I know this will not help you but maybe you find some solace in knowing that others have water problems too. Ha!!

High water is common here in So. Indiana, especially along the river bottoms. Several years ago we took one of the boys new girlfriend to basketball game. In So. In. basketball is not a sport but just one step below religion. It was raining and there was water across the road but I had no trouble getting to the girl’s house. On the way home it had turned dark and there appeared to be just a little more water but it had not rained much more so I decided to chance it. Wrong Choice!! We were in what the boys called “The Mother Ship,” a ’96 Dodge conversion van with a ¾ ton chassis, which had a fairly high clearance. As I neared the end of the water, the front wave made by the van hit a hill and rolled back like a tidal wave. At least I think that is what happened. The windshield of the van for an instant looked like I was looking into an aquarium. Of course the engine died. I tried to start it but it was frozen. I had to walk about three miles in the dark over a road covered in several places with floodwater to find a house that would let me call some friends to come and take the family home. (The next week I bought a cell phone!!) We trailered the van home after church the next day and surveyed the damage. The air intake hose starts high over the radiator and runs from there down hill to the throttle body and manifold. So all the water was funneled directly into the engine. Even after pulling the plugs, the engine would not turn at all. The dealer said they could not get to it for two weeks and it was still under warranty. Some how I did not think that damage from under water touring was covered in the warranty any way, so my hot rod buddy, Mike (the one with the ’57 in the photo gallery) and I decided to take things into our own hands. Neither of us are professional mechanics and I had never even worked on a fuel injection engine before. When we finally got the heads and pan off, all the cylinders were filled with water. There was so much water in that engine we were surprised that there were no fish in the oil pan. The left second piston was stuck down and the rod was bent with about a 30 degree arc. Mike had that rod and piston up on his garage wall for years. The cylinder wall and crank were intact. We replaced the piston and rod, changed all its vital fluids including transmission and differential and put the Mother Ship back on the road. The van now has about 115,000 miles on it with no further engine problems except for some odd reason it runs hot when we drive it in the mountains in the summer time. I doubt that this is related to its submarine heritage. We have not even had to change the starter or alternator.

I hope that you find a simple easy to fix problem.

Rick