEMBER
  • 2 POSTS
Thank you KaseKenney1 for your response! I’m assuming the this picture did not post with my original post. I was awarded this truck in my divorce therefore after work has already been done on it by my ex-husband. When I picked it up from the shop these arrangements were made by him. It was driven about 150 miles and it broke down on me before I could get it home. It never ran hot on me but it would only stay running if it hit a certain RPM so we had to put in neutral during stoplights and stop signs. I hope that is helpful and better understanding of what’s going on with it. Let me know if you need anymore details.
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Sunday, August 30th, 2020 AT 1:02 AM
Tiny
KASEKENNY
  • MECHANIC
  • 18,907 POSTS
Just to be clear, they replaced the engine to correct these issues or this is what they found at this point? I am just not clear as to where the water in the engine comes into this.

If this was repaired and now it has water in it then none of this matters. We need to have the engine drained and checked as listed above. However, if this was the repair they made to correct the water in the engine but it is still having issues then it sounds like it needs to go back.

Let me know about this information and we can go from there. Thanks
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Sunday, August 30th, 2020 AT 7:20 PM

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