well, since it literally flooded out at my place yesterday, I asked my friend to come ride with me. He has an 06/07 Honda Recon 250, and we got in water to deep, so the motor started sputtering and cut off. We cranked her up but it would only idle, barely giving it any throttle it would cut off. So we pulled her back home. Any suggestions or ideas as to what happen.
- While idling the water came out of the exhaust pipe, and we lifted the front end up real high to make sure there was no more.

- Is it too late or what?

 

Gonna need to drain the oil and the carb.I would put a little kerosene in the engine after draining the oil and turn the engine,don't start it,that should help get rid of any water.Also remove the spark plug and turn it over this will get rid of any top side water,there most likely isn't any since it ran already.

 

Well, they drained the oil, replaced spark plug, cleaned spark plug cap, removed some screw in the exhaust and drained some more oil out of it... they cranked the four wheeler up and it revved high and cut out again. It will still idle but not allow much revving. They are going to unbolt the exhaust tomorrow because we think it may be clogged, since when it cut out there was a bunch of trash and stuff in the water we were in. They are also going to remove the carb and clean it out... any other suggestions?

 

search for my handle as i put my kodiak through the ice last year and there is a whole thread around here about it.

but... you have water in the gas. mine did the same thing the first time we tried to start it.

drain all the gas out... all of it. did i mention "all of it" and put in fresh gas... with some "dry gas" to boot.

then change your oil again becuase by running it with the water in the gas im sure its milkified again. oils cheap in comparison to engines... just do it.

i would also recomend changing the gear oil in the diff cases.

make sure there is no water in the airbox.

hopefully you did not damage the engine by trying to run it. with the water in there..

 

when he says turn it over .... he does not mean upside down.. just crank the engine over a few times so it spits out anything in the cylinder through the spark plug hole. this might have been obvious but...

 

This brings back bad memories....I had just bought a 98 Griz 600 and didn't even have 5 miles on it when riding in the high water of the Mississippi River. I didn't know I was riding on top of a submerged dyke when I drove off the side and my new Griz was completely underwater. I was fortunate enough to be able to grab a tree limb that was submerged in the water and keep my quad at arms length till a guy that was riding with me was able to help me get a strap on it and begin the long and painful process of getting it out. It was underwater for about 45 minutes. After getting it home and draining the oil and gas out of it, it was still locked up. I took the spark plug out, and it shot out of the cylinder like a deer slug along with a bunch of water. I removed all of the plastic, removed the belt case and sprayed WD-40 down the cylinder, flushed the gas tank out with fresh gasoline, and let it set overnight in a heated garage with a fan blowing on it all night. The next day I put in fresh gas and oil and it started right up. I let it run till it got hot, and the water burned out of the oil. I repeated this process 3 more times, along with removing the carburetor and cleaning out all water. There was no dirt in it, so I was lucky there. The only adverse effect of this incident was the speedometer and all of the lights were fogged up afterwards. I took it back to the dealer and showed him the guages and lights and he replaced all of them for free, even though I told him the truth about it. I spent a total of 1 week disassembling and cleaning the quad completely to get rid of the water. I doubt that I would be that lucky with the new 700 FI EPS Grizzly. I am betting that I would be out a ton of money in electronics.

 

Back when I bought my 300 Honda Fourtrax I had it sunk in a creek no more than an hour or two after I signed the papers for it. Brought it home, unloaded it, went riding and promptly buried it so deep in the mud and water that only a portion of the rear fender was visible above the surface. Dragged it out of the hole, drained the carb, blew the water out of the exhaust and continued riding. Those old machines were simple and rugged.

 

Don't take you exhaust pipe off...there is no need.

Make sure airbox and air filter are dry.

Drain all oil, and all gas from ATV (tank and carb) and replace with new fuel.

If it ran at all after flooding, there is no need to remove spark plug.

start it up and ride