Next time i will bring my flippers...

I think the pic explains what happened...

It has been 4 weeks, 8 oil changes, 3 oil filters, and a headlight bulb.

I am trying to figure out if i am in the clear or not. The bike seems to be running fine and i have not heard any unusual sounds. I figured i would post this and if any one has any advice on what to keep an eye (and ear) on, as far as damaged internals go. I have gotten all the water out but the river was quite murky and i did notice some bits of dirt in the filter when i did the first filter change.

It seems fine but i cant get the image of that oil out of my head. Any time line on when i can say "Okay, she made it" or not?

Ugh...yeah that's a tough call. Someone subbed their R and it seemed to run fine for a while, then the bearings went out on it without any warning.

that looks not so bueno.

*what steps did you take by the way? Did you stop on the trail and not run it again? Remove the plug and turn it over? Just curious for future use.

All WR owners that are planning on deep water crossings i would advise you to remove the plug under the airbox before hand. This might sound like the opposite of what you would want to do but by having that plug in it actually let in a ton of water in to the engine that could have been avoided if it was removed.


What i did after i dunked my bike,

It was completely under and floating down stream for about 15 seconds before me and 2 other people could get it out.

First thing i did was pull the plug on the bottom of the air box which let out water like a garden hose for about 10 seconds.

Tipped it upside down to point the exhaust downward to let out any water that was in the pipe (note no water came out of the pipe when i did this)

Tried to start it, it rolled over once or twice then the engine light came on and it would not allow the bike to even try to turn over.

Towed it to my friends house near the trail and removed the air filter and attached a battery charger

Took out the spark plug and hit the electric start and shot water into the sky

After water stopped shooting out i put the plug on and started it, it took a good 20 seconds of trying with the battery juiced up for it to start

Watched the water vapor come out of the exhaust for about 5mins

Changed the oil, went to the dealer the next day and bought 3 oil filters and 2 and a half gallons of oil

Changed the oil again, rode it for a half hour changed it again, changed the filter, changed it again, waited a day changed it again and so on and so on.

Even on my 6th oil change i still found the oil to be a little milky, my last two have been golden with no water so i am hopeful that i have avoided as much damage as possible.

So yeah get the water out ASAP get that plug off and shoot it like free willy and cross your fingers, it has been a month and i still have mine crossed that nothing will 'pop up'

cool. I know it has been said to take the plug out and crank it, just seeing if you did the same. I think now I'll figure out what tools I need to do that on the trail since I sometimes like me some water.

You did clean and reoil the air filter, correct? :)

Been there and done that a couple of times with other engines and I think you will be fine. You did everything and the key is doing it straight away like you did. I assume you are talking freshwater. Amazing how hard that water comes out when you crank it isn't it? It could put a fella's eye out if he was too curious!

Oh that's a terrible sight!

It's like turning around in the club just in time to see your wingman hooking up with the big girl. Sure, he'll laugh about it in a few years but for now ya just can't un-see it o matter how hard ya try. :(

Hey all thanks for the replies,

Yes it was freshwater, and yes i did reoil the air filter lol.

I wanted to add to my "REMOVE THE AIRBOX PLUG" for deep crossings. My friend who went ahead of me was rocking a XR350 with drilled out airbox door and a K&N filter, and he went under as well and he did not get any water in his engine, some came out of the exhaust, but no milkiness in the oil. The explanation? The water was able to drain out of the airbox from the air holes drilled in the airbox door. I thought i was good and he was f'ed but little did i know it was the opposite. The amount of water that came out of my plug when i pulled it made me wanna throw up. so keep that in mind when u are crossing with the possibility of going under, i think it would have saved my engine some water.

Moral of the story, if your friend goes under chances are you are going under too lol