Saws that have been baptized

[WLzM1A]

  A friend retrieved 3 saws from his mothers basement in NC that were completely submerged for 2 days and asked if I could see about getting them running.  I have never worked on one that has been baptized.  Any thots or things to look for upon starting this adventure? One is an old 036 Pro and I'm thinking about keeping it and telling him it was not repairable  ....not really.   

[Al_Smith]

I resurrected a Partner P-100 that looked like it had spent a long time on the bottom of Great Salt Lake but that's different than this situation ..My suggestion is first get the water out .Compressed air could probabley do that .Then flood the entire thing in WD  40 .The WD stands for water displacement in case you didn't know . Rebuilding the carb might be needed and doing that is inexpensive .If it has fire gas it up and run it .That thing hasn't been killed just a little bit under the weather so to speak .As granny used to say "sicker cats than this have lived "

[Al_Smith]

After thought .You could likely go to You Tube and search out sunken boat motors which have fallen off of boats since there were outboard boat motors .They might have better ideas .Good luck !

[Big_eddy]

Assuming fresh water, then I would do exactly as suggested above. Get as much water out as possible by removing the plug and pulling it over and over, give it a good spray of WD40 through the plug hole,  the carb and the exhaust port, then place it in a warm dry place for a few days to dry out the coil and electronics as best you can, then run it.

[Hilltop366]

No experience with under water chainsaws but I have put a few 2 stroke dirt bikes under water years ago.

It was as simple as pull the air filter and plug and turning the engine over a few times and replace the plug and clean the air filter and start it up. It would dry off pretty quick going down the trail.

The sooner you get it running and dried out the better.

[sawguy21]

That's fine as long as they weren't running when they hit the water.  

[Hilltop366]

Sure was running.....how do you think I got half way across the river!

The one that stands out the most was crossing a small river that was about 30' wide and 30" deep where we were crossing but lots of current, the guy I was following says "stay up stream of that bolder it's deep on the down stream side but the current pushed me down stream enough that I bounced off the bolder and ended up on the wrong side of it and the bike sunk enough that the only thing sticking out was the handle bars. I was still pretty dry because I jumped off onto the bolder at the same time, once I got the bike on the other side of the bolder the water was only up to my knees.

The good news is that I was in between bikes and had borrowed my brothers bike for the ride. A 1983 Kawasaki KDX200. 

[WLzM1A]

WD40, never thot of that.  Thanx so much

[WLzM1A]

Thanx Eddy

[twar]

The WD stands for water displacement

And WD-40 because it took them 40 attempts to get the formula right.

[WELumberjack]

Saws that are baptized... are no different than anything else baptized; especially if they WERE NOT running when they got submerged.  I agree with what has been mentioned above by Al_Smith and Big_eddy.

Get them out of the water WHEN you're ready to work on them, as oxidization and rust are the enemy!  Plan to get them running that day/ASAP. Take the spark plug(s) out. Turn over the engine by hand, by pulling the cord, or with power if attached to a battery (whatever the machine) to get the water out. If possible, turn the item on its side so gravity can assist. If not, let the water contents spray wherever they may or place a rag over the hole. Then spray with WD-40 through the spark plug holes to displace as much water as possible. I also used HEET (red or yellow bottle) to help absorb any water droplets.  Drain the fuel and oil.  Replace with fresh fuel and oil. If it has a crankcase or other hydraulic reservoir, do the same unless you know those are completely sealed. Do whatever needs to be done with the air filter/cleaner to get that dry (compressed air should be fine). Spraying the carburetor inlet with WD or carb cleaner to get the water out/displaced should be fine.

Once all that is done, try whatever methods necessary to get it started and let it run for at least 15-30 minutes (or whatever time you figure for it to warm up sufficiently to evaporate off any of the water in the engine). I believe the key thing is to eliminate the water and avoid risk of rust and oxidization as long-term effects.

If it has electronics, I don't know. I would defer to others with more knowledge or your local repair shop/dealership for their expertise.  I'm not sure if waiting to let things dry out are in the tool's best interest.

(I speak from recent experience... - I had a small used 1970's skid-steer (with no/minimal electronics) I'd just purchased that no longer had working hydraulic brakes. I parked it in the wrong direction on a slight hill. Thankfully it was off and I was out of it. But it started rolling backwards down that hill and ended up in a retention pond deep enough to submerge everything but the ROPS roof. With a friend's assistance it got pulled out of the pond within the hour!! But as mentioned above, I spent the next 2-3 hours getting the supplies and working to get all the water out to get it restarted that night. As far as I can tell, its no worse for wear; but it ended up getting a bath; baptized!!)

Now, I only park it on COMPLETELY LEVEL ground and with rubber wheel chocks, for good measure...      Only make that mistake once! 

[Al_Smith]

I might point out with WD 40 they once used propane as a propellant in aeresol cans which could be used as a safer type of starting fluid .However I usually buy it by the gallon because of the rusty old stuff I find myself working  on .Actually I have a lot of penetrating type concoctions I keep on hand as well as the good old smoke wrench and big ball peen hammer for stubborn cases .Come or bleed -----

[Fishnuts2]

A friend that used to skip water on snowmobiles said just make sure the motor is not turning over when it goes under.  Get it out and dry quickly and start it up.

I also observed a resort pushing their snowmobiles and ATVs into the lake because of a wildfire that threatened.  Hauled them out later and went at it drying them out and getting them started to drive out any remaining moisture.

[beenthere]

I might point out with WD 40 they once used propane as a propellant in aeresol cans which could be used as a safer type of starting fluid .However I usually buy it by the gallon because of the rusty old stuff I find myself working  on .Actually I have a lot of penetrating type concoctions I keep on hand as well as the good old smoke wrench and big ball peen hammer for stubborn cases .Come or bleed -----

Best penetrating oil is Blue Creeper, bar none, and on top of that, a solid supporter of this Forestry Forum. Let's not forget that.

[Al_Smith]

There are just as many opinions about penatrants as there are mix oil brands and ratios there of . If you get down to brass tacks they all work at least to some degree .Good old kerosene still works just as well on a chainsaw engine as it did on a model T Ford .Besides that if you dunk the sunken saw in a 5 gallon bucket in same you can use the remains to light the fire ring in the back yard and discuss the proceedure among friends thus get double usage of the liquid .Waste not want not .---BTW if you use K1 to light the fire don't use a Bic lighter .Not good,go boom .

[beenthere]

And those "opinions" change once/after using Blue Creeper. 
Many of us have found that out.. thanks to our LogRite support and the forum member who invented the original "Rust Reaper" back in the day. 
Was his forum name "Mike" ??

[DHansen]

beenthere, I read your post and ordered some Bluecreeper to give it a try.