hello,
i just finished fixing my 97 hydolock issue with a new piston, rod, bearings and gaskets,. when it happend it only ran for a couple of seconds, broke the rod clean. when i opened it up and it was the #4 cyl. i couldn't find any other damage except a small ding from the valve on the top of the piston, valve seamed ok.
i used all ford parts to put it back together with care.
my problem is when i started it up, it ticked for a while but has stopped making noise, could it still be a bent valve? also i got a lot of white exhaust smoke, it didn't have a strong a/freeze smell but it was thick and resolved after a while.
could a/freeze that got into the exhaust system create that much steam or am'i looking at a cracked head?

thank you for any advise
bill

 

Your eyes aren't good enough to look at the valve and tell if it's bent or not. It has to be removed and checked for trueness. Basically, if the valve so much as _touches_ anything, you assume it's bent and either replace it (and the guide), or take it to a machine shop and have them check it. Because the piston smacked it, you probably need a new cam follower for that valve too.

You really need to pull that head and take it in for a once over. I don't know which valve it was, but you can end up burning the seat and needing even more work, not to mention compression problems, possible backfires, etc.

As far as your smoke goes, if you got enough coolant in the cylinder to lock it, the exhaust probably has a crap load in it. I wouldn't worry about it unless it starts up again. You might have killed the cats on that side though, just keep that in mind.

 

I can just about guarantee that the valve is bent. It doesn't take much of a hit to bend them. In fact if there is a mark on the piston dome the valve is bent. Perform a leakdown test on that cyl. If you get more than 15%-20% leakdown the valve is bent. Regarding the smoke. I am not clear on how the engine hydrolocked but I suspect it was an injector stuck open. If you have not changed the injector on that cyl then you could hydrolock it again. The white smoke you are seeing could be residule gas in the cats or it could be raw gas being pushed thru the suspect cyl due to the bent valve. I suspect the latter.A bent valve will not allow enough compression to atomize the air/fuel and allow combustion. When/if you remove the head make sure the valve guide is not cracked in that cyl. Bending a valve can crack the guide and create more problems if pieces fall into the cumbustion chamber after reinstallation. Good luck

 

All most gaurrentee it is coolant.
Something got cracked. Head or block.
A catastrophic event usually is just that.
When something like this happens, not being sure before assembly waists a lot of work and expense.
Good luck.

 

I agree. I've seen cracked cylinder walls in engines that have been hydrolic locked while running. To confirm this I would check for combustion gas in the coolant. There is a tester that checks for CO2. I have one and you're welcome to use it if you are in the Chicago area. Sometimes you can see bubbles or smell exhaust in the coolant.