Tchukachinchina t1_japalvo wrote on March 3, 2023 at 1:52 AM

Reply to comment by vermont4runner in PSA: Contaminated Gas in Brattleboro by No-Establishment3083

It takes way more water than a fuel injector will shoot into the cylinder to hydro lock an engine. What you’re thinking of happens when water gets sucked in through the air intake after driving through deep water.

In OPs case, even if it was 100% water that got injected into the engine, the car would stall immediately. No fuel = no run. Drain the tank, flush the lines, change the filters, maybe run an injector cleaner, and then the car is good as it was before the incident. Absolutely no risk of hydro lock in OPs situation.

sad0panda t1_japdhsx wrote on March 3, 2023 at 2:14 AM

Technically speaking, an engine is hydrolocked when it stops running due to water in the cylinder, even if it hasn't caused mechanical damage. What you are describing is hydrolock, it's just reversible so long as you haven't destroyed the piston.

Tchukachinchina t1_jape4zg wrote on March 3, 2023 at 2:19 AM

What happened to OP is not hydrolock. OPs car shut down to lack of fuel. They’re two very different things. Look anywhere for the definition of hydrolock and you’ll find something similar to this:

“ Hydrolock (a shorthand notation for hydrostatic lock or hydraulic lock) is an abnormal condition of any device which is designed to compress a gas by mechanically restraining it; most commonly the reciprocating internal combustion engine, the case this article refers to unless otherwise noted. Hydrolock occurs when a volume of liquid greater than the volume of the cylinder at its minimum (end of the piston's stroke) enters the cylinder. Since liquids are nearly incompressible the piston cannot complete its travel; either the engine must stop rotating or a mechanical failure must occur.“

sad0panda t1_japeinb wrote on March 3, 2023 at 2:22 AM

You are using two different phrases to describe the same thing.

If there is too much water in the fuel, that means too much liquid (water) is entering the cylinder, preventing complete combustion. Hydrolock. Can you explain the difference you are seeing between this and "lack of fuel"?

Status_Mechanic t1_japrrp1 wrote on March 3, 2023 at 4:10 AM

Hydrolock is when the engine won't turn from the liquid is the combustion chamber. You can hydrolock on pure gasoline. OP didn't hydrolock.

foomp t1_japmcpk wrote on March 3, 2023 at 3:24 AM

He's using two different phrases to describe two different things. A hydraulic lock happens when a compressive space gets filled with an incompressible substance, typically water. That is a hydrolock.

The fuel injector doesn't put enough water into the cylinder to create that situation, but it does insert enough water to interrupt proper combustion.

Sad_Dimension_1576 t1_japu8b8 wrote on March 3, 2023 at 4:32 AM

Hydro lock is when the engine try’s to compress a liquid instead of a gas/air. Liquid won’t compress as much and locks up the engine.

Water in fuel gets atomized by the injectors. This is NOT hydrolock. Not enough liquid to lock the engine but it won’t burn well or at all stalling the engine.