OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Engines Questions On Honda Engines Water damage to GCV160

Hi guys, looking to buy a Honda mower with GCV160 on it, good condition but it does not run as it has bee submerged in water (not sure to what level) due to flooding.

It obviously does not run, but what kind of damage could have been caused to the engine if it was under water? Providing it is not seized, do you think it can be salvaged?

Also are spare Honda motors easy to come by?

Thanks

I'm not clear on why you would buy a GCV160, one of the few really unattractive engines Honda has built, but I guess that is your business. The main issue is how long the engine has had water in it. Obviously stripping the engine and cleaning it out is not all that expensive or time-consuming, but if there is corrosion of the innards, the job gets larger and more expensive. Slight corrosion of the bore can be recovered, but if it involves the valve guides or the crankshaft, it becomes more troublesome. I once rebuilt an engine that had been full of water for about 5 years, but that was a twin cylinder Lister diesel, so at least I had something useful at the end of the process.

Spare Honda vertical-crankshaft engines are not scarce, but in my experience they are nearly always ex-contractor engines that are in need of new rings and some other tidying up.

I got a chonda in a while ago that had been in the floods, and it was seized mildly, out of curiosity I played with it, cleaned the carby, changed the oil and put oil down the plug hole, it started and went like a new one with a few adjustments.

After 10 hours of work around my place I was about to scrap it when the original owner offered to buy it back, and they haent had an issue since.

Obviously its acase by case basis but this one had had the water in it for 6 months, and it was the only engine I have ever seen blow orange smoke from rust

Thanks Guys,

In case i get it I will change oil/plug and clean the carby and see what happens. Not really keen on opening it up

ok so i picked up the mower today..

It spins freely but obviuosly wont start. I plan on changing the oil and cleaning out the carby tonight. Do I also need to pour oil down the plug hole (and if yes why is this needed??)

Thanks again

You need to get any traces of water out of the crankcase, and that is a bit of a problem without taking it to pieces. One approach I've seen used in this situation is to shake all the water you can out through the oil filler (by removing the dipstick, picking the mower up, tilting and shaking it), putting a spoonful of oil in through the spark plug hole, filling the sump with clean oil, starting the engine, running it for say 3 to 5 minutes, stopping it, and tipping the oil out of the sump through the oil filler, into a container. Drain it fully again, by tipping and shaking. Look at the oil in the container. If it is a bit milky, that is an emulsion of oil and water. Refil the sump with new clean oil, run it again (you won't need oil in the plug hole this time), and drain it again. Repeat this process until the oil is not milky when you drain it. At that point, you can put that last batch of oil back into the sump and regard it as ready to mow some grass. The milky oil, however, cannot be used in an engine. The sooner you give the mower a good run under load the better: that will help to vaporise the last of the water and get rid of it through the breather system.

The problem you might still have, is rust that has packed in around the piston rings in the ring grooves. If that has happened, you can't fix it without dismantling the engine.

Once again thanks for all your suggestions. Here is what happened last night.

- I took off the carby float bown first and it was full of water/fuel. I decided to also remove the entire carby and blow it out with carby cleaner and clean all the passages etc..
- I drained the fuel (it was yellow in colour) I assume due to water content perhaps??
- I drained the oil from the motor (was a mixture of oil and water and other crap)
- I cleaned the spark plug and poured some fresh oil in the hole

Eventually she fired up and was blowing smoke for about a minute then ran ok.. I ran it for about 5 min then drained the oil again. This time it was the colour of Strawberry flavoured milk lol

Put some fresh oil in there, ran for 4 mins then drained and replaced oil again. This time oil looked clean and without any traces of water or anything else.. After a good clean of the deck, wheels and motor casing this is what i got for just over $100. LAte 2007 model with all the receipts, manuals, mulching ..plug etc

That sounds like the right procedure luvpsi. However I recommend you do the last step I suggested above, and run the engine under load for half an hour or so, ASAP. The reason for this is there is probably still some water in the OHC camshaft/rocker compartment (top of cylinder head, under the tin cover with OHC on it), where there is very little oil circulation. In a long warm run, heat from the cylinder head should evaporate that water and distribute some clean oil on the moving parts.

I will mow the lawn with it Today, That should give it about 30min of running time.