Hi Treg, I've only had a newer boat motor underwater for 48hrs, so I'll base my opinion on that. During a strom my 2yr old 8hp sheared the two 1/2" SS mounting bolts and fell into 2ft of water where it came to rest on it's side in the mud. The engine was NOT running when it entered the water. The supply air intake uses a intake reed valve just behind the carburator so it was a good seal into the crankcase area. Crankcase vacuum opens the reed valve. Upon carb removal I found a small amount of sand/silt on top of the reed valve. I removed the reed valve so I could see into the crankcase. I didn't see any sand or silt or signs of water. I pulled both spark plugs and again NO water/sand/silt. Muffler inspection revealed mud in the lower chamber but was clean to the head mount area. My conclusion: I felt pretty good that no water entered the combustion area or crankcase or transmission. The throttle twist grip, outside engine case, lower muffler was totaly filled with sand, slit and mud. The "closed" fuel line and squeeze bulb had water and dirt inside. The fuel tank was distroyed as the fuel gauge broke and let mud and water in. As it was, total time to clean was about 6hrs on this simple 2cyl engine. Since a tractor engine and transmission has no sealing method in the intake, combustion area, or transmission, like my boat motor has, I would speculate that a "total" tear down cleaning would be required of the tractors to assure any type of continued life span. Any thing less and I think you will disappointed. T_Bone
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