Drown out today..

I have never had a problem with drowning out the engine due to water.. Of course I live in a dry climate and water crossongs are next to non-existant around here.. This year has been wet.. So today I am crossing a ravine with water in the bottom.. Low and behold in the middle of the crossing the engine craps out.. I crawl out and open the hood and my buddy cranks the engine.. About two inches of the fan are in water and throwing water all over the place.. We get it to crank up but it drowns again.. I have a winch, but the nearest tree is miles away.. I find a large sage brush and get winched out, luckily.. As soon as the fan is clear of the water it starts right up..

The distributor was dry when I opened it up.. But the coil was getting soaked.. I am figuring that the +- was shorting out..

So, for you guys who live in water world what are my options for drown proofing this engine.

It's a 304..

 

You could start cheap by slathering the sealing surfaces of the spark plug wire boots with dielectric grease. This prevents water from getting near the sparkles and giving them an outlet to ground.
Another thing would be to look around a junk yard for an old ford mustang that has a rubber boot that snapped over the distributor.
http://www.americanmuscle.com/ford-distributor-boot-7993.html
Any kind of plastic bag tied securely enough to not blow off would work. You just want it to act like a raincoat to keep splashed water off the goods, not hermeticly sealing the unit. Otherwise you could experience corrosion from trapped moisture.
Same concept goes for the coil
scroll down for a few pics that illustrate the idea.
http://www.aulro.com/afvb/fcs-military-variations/96865-101-24v-ignition-waterproofing-2.html

There are those that install an electric cooling fan that you can manually turn off for water crossings. This not only keeps the fan from splashing water everywhere, but keeps the water from damaging the fan blades and bending them forward taking out your radiator.
In the early days with one belt, you would just slip the belt off real quick ,cross, and reinstall

 

Thanx, I'll get some grease. I am thinkin I need to start carrying a rubber glove..

 

http://www.amazon.com/Permatex-2205...8VD2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1307315803&sr=8-1

Use this on new plug wires. It's important to get good quality wires, so that the boots fit well. You can also put a bead of dielectric grease around the bottom edge of the distributor cap.

Things are supposed to be fairly waterproof already ... usually if you have cheap or old spark plug wires, water (or driving in the rain) will have an obvious effect - misfiring. The first thing to do is get good plug wires that fit tightly, and a quality distributor cap. Same with the coil - it's supposed to be splashproof in its factory form, but that assumes that you have new or like-new parts.

Also, often you need to wipe out the inside of the cap to remove condensation. If the engine gets wet, you drive away, park, and come back and it won't start. condensation is the problem.

 

Actually the plug wires are new.. The Distributer is still stock, cept for a new rotor and cap .. When I checked the distributer was dry.. The top of the coil was getting wet. I assumed the pos/neg terms on the coil were drowning out.. I have since siliconed the terms.. When I get a chance I am going to do a drown test in the driveway.. Di-electric grease is also on the list.. I plan on swapping the ignition sometime this year, but until then....

 

What's a guy to do.. After applying the sillycon last nite I decided to go out a few minutes ago and see if I can drown the heap.. Ten minutes with the garden hose and it never missed a beat.. Guess I'll have to drive back out 50 miles to the creek crossing and see fer sure.. This time I'll bring a recovery vehicle..

 

A clutch fan also eliminates this problem, the water stops it.

 

Not if the water is only two inches up on hte blades.. I do have a clutch fan.. I am still trying to figure out what causesd me to drown out.. The alternator maybe??

 

i do play in the water sometimes ...make sure that all the ignition connections are good, a little drop in voltage goes a long way., what kind of air filter do you run coulda sucked a little water that stuff dont burn too good......

 

I read an article recently about cutting the bottoms out of plastic containers and placing them around sensitive components and sealing with silicon. Top pops off for access and drying, but keeps most moisture out..... I am planning on trying this on my "fleet"..... LOL

As far as what MIGHT have caused your drown out.....virtually any moisture ingress on your ignition system can cause it. I carry a can of WD-40 at all times for just such occurences....(BTW it was DEVELOPED for this application.....WD stands for Water Displacement formula 40....)

 

So far I have covered the plus minus terms on the coil in sillycone. I applied di-electric grease last nite to all the connections I could find. Probly by the time I get around to giving this setup a field test all the water around here will have abated..

 

Garden hose. (Don't spray directly on the hot exhaust manifolds - BTDT).

 

dont leave any wd 40 vapors inside the cap that stuff burns