I made a big mistake and I can’t believe I’m the guy posting this. I went playing around in muddy pond like areas at the River Run park outside Jacksonville, TX. I do stupid stuff, but this is the by far my crowning event. About 60 minutes into the adventure I got muddy water into the engine. I have no one to blame and I should have known better than to play in water without a snorkel. I'm running stock air intake, technically it’s not running so I’ve just got stock air intake.
I ended up getting stuck in a deep mud hole when things started to show something was wrong. My buddy and I don’t think the hole I got stuck in caused the issue. We’re pretty sure it was from just minutes before when I was driving around like an idiot in what I would describe as a shallow muddy pond. I went slow, I went fast, forwards, backwards and dumbwards. I think back (50 hrs ago) and I’m like wow. Anyway, when I was in the mud hole the air intake was above the mud/water line. The driver side dipped down deep. The mud sludge started to enter the driver side & I left the Jeep running while my buddy hooked up to pull me out. About 30 seconds before getting pulled out I got Check Gauges light. When backing out I could hear there was something wrong with the engine. Sounded like I didn’t have any oil circulating.
We left it on the trail Saturday night. Sunday got supplies and started an oil change. We let it drain for 30 minutes, leaving the top cap off and dip stick out to help drain. It looked bad, grey with texture. Not smooth like water or oil. Changed the filter and added 5 quarts, only bought 10 quarts, wish I had bought more + another oil filter. It started up and at first it was rough but quickly smoothed out and it had oil pressure. The pressure got up to 18-20. I let it idle for 2 minutes and stopped it. Drained the oil for about 20 minutes. Also drained what I could from the newly used oil filter. Filled it with another 5 quarts and added back the oil filter. Started it up and it acted like the previous start, a bit rough and then quickly smoothed out. I say smoothed out, it doesn't sound good, but not like it was going to fall apart. I started to let it idle off the trail. Got about 3 to 4 minutes down the trail when I lost oil pressure. I stopped it and my buddy towed me back to camp. The family & I packed up and headed home. Had to get our travel trailer home so I could borrow another trailer to get the Jeep home. When I had to start it Monday to load it and oil pressure was back again. Towed it 2 hours home and when I unloaded it, the Jeep smoked a medium amount (a lot of smoke, but not crazy smoke) and it smelled bad.
So that's what happened.
My friend is recommending the following course of action.
Get a gallon or two of diesel and spray bottle. Remove the valve cover and use diesel to "wash" valve train down, as good as possible, get new valve cover gasket and replace cover. After upper end is done remove the oil pan. Use diesel to clean underside, as much as you can in all spots, especially around rods and bearings of crank. I suggest you replace oil pump, you're already there. If not pull it and rinse well with diesel. Do not use anything harsher than diesel. Diesel is light, drains down easy, clears most carbon based junk, and is a lubricant to a point. Any residual diesel burns off, no harm. May even pull plugs, all, and then drown cylinder with WD40. It cleans and drains easy and no harm done. You can do this and manually rotate engine at front end, balancer/pulley. And WD, stands for water displacement.
Is my buddy’s plan solid? What are your recommendations? I appreciate all the help I can get.
I ended up getting stuck in a deep mud hole when things started to show something was wrong. My buddy and I don’t think the hole I got stuck in caused the issue. We’re pretty sure it was from just minutes before when I was driving around like an idiot in what I would describe as a shallow muddy pond. I went slow, I went fast, forwards, backwards and dumbwards. I think back (50 hrs ago) and I’m like wow. Anyway, when I was in the mud hole the air intake was above the mud/water line. The driver side dipped down deep. The mud sludge started to enter the driver side & I left the Jeep running while my buddy hooked up to pull me out. About 30 seconds before getting pulled out I got Check Gauges light. When backing out I could hear there was something wrong with the engine. Sounded like I didn’t have any oil circulating.
We left it on the trail Saturday night. Sunday got supplies and started an oil change. We let it drain for 30 minutes, leaving the top cap off and dip stick out to help drain. It looked bad, grey with texture. Not smooth like water or oil. Changed the filter and added 5 quarts, only bought 10 quarts, wish I had bought more + another oil filter. It started up and at first it was rough but quickly smoothed out and it had oil pressure. The pressure got up to 18-20. I let it idle for 2 minutes and stopped it. Drained the oil for about 20 minutes. Also drained what I could from the newly used oil filter. Filled it with another 5 quarts and added back the oil filter. Started it up and it acted like the previous start, a bit rough and then quickly smoothed out. I say smoothed out, it doesn't sound good, but not like it was going to fall apart. I started to let it idle off the trail. Got about 3 to 4 minutes down the trail when I lost oil pressure. I stopped it and my buddy towed me back to camp. The family & I packed up and headed home. Had to get our travel trailer home so I could borrow another trailer to get the Jeep home. When I had to start it Monday to load it and oil pressure was back again. Towed it 2 hours home and when I unloaded it, the Jeep smoked a medium amount (a lot of smoke, but not crazy smoke) and it smelled bad.
So that's what happened.
My friend is recommending the following course of action.
Get a gallon or two of diesel and spray bottle. Remove the valve cover and use diesel to "wash" valve train down, as good as possible, get new valve cover gasket and replace cover. After upper end is done remove the oil pan. Use diesel to clean underside, as much as you can in all spots, especially around rods and bearings of crank. I suggest you replace oil pump, you're already there. If not pull it and rinse well with diesel. Do not use anything harsher than diesel. Diesel is light, drains down easy, clears most carbon based junk, and is a lubricant to a point. Any residual diesel burns off, no harm. May even pull plugs, all, and then drown cylinder with WD40. It cleans and drains easy and no harm done. You can do this and manually rotate engine at front end, balancer/pulley. And WD, stands for water displacement.
Is my buddy’s plan solid? What are your recommendations? I appreciate all the help I can get.