3500 Dodge diesel under water. Any Hope for revival?

sweettractors · Jul 7, 2013

Scooby074 said:
How "underwater"?

6' over the hood, or 6" up the door.

Over the cab. Ken Sweet

Jstpssng · Jul 7, 2013

timster2 said:
Save the engine and chassis drain clean lubricate everything then find a new cab. The computers and wiring will be nothing but a nightmare. Changing the cab is not as hard as it sounds, yes its a lot of work, but you have a good truck why waste it. If it is insured it will be a total loss, as most flood cars/trucks are. It would become a "project truck" for sure.

The hardest part could be finding a decent cab. The running gear was the strongest part of part of that truck anyhow; plus that's extremely low mileage for a 17 year old truck.

Scooby074 · Jul 7, 2013

sweettractors said:
Over the cab. Ken Sweet

Thats not good. Interior electrics that arent sealed are likely a goner.

At least it was fresh water.

Mechanically, first thing Id do is drain all the fluids and note where there was water. Then go from there.

SPIKER · Jul 7, 2013

Ken:

Sorry about the problem, I worked at a place with equipment that worked underground, once they get flooded many items must be worked on.

Like others said the cab/electronics are going to be issues long term. The Engine mechanically won't be too bad but not sure if that is the electronic engine or not. There will be mud/dirt all thru the engine so just draining oil probably is not going to FIX it long term the valve cover, and oil pan should be pulled and hosed out with clean water and then coated with WD40 to get the dirt that flowed into it. Pulled the Valve Cover off one of the Duetsch air cooled engine once that was submerged for ~6 hours not running overnight on a road side construction project and there was muddy sludge on EVERYTHING inside the engine. It was running for the day prior and shut down for the night next day the pit it was in flooded & was under about 6' of dirty/muddy water.

The front/rear dif's will also need to be pulled and spray cleaned to remove water/oil goo left in them.

Trans as mentioned any electronics on it may also be bad. Cleaning it will be similar will have to pull the pan and wash it out but for most part may not be as bad as the engine.

Best thing might be to pull engine & trans & rear ends and adapt to new truck or sell it as a rebuild-core for someone to swap it into their truck. Look at any and all electrical parts they will more than likely be bad or go bad real soon...

Mark

joe t · Jul 7, 2013

Lot of work and it needs to be done fairly quickly before corrosion sets in. Interior needs to be gutted then take apart everthing electrical and clean. The clean out everything mechanical.

Then put it back together and chase some gremlins.

Stimw · Jul 7, 2013

I would sure take a good look at everything before making a decision.
With all the EPA items on engines now days it might be sealed up pretty good except the intake.
There are just too many things to look at once it is checked out to make an informed opinion now.
With that low mileage it might be worth the effort. ????

k0ua · Jul 7, 2013

Blow main Ballast tanks, open Main Air Induction, fire off the diesels and set course for Pearl Harbor. Oh wait, It wasn't a submarine after all?

Sorry Ken I don't know what got into me.. I am guessing you did not have full coverage on the truck, or you would not be asking about this. Or what they are offering is not what you believe the truck to be worth.. Like the others, I think the electronics, not to mention all the carpet, dash, headliner and seats are going to be a problem. I was thinking that save what you can and part it out to recover some of your investment.. But I don't think it will be whole again.. At least not without some money and a lot of time, and headaches. Good luck with it Ken.

James K0UA

94BULLITT · Jul 7, 2013

I think it would be cheaper to find a replacement truck.

joe t · Jul 7, 2013

I'd gut the interior and pull apart every electrical connector on the truck and spray them out with dialectrode cleaner. Set the interior parts out in the sun and let them air out.

I'd drain the engine oil, transmission, and diffs. Spray the diffs out with brake cleaner and fill back up. Overfill the motor and transmission a few times and drain and refill them.

Pull apart the induction, remove the turbo and clean it. Remove the valve cover and injectors. Drain the fuel system and clean it.

It is best to do all this quickly and get it running because you won't be able to get all of the water out of the mechanical stuff unfortunately without 100% disassembling it. Once the motor runs change the oil/tranny fluid again and let it run and change it again till it is hardly milky or just bubbly.

I've been a pretty avid off roader my whole life and have seen plenty of vehicles mainly ATVs go under water and get them running again. ATVs usually on the trail we can get them running again with simple handtools especially if they are fuel injected.

If you don't feel like doing this I'd list it on Craigslist with an honest description asap so someone can get to work on it before stuff starts corroding. If someone does it fast and throughout well the grimlins will pop up fast and they can correct them and it will be a decent truck again.