Hey guys... had a fun day on the mountain (Utah). We've been getting pounded by rain and there were some nice puddles where I was riding today. I was being filmed by a Bluetorch guy, and I was trying to give him some good footage-...

So I was hitting these mud puddles pretty hard. Well I managed to find a puddle that ended up being 4 feet deep. When I lost traction to the bottom- I left the throttle open full so the engine wouldn't die and wanted to keep the wheels spinning to get it out of the soup. The engine was under water for a second or two but it soaked the 400ex entirely with EXTREMELY muddy water.

I run my 400ex with a K&N and outerware- no air box lid. Should I be worried? I noticed I couldn't idle, and I imagine it was because my outerware was soaked. I took it to the powerwash station and cleaned everything as best as possible. I haven't run it since... I was hoping to get some cleanup/maintenence tips before I did anymore (possible) damage.

Any ideas?

Anyone want the footage for their website? It was pretty good.... email cbrian3@qwest.net

 

I recomend cainging the oil , I did the same thing with my recon and the oil had lots of water in it , it looked like chocolate milk

 

Drain the oil, pour in some kerosene (don't start it up)drain, fill with oil (cheap stuff should work for this), drain again and if it seems all the water is out, add your regular oil, change or clean oil filter and make sure your air filter is dry. After you've run it abit, check your oil and make sure it's not milky or still has kerosene in it, if it does, change again until it seems right. I would say that if you haven't started it yet, then pull the spark plug and turn the motor over to get any water out of the cylinder, but I guess it's too late for that, hopefully no damage was done.

 

Thanks for the tip-

Kerosene?... what's that supposed to do? Is water attracted to kerosene? How would water get into the oil resevoir anyway?

Thanks

 

Us mudboggers have always used kerosene or diesel to help get the water out of the crankcase. I never thought about the 400EX being dry sump, if it is, i'm not sure what to tell you, i've never dealt with a drowned out dry-sump motor. But on a standard wet sump, if the engine sucks in water, it will get into the crankcase and a water/oil mixture is not exactly good for your engine...