What do y'all think will happen?

My friend who flooded in Harvey has recovered his Toro zero turn but it still has some water in the oil after 2 complete oil changes and several flushes. He has ran it about an hour or two on the second change and oil is milky. Someone that he trusts more than me told him it needs to be ran and the water will cook out. I see a seized up Kawaski engine in his future. I don't understand why there is still water in this engine. I think he needs to keep flushing and changing until oil stays clear but he is determine to run it. What do y'all think will happen???
 
Have him call Kawasaki for advice. Yes it does seem that with enough time on the engine the water will evaporate out but it's not worth taking a chance on it.

If this was mine at this point I would pull the engine and split the case to wash it all out. While at it pull valve covers and do the same. He should be able to flush the cylinders through the plug holes. Oil everything back up when assembling, new filter, new oil.
 

If he's run it for an hour or two already and it hasn't blown up it'll probably be ok, but I'd want to give it a couple more oil changes myself, he'll also want the clean the crankcase vent, if it gets stopped up from sludge the crankshaft seals will start leaking.
 
I would be concerned about silt and grit left behind by the flood water. If the engine is expensive to replace, a complete disassembly and cleaning might save a lot of money in the long run.
 
What water is left is turning to vapor, aka steam. Once the engine cools condenses back into water and falls back into the oil.

Needs to run the engine long and hard enough to get everything up to operating temp (like mow the yard) to cook the water off. Once it cools down over night pull the dip stick and swab the filler tube with a snug fitting piece of cloth on a rod/wire (like used for cleaning a gun barrel). For the filler tube will condense enough oily water to make it appear as if the engine is full of water when you pull it. The other will be in the crankcase vent tube.

Drain the oil and change the filter while the engine is cold.... Yes cold... You will get more of what water is left out of the engine that way. Then run it again until hot and check it after everthing cools down. If you see water in the filler tube swab it again.

You will never get all of the water out just by running the engine until warm and changing the oil. To many places that attract water in a newer engine for it to work. Valve covers, hydraulic lifters, push rods etc etc.
 
Engine isn't breathing. Good chance the tranny isn't either. It's junk but if he wants to put off the funeral a little bit he needs to address the vents now.
 
Probably OK. Doesn't take much water to turn oil milky. Of course he could boil the water off in a pot if cost is an issue. Outside.
 
We had over five feet of muddy flood water come through the valley in 2011.
Two garden tractors, two push mowers, snow blower and a rototiller were all submerged. I filled them with WD-40 until I could find the time to tear them down & they're all still running today.
 
WD stands for "water displacement". I think 40 was the 40th formula they tried out. It was developed for NASA. I have dried out a lot
of distributor caps with it. Spray it in and wipe it out. It makes sense that it could take the moisture out of an engine.
 
It's near impossible to get all the water out just draining, especially after the water has been whipped into oily froth that sticks in every low spot.

He could try opening up the engine, remove the valve covers, flush it with one of the siphon type air guns and solvent, tip and turn the tractor to get the drain to the lowest point. Once that is done, it should eventually boil away.

Has he looked in the hydro units and front spindles? They are probably water filled too. The hydros won't boil away, as they are not vented with constantly moving air as the engine is.
 
Hello Loganl in WE Texas,

Coolant contamination usually wipes out the bearings. He can expect low oil pressure at least. Should at minimum replace rods and main bearings, gamble on the rest?,
Guido.
 
Truth be known water is bad for an engine but it is not nearly as bad as antifreeze. Water ad oil don't mix. Water always goes to the bottom. So try cracking drain plug when oil is cold and let water run out simple as that. If milky oil comes out then drain it and replace as many times as needed. You will get it out eventually.
 
He just needs to continue to run the engine like normal. The small amount of water in the oil will not hurt the engine at all. It is not anti-freeze which will damage bearings. I would not bother with anymore oil changes for the near term, running the engine long and hard will eventually cook all traces of water from the system.
 
Everyone is missing a vital point. Is this a water cooled engine or an air cooled one. Not good to give advice if you don't know the equipment.
 
it's not just the water, it's the dirt and grit that was in the water that
will ruin the engine and especially the hydros
 
We drained one of mine after it was put in a lake over a sea wall! Very exciting. Ran it and drained one more time and it was good for years and years of hard use. I would guess the silty crud might be the death to your buddies machine though. Mostly clean water isn?t too bad
 
Wow! I am very thankful for all the replies. It is air cooled. We ran it for an hour yesterday doing light mowing and changed the oil, only slightly milky. I am going to check it this morning and now some more with it. The hydro units are the sealed type. We greased the front spindles. The deck spindles are sealed. I am amazed the electric clutch has worked flawlessly... I will provide updates as needed. Thanks again for all the responses.
 
If the mower was submerged, I would be prepared for all the deck spindles to all go bad before the end of this mowing season. How long was the mower under water and how much time was there before it was cleaned up (hours or months)?
 
Being air cooled I would say just run it. Drain all the water you can. Change to a good oil. Then run it for an hour or longer. Get it good and hot. The water will steam out. I have seen this problem many times over forty years. Common problem with RV units. Most people don't see it because they never check the oil. Any engine needs to reach the proper temp in order to operate properly. Since it is air cooled you don't have to worry about coolant leaks. I think he will be ok just needs a good long run to heat things up.
 
just an FYI, my Polaris ranger, one of the checks is to drain the water from the oil.The moisture builds up over time and has to be drained out.I do this quite a few times between oil changes.

Al
 
This isn't old-school. The people advising to 'just keep running it' until it evaporates are wrong. new engines have crankcase recirc right into the combustion intake. The gases are pushed right back into the engine, and the amount of time it takes for the water to come out of suspension in the crankcase will be enough time to wreck the piston, rings, cyl liner or all.

Run it just barely enough so the water is fully emulsified in the oil, maybe 4-5 min. Drain and refill again. Run it again until emulsified, then drain and refill. Do that until there's no more milky in the oil. Then I would leave the engine oil fill port open and leave it in the hot sun for a full day. Then fill and hope for the best.

Small engines have a hard time dealing just with the products of combustion that get into the crankcase. Extra water only makes it worse. Many engines don't have cast iron sleeves and run in a sintered alum or silica-coated Alum sleeve. Water is bad, bad, bad for that material.
 

It doesn't really matter now, the engines been ran for a few hours and had three oil changes during that time. Any damage that might have occurred as already been done.
Only thing left to do is use it until it's gives trouble, then decide if it's worth fixing or not.
 

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