101 V8 Died (3.5l)

Went to Bendethra this weekend - had about 4" of rain on Sat afternoon - don't know what all the hassle is about getting out of there after rain - piece of cake - except for the last water crossing which I went a bit too fast and killed the engine electrics and they failed to respond to air blowing, WD40, Lanotec and waiting for the engine to dry - result was a tilt tray ride from Snowball back to Canberra via Cooma - it seems the coil failed.

But otherwise the engine performed really well and does not seem to have suffered from its little bout of overheating.

Fog on the way out of Bendethra
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...P1040931-1.jpg

Big Puddle
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...1/P1040933.jpg

Broken in the puddle
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...1/P1040934.jpg

Photos by Peter Mercer

Garry

I have learnt the hard way.
No bonnet means dead slow though the water.
I think you will find the coil OK. as the first thing to get wet is the coil.
the fan picks up any water though the fan tunnel and flicks it around the engine bay in line with the coil.
The coil is not easily moved to another spot or is it easy to dry out.
The dist is in the same area.
As you know I have looked at this problem long and hard.
garry you will also find the extra altenator you have fitted like my 101 is low and flicks the water to the electrics too including the coil.
Remember I removed the fan on my altenater to prevent this.
regards

I am glad I have Premium car road service - the cost of carting my 101 back home was about $1000. Well worth considering for the extra price.

24 hours later the truck is still dead - so something else is going on - the waterproofing equipment has been sabotaged by a previous owner with shielded wires cut and joined with other wire and just taped up with electrical tape. Likewise some of the water proof connections into the coil and dizzy do not seem to be waterproof any more. The coil is still in its waterproof container as is the dissy but leads going in and out may be compromised. If the water gets in it has little chance of getting out - we even filled the small gap between the dissy cap and the aluminium outer case with WD 40 but still did not work.

We have low tension power to the points (too much spark so the condensers may need replacing), there is weak high tension spark to the dissy cap but no spark to the plugs. I had a new rotor button with me but that did not do anything.

As I have not touched anything on the ignition system since I have owned the 101 I will start with the spark plugs and rebuild the ignition system from scratch making whatever improvements are required as I go.

The water proving system is a double edged sword - maybe harder to stop but when it stops it stops in a big way and is difficult to remove water - I have no idea how to get the water out of the shielded coil). A standard car system is easier to stop but can be mobile again with a few squirts of WD40.

In the 101 water hits the front diff and is thrown up into the front of the engine an thrown around by the fan etc - including the low slung alternator - I think some home made rubber/plastic shielding placed in key areas may assist in reducing the amount of water that is flung around.

Any ways - rest today - start fixing tomorrow.

Garry

Compressed air and a nozzle is your friend.............:D

May be we should move this thread to the F/C section.
I have a roll of old fashion copper high tension wire used on igition systems of every old cars and trucks.
My idea with the standard suspressed leads is to run new copper lead though them and reuse all the porcelian ends and fittings.
The other plan was electronic conversion of the suspressed 24 volt dist.
I have not rushed into this as my civie dist converted to electronic and NGK motor bike water resistant spark plug boots is working OK....but could be improved water wise.
Look at the first pic going though the water.....see the water building up right in front of the grill and fan tunnel.
Crawl though the water and you will go up to the top of the tyres with little trouble.
The top of the tyre equals the bottom of the engine fan and the sparkplugs where you will find trouble with out water proofing.
Was that the water crossing up near the cooma road at snow ball ?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 101 Ron

Was that the water crossing up near the cooma road at snow ball ?

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That was the one.

Looked like a decent size hole to stop in! I hope the Bosch distributor I sent you has got you back on the road.:)

Thanks for the dissy - and the note.

I have re-water proofed the original system and ran it with the hose on it for 10 minutes with no issues. The problem (as happened with mine) is that if water gets into the spaces between the outer casings and the dissy or the coil (where mine failed) it does not come out without dismantling the relevant component. As leads are screwed in - in tight spots - you cannot just pull the leads off and give it a squirt with WD40.

A no waterproof system may stop sooner but when it does it is easy to pull the bits off - squirt with WD40 and your on your way.

The coil you sent me runs on 9v so with the ballast resistor should work as a direct replacement for my coil (is a 10v coil) without any additional work so I will carry the lot in the box for a spare at the moment and later if I have any issues change the lot over.

Thanks

Garry