Shop is saying '99 5.4 is hydro-locked after blown spark plug

[lancastor]

I'm in a bad place right now.

Blew #3 just after 100k miles and pulled over immediately. Had the truck towed into the shop after demonstrating the issue to my mechanic friend (turned over the engine for less than a second just so he could hear it and confirm what it was) *ON-OFF*. Did not run the truck whatsoever and had kept up on oil changes and all that leading up to this.

The shop just got back to me saying the engine is hydro-locked and way low on oil all of the sudden.

Can the open cylinder cause an immediate drain of the oil? Did they maybe lock up the engine at the shop experimenting with it?

How could this have happened?


Please share any knowledge you guys might have about how this could've happened or how to progress from here. Thanks!

 

[DetroitDarin]

I think the shop is confused and trying to milk you. Unless your engine sucked in a shit-ton of water, OR the head gaskets blew (which would have more symptoms such as...coolant everywhere), there's no way to introduce water into the system. The oil is BEHIND the rings; popping out a plug wouldn't introdce much-if-any air to behind the rings.

Again; I think the shop would rather you pay for an engine and install than try to figure out what happened.

Do they have a history with the truck? Maybe they f'd something up and rather than own it, they are blaming something crazy to see if you fall for it.

Good luck man. Sucks.

fwiw, I have yet to find a repair shop in this area who isn't after MONEY first and foremost. Whether it be for house repairs or car - the folks who do business in this area charge stupidly-high prices and try to make a buck at all costs. Thanks UAW; I think I hate you, as an organization.

blah.

I'm bitter today, btw.

 

[Canadian Expy]

I blew a spark plug in mine and drove it a bit after and started.
No problems!!
Hydro-Locked- Did you do this while fording across a river ?

Get a time-sert kit a fix it, that's what I did. Oh and tell the shop to shove it!
++ TIME-SERT Threaded inserts for stripped threads, threaded inserts, thread repair stripped sparkplug's, Ford sparkplug blowouts, threaded inserts threaded, repair stripped threads, stripped threads, inserts threaded inserts, Ford spark plug repair,

 

[stamp11127]

I would believe a seized engine before one that is hydrolocked for what you have described.
Ask them to explain how it hydrolocked while it was on the back of a wrecker and not running.

Or they tried to fix it and screwed the puppy in the process.

 

[StuntMan]

I would try and take it somewhere else they are going to cause you pain in your wallet:

 

[Dizzy]

Pull the spark plugs, valve covers, drain the oil, and take of intake if you can..... drown every hole with wd40 - 2 cans every 15 mins. bump the ignition every time you spray at 15 min intervals. once it spins good, button everything back up, fill it full of oil and you should be good. I have seen this happen twice before and this method fixed it both times.

 

[DarkhorseEB]

I blew #8 plug, destroyed the coil. I unplugged the injector and drove it home to fix, no problems.

 

[mcrmb1]

i had the #6 shoot out i was in BFE deep in middle of no where mine had about 250k on it drove about 40 miles to town my buddy has a shop took him about 45 minutes after he order the plug kit now im fixing to turn 300k with no problems

 

[tsoza1986]

Blew one of,mine out unplugged injector drove 5 mikes back to mybhouse new spark plug coil and bren driving fine since. Sounds like they want to milk you and need money

 

[AWD EXPY]

Blew my #1 out last year. Drove a few miles home, got the insert kit and a new regular plug. The cop case mount was broke off, but JBweld fixed that. It didn't take long to repair by myself. and less than $50 was spent. That was 10,000 miles ago, and still running strong.

 

[Yudaman]

How in the hell can you hydrolock a cylinder with a missing spark plug???
Think about it. Hydro (hydraulic) lock (locked up, bound solid). If the cylinder blew a plug, there is no possible way for it to hydraulically lock. After all, there is a HOLE for the gas or oil to escape.
That mechanic is a thief and you need get your s**t out of there immediately!

 

[DetroitDarin]

I REALLY want an update from the OP. Inquiring minds!

 

[Bedrck47]

This is something so typical of new members.
The op made his post and hasn't been back to the thread since his original post on 2/3/15 8 days ago.
Yet he was last on the forum yesterday.