Help flooding here and now problems

[Red93TA]

hey guys i need a little help its been flooding here and i was driving back from my parents and had to cross through some high water. I would have stopped and turned around but this idiot behind me was hauling ass and would have rear ended me had i done so. Everything stayed running through the water I slowed way down so as not to splash anything up on the air filter but i think it still sucked up a little water. I stopped at a gas station nearby right afterwards and removed the air filter to see if it had water in it and it did have a little bit. It wasn't completely soaked but it was slightly wet mostly on the bottom side. Now its just running very rough like it has fouled plugs. Do you think it possibly could have fouled them when it sucked the water? Any other ideas if it was that high did it screw up something in the opti maybe? I'm at a loss really the only thing i can think is that it possibly screwed up the spark plugs somehow and i need to replace them. I think tomorrow I will pull them all out and crank the engine a few cycles to make sure there isn't any water in there. I put some b-12 in the tank ... that stuff will remove water from the fuel tank for sure but i don't know if you can get enough in the cylinders to stay there to remove any water from them if its still there. Thanks ~Heath

[Injuneer]

Most likely an electrical component (or components near) the front of the engine that got wet. Typical suspects would be Opti, coil, ICM and plug/coil wires.

Ingesting a small amount of water will not harm the engine. Put enough in it to hydrolock a cylinder, and it wouldn't be running right now. Water won't foul the plugs. Misfires will.

[BrdWAtti2d]

My vote is on a wet opti

[Red93TA]

whats the best thing to do about the opti ?? take it off and dry it. maybe soak in denatured alcohol to dry out the water? stop running it until it dries on its on? Or buy a new one. Please don't say buy a new one cause i can't afford that right now lol. Well I can but I wanted headers dangit. ohh yeah and it didn't hydrolock i know all about that i blew a head gasket on my 69 stang and it hydrolocked and bent a rod so bad it wouldn't even turn over afterwards. This thing starts just fine no locking thank my stars.

[BrdWAtti2d]

I think before I pulled the opti, I'd check the fuel filter for water just in case. Seems doubtfull to me that water would have got into the fuel system unless you were underwater up to your butt but it's worth a look.

Then, like Injuneer said, check all the ignition connections for water, coil and coil wire, ICM, plug wires, wouldn't hurt to put some dielectric grease around the plug and coil wires to keep moisture out and spark in while you have them off (just around the boot, not on the contact points) If of that helps....

You could try pulling the opti and drying it out/cleaning it. But, that's a lot of work to get it all back together and find out it didn't work. Be advised there are some VERY delicate parts inside the opti that would easily be damaged. A light hand here is a must. I doubt it's going to dry out on it's own. It seems like what goes in doesn't come out, not on it's own anyway.

Here's a good write up on what's inside the opti.

Those inverse torx screws on the opti are hard to get out and the E4 torx tool is hard to find locally. I used one of the bolts on top of the throttle body clamped into a tap handle. I wrapped a piece of aluminum around the bolt to keep the tap handle from damaging the bolt.