WRR Drowning

So a couple of weeks ago I was riding the COBDR with some friends.  Decided I was going to show everyone the proper way to ride through a mud hole and this happened:

https://youtu.be/BE5jwRAwPmg

Well after getting the bike out of the hole and checking the air box (it was dry) and draining the exhaust I tried to start the bike and it would just not fire.  After a hilarious off road tow from a buddy back into town we figured out there was water in the crankcase.  Four oil changes later and the bike was up and running and back on the trails.  Finish the rest of the two week ride without an issue.

So given the fact the air box was dry and the engine was not hydro locked I am puzzled as to how the water got in the crankcase.  Right now I am thinking it was through the breather tube but I am not sure.

Any suggestions?

Nice video, you think there was enough water in the crankcase to stop it from starting? What about the crash angle sensor?

We spent about 2 hours trying to get the bike to run right after the dunking. There was definitely water in the Exhaust and the crankcase.

I am actually thinking I may have a bad roll over sensor since the bike never seems to shut off when dropped.

There definitely was water in the crankcase... took 4 oil changes to get the oil to look normal after that.

My brother thinks that the water in the crankcase would not allow the bike to spin fast enough to start. In retrospect I wished I would have some how tried to measure how much of that mocha crap that came out of the crankcase on the first oil change.

Yeah I guess that is possible, I once overfilled a car With an oil gun. It had a mechanical gauge I thought every revolution was a quart, turns out every revolution was a gallon..... Anyway It didn't want to start with the crank having to turn through the oil. You could tell immediately something was wrong.

Makes me wonder if the crank breather should be relocated, or possibly mount a little filter on it to slow the ingress of water.

beee wrote:

Yeah I guess that is possible, I once overfilled a car With an oil gun.  It had a mechanical gauge I thought every revolution was a quart, turns out every revolution was a gallon.....  Anyway It didn't want to start with the crank having to turn through the oil.  You could tell immediately something was wrong.

Makes me wonder if the crank breather should be relocated, or possibly mount a little filter on it to slow the ingress of water.

Well in this case I think it was more me than the bike. I could have easily gone around but I have been through mud holes bigger than that (granted it wasn't at 10,000 feet and the bike loaded with an extra 80lbs of gear). As some one told me after drowning their DRz400 for the fourth time - if the hole is bigger than the bike, go around.

The strange thing is the airbox looked dry so I assumed no water when down the breather tube. Hence the only route is back through the exhaust which had plenty of water in it.

IMO the water came into the motor through the exhaust.

I've seen this alot at atv mud runs that I went to years ago.

If the motor stalls when the pipes under water, the water gets sucked into the motor.

The water fouls the plug and either leaks down past the rings into the bottom end or hydro locks the motor.

Nothing fouls a plug faster than water, I bet this is why your bike wouldnt start for awhile, you have to pull the plug and dry it to get the motor fired back up.

Biglake wrote:

IMO the water came into the motor through the exhaust.

I've seen this alot at atv mud runs that I went to years ago.

If the motor stalls when the pipes under water, the water gets sucked into the motor.

The water fouls the plug and either leaks down past the rings into the bottom end or hydro locks the motor.

Nothing fouls a plug faster than water, I bet this is why your bike wouldnt start for awhile, you have to pull the plug and dry it to get the motor fired back up.

Yeah we pulled everything apart at the side of the trail. Pulled the plug and it looked clean but the spark seemed a bit weak. At one point I thought water might have gotten into my Power Commander 5 and I bypassed that to see if I could get it going. The one thing we didn't check until we got back to town was the crankcase and that was when we noticed the water.

I suspect you are right about the exhaust based on how much water was in the pipes. We stood the bike up at first to drain it but then later we pulled it all apart.

One of the more frustrating things about this experience was I could not be sure if I was getting fuel. I could hear the fuel pump come on when I turned on the ignition but I wasn't sure if the injector was working and didn't know how to check that. Really made me wish that I would have packed some starting fluid - guess I could have tried to pour some gas into the throttle body but that seemed like a pia at the time. So we rigged up a tow line and headed back into town. Sort of has me rethinking fuel injection at this point.

You could rig a tiny led to light when the injector is receiving power. Properly splice into the 2 wires feeding the injector(probably under the seat), check to see what voltage it runs at and install an led accordingly. You could mount it by your instrument cluster that way you will know if the light is actually working for when you actually need it.

I have actually been planning on swapping out all my fuses for the ones that light up when blown since I won't have a test light on the trail.