OMG HELP ASAP BIG PROBLEM NEED HELP BEFORE ENGINE DIES!!!

[Only4U]

about 3" of my radiator fluid is missing. it's in my engine. don't ask, that damn tb spacer did it somehow, but i have water in there and can see it standing. what do i need to do? start car and rev it high and burn it off? or stick a rag on a hanger down there and try to soak it up THEN burn it off? HELP PLEASE. this is bad, i'm pretty sure my engine is gone...

[MustangEater8251]

its in the engine?

like behind the throttle body?

if so, open the butterfly, soak up what you can and let the rest evaporate best you can.

Maybe shoot an hair dryer in the best you can?


Are you sure its in your motor?

[MustangEater8251]

by the way do not start the motor, if you have as much water as I am thinking you will hydra lock it for sure.

[Only4U]

hey dude, here's what happened:

it was a bit of antifreeze in there, so i stuck a t-shirt down there with a hanger and soaked pretty much all i could get too (could NOT tell if any of it had gone into the little cylinder holes or whatever). anyway, after we soak it up i turn the engine on and just rev the thing up to 3 and a half for about 5 minutes--white smoke the whole time. finally, it was all good--drove it around, don't think i lost any performance. thx for your advice...

[AMinor65]

Phew!! Glad you're okay. I just ordered one. How did you get antifreeze in there? Did you lower your coolant level below the throttle body?

[Only4U]

nah, you won't lose much antifreeze UNLESS YOU ARE MORON LIKE I AM AND DON'T BACK THE STUDS OUT AND REPLACE THE BOTTOM BOLT!!! my advice would to just replace both studs and the bottom bolt with all three bolts dee sends you--maybe even go get 3 nuts to put on the end of them so that you know they won't even come loose. if you turn your car on and you see a leak or here screeching noises, you have a leak and immediately turn the car off or you will eventually have the same problem i did--then you will not want to continue and finish the tb spacer problem, because i'm not goin near that thing again. good luck!

[DEE97GTP]

You must also remember to tighten the bolts. If you have 2 out of 3 bolts loose on your TB even without a spacer, you will have the same problem.

DEE

[Magnus]

Yea, and for those who do a search on this topic..

NEVER start the car when you know water/coolant is inside the engine. Pull the plugs and crank the motor over by hand.

[Only4U]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>NEVER start the car when you know water/coolant is inside the engine. Pull the plugs and crank the motor over by hand.

<hr></blockquote>

magnus, i'm not sure if you are saying what i did was wrong or not, but i got this advice from a couople of well known guys on this board that know quite a bit about cars. i was told to soak as much of it up as i could (and i got it all that i could see) and then crank the car and let all of the antifreeze that happened to be left, burn up and wait till the smoke stopped coming from my exhaust. even if this is the incorrect way to do things--would i have noticed a problem by now? or will something go out in a week, month, year ???? because i did it this way? thx.

[ September 05, 2002: Message edited by: Only4U ]</p>

[Magnus]

Your car seems ok, so I wouldn't worry..

THis is why I would NOT crank the car and let the antiffreeze "burn up"..

Say you do have standing water in your intake.. say perhaps a puddle at your intake valve.. When your intake valve opens up, that water drops down into the cylinder.. the valve closes and the piston comes up to compress the mixture.. Water won't compress and something is going to break. Either your piston will break, or your starter will sheer right off the block.

If you pull the plugs, the piston can push whatever is in there right out of the plug hole. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Only4U]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Your car seems ok, so I wouldn't worry..
THis is why I would NOT crank the car and let the antiffreeze "burn up"..

Say you do have standing water in your intake.. say perhaps a puddle at your intake valve.. When your intake valve opens up, that water drops down into the cylinder.. the valve closes and the piston comes up to compress the mixture.. Water won't compress and something is going to break. Either your piston will break, or your starter will sheer right off the block.

If you pull the plugs, the piston can push whatever is in there right out of the plug hole.

<hr></blockquote>

makes good sense too. not sure exactly where the intake valve is, but when you look into your engine when you take the TB off i could see the puddle of antifreeze. by the time we were done sticking t-shirts down there, the inside of what we could see was completely dried up.

as far as the piston getting wet and breaking...i most positive that it got pretty wet--or i don't think i would have seen as much smoke for so long. but i'm guessing that if i had broken or cracked a head, i would have seen a performance difference, maybe heard a weird noise, and maybe got an SES light i assume. so i think my car is ok as well.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>You must also remember to tighten the bolts. If you have 2 out of 3 bolts loose on your TB even without a spacer, you will have the same problem. <hr></blockquote>

dee, i have another question. the left stud that came stock i stripped and replaced it with a bolt you sent me. should i buy another stud or a nut to put on this bolt--or will this bolt work fine how it is--as long as it is tight?

thx for your help guys and sorry for all the inconviniences (especially dee). but if it weren't for this board i probably would have a dead engine by now. thx a lot guys.

[pgriffith]

I still dont see how this is related to the TB spacer. Can somebody explain this to me?

[Only4U]

since i had first hand experience, i will explain it...if i have screwed anything up, someone up higher feel free to correct...

first off, you have to know your TB and how the coolant runs through it and have an idea of what it all looks like when taken apart. basically, the purpose of the spacer it to block off the coolant from flowing into and through the TB, and also seperating the two metals (engine and TB) so that no heat conducts through the engine and gets the TB hot. now, when you put the spacer on, you are making the coolant turn around and go back through it's normal cycle by blocking it from entering the TB, get it? hence, cooler air; cooler air = denser air; denser air = more air; more air = more power.

so, the reason my experience has to do with the spacer is this:

if you don't get all the nuts and bolts tightened well, then when your car starts and antifreeze begins to get pumped into your engine, it will be leaking though the TB and your car, in order to run, is sucking in air--but the only thing it's getting is antifreeze because there is a leak. SO, if the bolts are not tight enough, your car will run incredibly rich with about 10% air and about 40% antifreeze along with the 50% fuel. and when water/antifreeze gets in your engine--it's really bad. that's why we are talking about piston heads and such.

make sense?

if i had been a little smarter, i would have waited until my engine was completely cooled off. this way, when i started my car, the radiator wouldn't have started sending antifreeze to the engine and i would have picked up on the noises the car was making beforehand and i could of been able to tell something was wrong. but, since my engine was already warm, the exact moment i turned my car on, antifreeze was making it's route already and it was too late to stop it from entering the engine.

hope this clears any confusions up.

[ September 05, 2002: Message edited by: Only4U ]</p>

[AMinor65]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by pgriffith:
I still dont see how this is related to the TB spacer. Can somebody explain this to me?<hr></blockquote>

It just happened when he was attempting to install the throttle body spacer. I fully understand why Only4U has worded everything like he has.

[DEE97GTP]

Evan,It should be fine without it, but threadlock is something I always recommend. I use bolts myself since I had taken the TB on and off so many times. The factory studs are pretty soft, so they don't stand up to repeated use like that.

DEE