YZ250F So I drown my YZ250F today.....

[adamtNZ]

Today I was at the beach and I drown it fully with about half throttle. 
move so far:

pulled plug, dropped oil, swapped oil filter, new oil and filter, removed air filter. 
I eventually get it running again but it sounds rough. 
I got it up to temp twice and dropped the oil again: creamy white shit as expected. 
I’ll keep doing the oil changes but this is my question:

the fuel pump seems to keep priming every 30 seconds or so. 
why is that? It never used to and I’ve had to disconnect my battery. 
cheers for the advice in advance

enjoy the sickening video and I hope it never happens to you. 
 

https://youtu.be/9CkuJAsVjQU

https://youtu.be/nv5LpfpvJYI

https://youtu.be/ChXwCGv0wmQ

https://youtu.be/R978vSwDw5Y

Edited June 28, 2020 by adamtNZ
Video added

[lucgallant]

3 hours ago, adamtNZ said:

Today I was at the beach and I drown it fully with about half throttle. 
move so far:

pulled plug, dropped oil, swapped oil filter, new oil and filter, removed air filter. 
I eventually get it running again but it sounds rough. 
I got it up to temp twice and dropped the oil again: creamy white shit as expected. 
I’ll keep doing the oil changes but this is my question:

the fuel pump seems to keep priming every 30 seconds or so. 
why is that? It never used to and I’ve had to disconnect my battery. 
cheers for the advice in advance

enjoy the sickening video and I hope it never happens to you. 
 

https://youtu.be/9CkuJAsVjQU

https://youtu.be/nv5LpfpvJYI

https://youtu.be/ChXwCGv0wmQ

https://youtu.be/R978vSwDw5Y

The one obvious thing I can think of is that you've gotten salty water into the starting circuit and it is conducting continuously.

I would take the starter relay apart as well as some of the other interposing relays, look at the wiring diagram, and make sure that they are clean and free of salty water.

[adamtNZ]

Good point. Salt in electrics not good. How do I take apart a starter relay? Just disconnect and clean or more to it?

[lucgallant]

What year bike is it? Most of the relays are sealed, it's more the terminals and terminations that might have water sitting in there with conduction paths.

Best place to do is look at the circuit diagram and see from there what would start the priming process. Example, pushing the starter button does, but it's probably not that considering the bike is not turning over. I know when you advance the bike and the stator turns a little bit that will also prime it. So my thought would be that there might be somewhere conducting that it is causing that to happen.

also most of the connections on the bike are sealed and from experience they are sealed very well. So if the bike is relatively new in the connections are not been played with, not likely to the water is in there.if you say what your bike I will look at the circuit diagram and try to circle a few things for you.

[GP]

Not going to end well.  Electrics aside, almost certainly sand was carried in the motor with the corrosive salt.  Reality is your looking at a complete teardown for a likely good outcome.   

As a wreck diver who worked on a charter boat for years I've seen a lot of electronics of various types flooded.  Lights, decompression computers, cameras, etc.  If the device remains powered electrolysis will etch the conductors from connectors, and have even seen traces gone from PC boards. I'd flood everything completely with fresh water immediately and disconnect the battery.  Then use a displacement spray for electrical devices.

Plus, if it stopped from sucking water at half throttle, good chance the rod is bent at least.

Edited June 29, 2020 by GP

[GP]

I just looked at those links, it actually runs?   

[adamtNZ]

@lucgallant

its a 2019 with 80 hours on it. I have the user Manuel with the wiring schematic I just don’t probably know what’s involved in “servicing” electronics exactly....

[adamtNZ]

4 hours ago, GP said:

I just looked at those links, it actually runs?   

Yeah I got it spluttering last night and got it up to temp. I’m in the garage right now giving it another heat up, drop oil and repeat. This is number three...

 

as far as sand in the engine I think I may have got away with that. The air box was wet but spotless so fingers crossed

at least no bent rod....?

as soon as I connected battery it started priming the fuel pump though so that needs a fix. 
 

 

[beezer]

On 6/28/2020 at 3:01 AM, adamtNZ said:

Today I was at the beach and I drown it fully with about half throttle. 
move so far:

pulled plug, dropped oil, swapped oil filter, new oil and filter, removed air filter. 
I eventually get it running again but it sounds rough. 
I got it up to temp twice and dropped the oil again: creamy white shit as expected. 
I’ll keep doing the oil changes but this is my question:

the fuel pump seems to keep priming every 30 seconds or so. 
why is that? It never used to and I’ve had to disconnect my battery. 
cheers for the advice in advance

enjoy the sickening video and I hope it never happens to you. 
 

https://youtu.be/9CkuJAsVjQU

https://youtu.be/nv5LpfpvJYI

https://youtu.be/ChXwCGv0wmQ

https://youtu.be/R978vSwDw5Y

Just wondering why you would bring your bike to the beach.

Alcohol had to have been involved.

