So basically I am a huge dumb A**. I did an oil change today and and changed the SRI to the CAI for the summer and spring. I did the throttle body coolant bypass mod too but I Fed that part up. Instead of doing the way I have seen it done here many a times I saw a different way that would work with out having to buy any connectors. Basically I connected My coolant line off my engine and connected it to my breather line for my engine. Started it up and then it died. So i checked things out and tried again. After checking things I realized what I did. So I have pulled the plugs and looked down and I can see the coolant in the cylinders, The engine is still able to crank over but its in bad shape. Cylinder #1 is completely full of water and now, i tried to crank over the engine to see the cylinders move and it wont even crank over. I think my battery is dead but I might have bigger problems then just a dead battery? What do you guys think. Thanks

 

Ouch, I would definitely have a reputable local garage take a look at it, most likely going to be pricey to fix, I feel your pain.

 

Your telling me, I feel like crap, due to pure stupidity I might have killed my engine. My dad was a mechanic back in the day and is very mechanically inclined and he is gonna help me look at it. His first words on the phone was possible bent rods. This day sucks. i just looked at the tread about the guy who hydrolocked his car on the road and totaled the engine bent rods and all. i hope this is not me.

 

Sorry, I cant add any helpfull information as I am not very mechanically inclined, but were all hoping for the best, I know if this hapened to me I would feel like crap, hope it all works out.

 

A very expensive mistake. Let us know how it goes. Did your dad yell at you on the phone?

 

Wow man that sucks. Hope everything works out for the best. Is there any way insurance can help you out here?

 

Do not crank the engine with water in it. The water will not compress so something else, such as your piston rods, is going to have to give. Get something like a turkey baster and suck the water out through the spark plug holes. Then pour engine oil in and repeat. Do that a couple times till you've got as much out as you're going to get. This will keep the water from corroding the cylinder walls and doing more damage than is already done. You'll probably have to do a full tear down and see what's wrong. It's going to be expensive, even if you don't have to replace the engine.

Insurance is quite unlikely to cover this. Painful way to learn a lesson. Next time think about what you're doing before performing random internet mods. If you don't understand why you're doing it, don't.

 

After you realized your mistake, you made another one and cranked the engine before draining out the water?

I don't think it'll be as bad as the normal hydrolock in that most cars are going at speed (higher rpm than idle). But yes, it will be costly to fix even if you caused the damage by trying to start the engine.

 

Its funny I would have thought I would never be dumb enough to do something like this. I am taking my car to my dad's garage and its tear down time. I think I did some damage to to the either the rods or wrist pin. So Its not good at all. Its basically gonna cost at least a grand with free labor. I definitely deserve the dumb ass of the year award for this one. At least when Its all said and done I will have a rebuilt engine, but I wan not planning on doing this now, or ever. I just got done with a boat engine rebuild now I get to do this.

 

might as well build up the internals now

 

I thought about going with some aftermarket pistons rods etc., but that route is 3 times more exspensive then stock. I am going to replace the water pump, timing chain and possibly clutch if I have to pull the block. Hopefully the block itself is not messed up so I can just pull the rods and pistons replace the bad parts put on new rings. Hopefully the crank is in good shape. I would like to leave that in so I dont have to pull the block and unmarry the block and tranny. Although if I see any water damage to my crank bearings I have no choice but to pull the block. Its gonna be a ton of work but when its all said and done I will have a new engine basically.

 

Can ya say father and son project? Sorry to hear about your mistake. I'm sure lesson learned. Good luck.

 

Time for a K23 swap.

 

If it makes you feel any better, I had to tear down the engine in my Neon 4 times because the timing belt broke. If that POS could handle valve and piston contact at 3500+ RPMs (first time I was cruising at about 80 on the Turnpike) without major damage, the Honda motor should be able to take it. I also blew a head gasket in that car and leaked coolant into the compression chamber. Shot a spark plug right out of the engine and sent boiling hot coolant 20 ft into the air. It was a neon green geyser. Of course, it did this after I'd managed to get it into a parking lot and had the hood open and was standing right in front of it. Now that I think about it, that car must have hated me, it was constantly breaking down (not due to poor maintenance, Dad's an ASE certified Master Tech/Instructor) it sprayed me with boiling hot coolant and a/c leak detector dye. The air went out in the summer time, but worked great through the winter. One of the happiest days of my life was the day I got rid of that POS. I really hope this one mistake doesn't leave a similar taste for your TSX in your mouth.

