# Thunderbird Engine Locked-up



## wiscokid53 (Jan 22, 2005)

I have a 1997 Thunderbird LX Sport with a 4.6L V-8. My wife ran it through some water and some of it got into the engine and locked it up. The motor only has about 20K miles on it and there is no water in the oil, does anybody got any ideas on how to free it up?


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## cleatus (Aug 24, 2004)

how much water was there? 
did it lock up straght away?
did the water get thru the air intake?
how fast was she going?


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## wiscokid53 (Jan 22, 2005)

There was some heavy run-off that she ran into when she changed lanes. She did get some water through the air intake, how much I can not tell. The air filter was soaked. The engine seized-up imeadiately. There is no evidence of water in the oil.

Since the time of my last post, I have taken the car into the Ford garage. They pulled the plugs and looked into the cylanders. They said that there was water in on top of the number eight piston. The solution they gave was pull the engine and replace it with a new one. The quoted price for all of this is $5,500.00. That about equated to having the car totalled.

I'm just wondering if I can pull the heads, drop the oil pan and try to get the piston out. Then check for damage. If it looks like a bent rod, replace it and put it back together. If the crank is damaged.....well that's another story.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?


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## batty_professor (Jul 29, 2004)

With the spark plugs removed, you should be able to rotate the engine crankshaft with relative ease if no major damages exist. You might be advised to remove the oil pan for visual inspection. Now here's what they won't tell you, if a rod is bent the piston of course will not make block deck level at TDC. and this is difficult to measure with the heads on. However,this can be measured by way of liquid (oil, for instance) displacement. This engine lends itself well to this, since the plugs are at the very top of the combustion chambers. The trick is to find the amount of oil it takes to fill the combustion chamber at TDC, valves closed, of a good cylinder. Then compare the suspect cylinder under identical conditions. Precise measures are necessary to be certain of the engine's mechanical condition. Use a suction gun to extract the oil from each cylinder as you go. If this engine is to run, you don't want the oil in the cats. Of course this won't tell you if the crank has a twist, but to my knowledge rods usually are damaged first.

Also be certain to have all the water out of the cylinders so as not to interfere with your measurements.


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## on_ice (Feb 7, 2005)

Yeah, pull the plugs and then try to crank it. If you bent a rod or soemthing of that sort, which we will hope you didnt, you should go junkyard shopping and pull a 5.0 outta a mustang/explorer/t-bird and swap that in. A 5.0 longblock can be found for >1000 so spending 5k wont be neccesary.

Sorry somehow I got 5.0 outta your post when yours has the modular 4.6 which also easy to find, just a clarification from my post.


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## Drupy (Jul 20, 2002)

Not sure where your located but I have seen good low mileage 4.6 engines around here go for as little as $500. So if you still need one I can get you a price and cost to ship it to you. You should also not pay more than about $500 dollars to have the engines swapped.


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