Bike jumped into river

[Clint Eastwood]

Ok well here is a horror story for anyone willing to read and help. So I got my brand new bike put together a few days ago with a Huasheng 49cc 4 stroke motor and I let my nephew ride it and he somehow rode and jumped it off an embankment right into the river yesterday. He is ok but the bike had to sit in the river for two hours so I could wait for low tide and pull it out. I don't even know where to start on the motor. I took off the carborator and drained it. I just don't know where to start with it and if it's even worth trying to fix. What should I do with it?? Suggestions please

 

[Frankenstein]

Drain the oil, if there's water in it you'll need to let it dry out for a week or 2 depending on the temperature.

If it's just oil, no water, then look down anything else you can for water entry, if you take it out the bike and turn it upside down and all around a bit to see if water drops out. If you can pull the plug and pour a few ounces of wd 40 in there and into the intake and turn the motor over a few times to help throw a protective gloss over the internals that would be a good start.

Once you are sure it's dry, and the electronics are dry, start it up.

 

[Clint Eastwood]

Drain the oil, if there's water in it you'll need to let it dry out for a week or 2 depending on the temperature.

If it's just oil, no water, then look down anything else you can for water entry, if you take it out the bike and turn it upside down and all around a bit to see if water drops out. If you can pull the plug and pour a few ounces of wd 40 in there and into the intake and turn the motor over a few times to help throw a protective gloss over the internals that would be a good start.

Once you are sure it's dry, and the electronics are dry, start it up.

Hey thanks for the suggestion. I will give that a try.

 

[Street Ryderz]

Drain the oil, if there's water in it you'll need to let it dry out for a week or 2 depending on the temperature.

If it's just oil, no water, then look down anything else you can for water entry, if you take it out the bike and turn it upside down and all around a bit to see if water drops out. If you can pull the plug and pour a few ounces of wd 40 in there and into the intake and turn the motor over a few times to help throw a protective gloss over the internals that would be a good start.

Once you are sure it's dry, and the electronics are dry, start it up.

You missed one very important part the poster said he had to wait for the tide to go down that means saltwater and saltwater and aluminium don't go well together and not sure that letting it dry uot on its own is a good idea it needs to be taken apart and flushed and re oil coated right away if hoping to save it!

 

[gary55]

You missed one very important part the poster said he had to wait for the tide to go down that means saltwater and saltwater and aluminium don't go well together and not sure that letting it dry uot on its own is a good idea it needs to be taken apart and flushed and re oil coated right away if hoping to save it!

I suppose their is salt in some areas of rivers so I'm just going to ride this one down stream and see where it surfaces.

 

[Clint Eastwood]

You missed one very important part the poster said he had to wait for the tide to go down that means saltwater and saltwater and aluminium don't go well together and not sure that letting it dry uot on its own is a good idea it needs to be taken apart and flushed and re oil coated right away if hoping to save it!

Luckily it wasn't salt water in the river. The river is far enough up stream for there to be salt water, but close enough to the ocean to have a tidal effect. Thanks for adding additional info though. I can use all that I can get.

Frankenstein, you said to let it all dry out after turning it over a few times with WD-40. I got that part out of the way and have fans on it from both sides by the heater, but does the block need to be taken apart for it to dry out, or will everything just evaporate out of the oil plug hole and the spark plug hole?

 

[Frankenstein]

Sorry but not all lakes and rivers are salted, and so I figured that the river was fresh water like nearly every river on the planet.

Tides take place in small marinas and rivers as well while the corrosion of salt water over a couple hours should be minimal and drying won't do anything but help the fact.

If he's got a salt river then he's going to need to clean that thing majorly, if not then it's a waiting game and nothing else.

 

[gary55]

Do you think he could blow it out with compressed air? I think I would pull the valve cover, blow all that area out.Blow out around the pull start area, pull the plug and blow all that out, pull the drain plug and prop the front up then blow through the filler hole.

 

[Frankenstein]

Luckily it wasn't salt water in the river. The river is far enough up stream for there to be salt water, but close enough to the ocean to have a tidal effect. Thanks for adding additional info though. I can use all that I can get.

Frankenstein, you said to let it all dry out after turning it over a few times with WD-40. I got that part out of the way and have fans on it from both sides by the heater, but does the block need to be taken apart for it to dry out, or will everything just evaporate out of the oil plug hole and the spark plug hole?

The answer is an astounding maybe, if there is no hidden passages in the oil pan to elsewhere in the crankcase then it should be fine, my question is did you find water in the crankcase oil or not? Probably since it was a 2 hour wait...

If you set it down for a week or 2 it should be dry enough to not worry about. You can always put fresh oil in the case and turn it over by hand or with a drill a hundred times to overwhelm any water with oil presence. Just swap for good oil after.

You are lucky it's a small engine, not much water can hide in something like that, a large v twin 4 stroke I would be far more cautious of especially if it has a complex transmission on it. Some people who drop a snowmobile in a frozen lake or river don't even bother to repair the engine and simply replace it, others just leave the whole thing underwater if the frame isn't even worth the effort.

Cars are apparently even worse and the time to repair and check a submerged vehicle can override the price of the vehicle itself. You got lucky with a simple, cheap (comparatively) motor which doesn't have nearly the complexity or weakness to water damage as a larger scaled motor.

If it was me I'd leave it next to my boiler with as much if it taken apart without actually opening the case as possible with a heavy blanket around the sides not next to the boiler or even on top of it for probably 2 weeks. Then put it together again and see how it went. If it didn't have plastic parts inside it I'd even be willing to put it in an oven at 250 for 6 hours, more than enough to boil every last drop of moisture out to the core.

Good luck.

 

[Steve Best]

This is me. I do this often, even in salt water.

Salt water or not, don't let it sit around if it was submerged.
Change the oil, start it up and run it until warm. Any milkiness in the oil at all, change it again.
Pull the plug and pull her over until cleared. Remove and clean the air filter.
Yup, any salt at all will mean enough disassembly to get access and flush with lots of fresh water, right away.
Get it running and up to temperature will get rid of any remaining water.



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