 

Wow that sucks. I had kinda a similar experience with my 91 jeep but not as bad. I blew a head gasket going over a mountain pass 3 years ago, and had my mechanic uncle who was out of work at the time fix it while i was away on a forest fire. I thought I was doing him a favor, by giving him some money to stay a little afloat and give him something to do while he was on strike. When I got it back it just didn't run right, like it was only running on 5 cylinders. Being the middle of the summer and fire season I just let it be till fall. Then I blew the head gasket again! So this time I did the work, turns out he didn't get the push rods fully installed right on cylinder 5 so it wasn't letting exhaust gas out. No wonder it ran like shit and blew the gasket again. Oh yeah this is after putting 2 water pumps in the darn thing, one time in the middle of a safeway parking lot in the middle of the night. After that last time with the head gasket it ran great, and about 6 months later traded it in for the TSX. The TSX problem is more my fault then the cars, i got complacent and F-ed up. But no this little fiasco will not put a sour taste in my mouth, I'm actually a little happy I did it, because now i get to break in the engine myself (I bought it used) and this way I know it will be done right. Hopefully I can boost my gas milage, before all this I was only getting 28mpg on the freeway, and I know if the car is broke in correctly it can much better then that. Ohh cars, its a love hate relationship.

 

that would be a sweet thing to do, but It would be lots more work replacing a lot more then what I want too. My head is still good so I don't need to touch that. Also what about the ECU? i think it would cost me about 3-4 grand for the k23 swap and it should be just under 2k (worst case scenario) for the k24 rebuild. Worst case scenario is basically a whole new short block. You do have a good idea but I don't want to be first to go down that road on my one and only car right now, it sucks enough not having a car for this long.

 

I got parts!!! Getting parts is a pain in the ass. I went with just stock replacement parts. Turns out I got lucky and only bent 1 rod and nicked the cylinder wall below where the rings come in contact. Due to overall stress put on all the rods and pistons I am replacing all 4 of them. Getting crank and rod bearings are a pain with the color codes and what not. I had to wait to order my rod bearings because I didn't know the code until I got the rods. So now I am just waiting on Those to come in from Cali, and of course one of them is on back order so I can't do much this weekend with out it. It should be in tuesday, maybe wednesday. Also while I got it apart I am replacing the clutch, timing chain and tensioner, water pump and I think thats it. If want to look in the shop manual and see what it takes to adjust the valves too, from the looks of it, its just a screw adjustment and not shims. if thats the case I will adjust those guys back to spec, it not I will let it be. I will post pics of the block and rods when I am all done. I guess in the long run this is a good thing, I will get some maintenance done a little early (got 82,000 miles on her) and I basically get a new short block. I do miss my car though, I got my mom's 06 325i sport sedan, long and short of it is I like my TSX a lot better. Although it is a nice car to drive, if only the TSX had power like that thing. Maybe with Hondata I/H and high flow cat it would be close to the torque numbers, thats where my money was going to go, but now I must wait, oh well income tax refunds are only a year away.

 

I'm specifically requesting detailed pics of the timing chain replacement and pics of the part new and used (side by side) in that area. I'm also assuming you have pulled the motor or are you doing it in place?

 

I will definitely get some pigs posted about all of this. I did pull the engine to do this work mostly because its almost impossible to pull the timing chain cover with the engine in the car. There is just not enough space to get the cover past the VTEC sylinoid (spelling sorry). I do want to thank you moda we pulled the engine before the shop manual came and I used your DIY to pull the axles. I'm thinking about doing a huge DIY for a short block rebuild, all depends on how many good pics I remember to take. I will at least do something for the timing chain replacement.