[GP]

Any open back connector (there are a couple) will allow water to wick up the conductor and corrode the wire under the insulation in addition to the contacts.  I sealed everything up that wasn't sealed before even riding mine.  Salt is the enemy of every alloy on that bike, especially with a dissimilar metal in contact.   A boat's electrical system is in a slow, constant state of decay from the minute it is launched into the marine environment, high maintenance.  

Even a 2stroke drowning in a clean river is a crap shoot down the road, most times the mains will go bad in a few hours as rust pitting starts immediately.  Seen that happen a few times. Hate to be negative but this has future rebuild written all over it.

[ckny]

17 hours ago, GP said:

Not going to end well.  Electrics aside, almost certainly sand was carried in the motor with the corrosive salt.  Reality is your looking at a complete teardown for a likely good outcome.   

As a wreck diver who worked on a charter boat for years I've seen a lot of electronics of various types flooded.  Lights, decompression computers, cameras, etc.  If the device remains powered electrolysis will etch the conductors from connectors, and have even seen traces gone from PC boards. I'd flood everything completely with fresh water immediately and disconnect the battery.  Then use a displacement spray for electrical devices.

Plus, if it stopped from sucking water at half throttle, good chance the rod is bent at least.

I know how that goes! Bend the rods in my sled in the winter and then my bike beginning of riding season. 
if it was salt water you really need to strip It down right away. I mean the whole bike. To the frame. Split the cases and start going through it. There are a few solutions you can buy to remove salt. My buddy is the distributor for a Euro bike brand who had a container of new bikes dropped in the harbour coming off a container ship. 25 new units. 
 

[adamtNZ]

Hey everyone, 

So I thought I’d update this encase anyone cares, or maybe you are in this same situation some time.

i charged the battery and did 4 x oil changes. That got the oil clean in the sightglass but was still doing a steamy sort of thing from the exhaust. Due to neighbours I couldn’t take it for a ride so I had to wait til sat morning. (A week after the soaking) 

anyway I took it out for an hour and it ran just fine. After around 20 mins the steam cleared up. 
I took it home and dropped the oil and changed filter once more as well as giving it a thorough clean. 
Once that was done I pulled all the electrical connectors I could see with seat and tank off and gave them a clean out with WD40 and the dremmel. I was surprised to see most were totally sealed and already full of dialetic grease from factory so feeling confident it’s worth holding onto.

At the end of the day I reckon I COULD sell it but I’d have to buy a bike for the same money and I wouldn’t know any history of that bike. At least with this one I know it’s had oil changes and filters every 5-8 hours as I’ve had from new. 
I’ll  keep you posted on how I get on but I’m sure a few electrical niggles might surface in the next few months. 
Just some history on the bike FYI:

im a B/A grade rider and do mix of motocross and trail rides. 
the bike had 78 hours on when I submerged it and it’d just had a top end with OE Yamaha parts at 66hours. During lockdown I’d stripped and grease the linkage and steering bearings. 
since the crash I’ve took the chain off and submerged it overnight in old engine oil, then clean it it and re-lubed it. This week I’ll pull the wheels off and re grease the bearings and axle (need new tyres anyway)

 

wish me luck

 

adam 
 

[ckny]

Repack your muffler. 

[Will05W.]

On 7/6/2020 at 7:00 AM, ckny said:

Repack your muffler. 

Im going to second this. Your packing is definitely trashed even if the water steamed out of it. You also most likely have a steel wool core between the exhaust pipe and the packing thats going to turn into a corroded mess if it hasn't already so Id personally replace that when you replace the packing

[adamtNZ]

On 7/8/2020 at 2:17 AM, Will05W. said:

Im going to second this. Your packing is definitely trashed even if the water steamed out of it. You also most likely have a steel wool core between the exhaust pipe and the packing thats going to turn into a corroded mess if it hasn't already so Id personally replace that when you replace the packing

Hmm, being as I got it running the same afternoon I reckon the heat would have taken care of it. I doesn’t sound any louder than other standard Yz250f’s. Not yet anyway.
I’ll pay closer attention to that though when I race this weekend. 
it might be an excuse for a new muffler. 
?

[adamtNZ]

So another weekend riding. This is now 18 hours past the drowning with only one issue surfaced: the map switch stopped working. Not sure if it’s the beginning of more issues or not but it’s only $88 NZD to fix so not sweating yet....

[ckny]

Ticking time bomb that is. Cringing to think what all that salt water and sand did. 

[adamtNZ]

On 7/21/2020 at 10:38 PM, ckny said:

Ticking time bomb that is. Cringing to think what all that salt water and sand did. 

Well, I guess that’s the point of this thread now. I’ll keep you all informed of any developments good or bad. It might help to make a decision if it happens to you. 
 

would you have done anything different to what I did (except put it in for a full rebuild of course) ?????

[Ooshka]

If you're 18 hours in with no major issues I'd say you've got away with it.  I've properly drowned my WRs a few times over the years; just cleared them out, changed the oil, then done hundreds more hours with no issues..

Edited July 24, 2020 by Ooshka

[adamtNZ]

Ticked over 100 hours today and have no regrets.