I crossed 4 rivers on my way to Cocuye. The 2nd river on the way back got deeper than it was, and the whole air intake got flooded. I spent two hours drying it. I removed and dried the plugs. I threw away the air filter (wrecked). The plugs are ok. I drained the water by removing the plugs and tilting the bike. Probably a quart drained out. I managed to re-start it, and with a twist of the throttle at least another quart came out- through the tail pipe! The bike is still in the jungle. Tomorow I'll take oil, an oil filter, an air filter, a mechanic, and a big truck. We will use the truck to get back over the rivers. It is raining now in the mountains which means the rivers will rise. I would really appreciate any advice. Now I'm going to shower and get some food. It is at least 4 hours from here to where the bike is stashed. Tomorow is going to be a long, long day.
Good luck, man. It will make a great story. I think after the oil change you'll want to keep the bike at operating temp for as long as possible to make sure as much residual water evaporates and purges as possible. Then change the oil again asap. That said, these things are amazing machines and can take a lot of abuse in stride.. John
This is g r e a t sht. Make sure to take care of your bike, keep 'er running so that you can post more cool stuff. You may want to run thru two cycles of oil cleaning, dump one and then stuff in fresh oil. Bearings are your friends. Get an air filter, dirty sock, pantyhose, whatever.... Keep the horse running, man. We want fcking pics.... Go 'Nannerman, go....
It's gonna' be awfully funny if ... in a few months ... he 'fesses up that he never left the Barcalounger and the comfort of his own home Good luck on getting out of this one, 'nannerman. Amazing adventure. I'm just flat jealous
I wish right nw that I was in Wisconsin feedin the fireplace What else should I look out for? I've got a truck lined up for tomorow. Looks like I'll be sleepin in the jungle, if my bike isn't on a boat to Colombia right now.
Your profile states an 1100GS, if your'e on a 12 I believe they're sealed, but I was told on the 1100/1150 design, there are breathers and if the bike was submerged, dropped or otherwise above the finaldrive, water has gotten in there. I really have no experience in the matter, but as far as I know its not too big a deal, and it looks like you're quite far from home, so I'd do it for peace of mind. Hopefully another can chime in
If'n you're on a R11X0 you'll wanna change the FD and tranny oil. A buddy had a similar experience and ended up with a toasted trans about 8k later. The advice about changing the engine oil twice is good as well as riding (idling doesn't count) as long as possible to evaporate any residual water left after the oil changes.
That was not a good idea, but if you got all/most of the water out by tilting the bike you could be lucky. The water coming out the tail pipe was probably just the exhaust full of water. Standard procedure for a drowned engine is get the water out of the intake & airbox, then remove the plugs and turn the engine over with the plugs out. This will pump out all the water (don't look in the spark plug hole while you're doing this, as a mate of mine once did ). Keep turning it over until no more water comes out. Trying to start an engine that has water in the cylinders can result in nasty, expensive noises coming from that area I can't see a breather on my 1100 trans, the FD definitely has one. Change the trans & FD oil, ride to get it up to operating temp, then drop and check the oil. Any sign of water, do it again with fresh oil. You will need to clean up your starter motor. At least clean and lube the shaft of the gear that engages the clutch housing. Otherwise you may find that it stops engaging and turning over the engine in the weeks to come. The cover on the left of this diagram is what you need to remove, then clean and lube it: With the starter motor off, get a torch and have a look inside at the clutch. I don't know an easy way to clean this out, but hopefully there won't be any/much in there. Replace oil filter and air filter. Get an oilable foam type air filter (eg. Uni Filter) rather than a paper one - they don't melt when they get wet like the paper ones do.
GREAT post, Peka. On the SLIM chance that somebody doesn't know ... "torch" is Brit/Oz for "flashlight." [Ya' never know....]
Can you tell I've done this more than once? It only ended badly on one occasion, and it was an expensive exercise for the insurance company (V6 quad cam engine from a 4wd). Another tip: if the engine stalls while you're in water, think hard about whether you want to try and start it again. If you know there's no water in the engine go ahead, otherwise play it safe and check it first (check airbox, then pull the plugs and turn it over).
Was the oil milky, if not there is no water in it and dont rush to change it. It wont get water in the engine unless it sits in it. If it was running, yes the combustion chambers will have it, did it stall ???. Like some one has said, run it and keep it running at operating temperature is all you have to do. The only real vacuum you had was the air intake, everthing else should be fine. If it runs well, then it cant have been to bad as the first thing is that water does is not compress and you would have a bent rod. Gum
Thanks everyone. I'm off now to the BMW dealer here in Panama. I thought they opened at 9 but instead it's 7 so if I really hustle I could be home again tonight. Where the bike is now, I really don't want to have to change the tranny and final drive fluid. The starter made a strange noise. I'll do what I can for it. The clutch... holy shit the clutch got abused in the mud. I buried the rear wheel right up to the axle. A lot. To try (in vain) to keep from spinnin, I's start out in 2nd. Or at least try to start out in 2nd. Did I mention that my dad did this road a few days ago (in a Landrover Defender) and reported it dry and in good condition, with rivers only ankle deep. I don't know if any of you pray or anytin, but if you do, please hope that my bike is where I left it? I'm sure I can fix it... if I can find it again. Here are the coordinates (aprox). Check it out on google earth. n 9, 30.945, w79,14.888
Carlos Torrero, the head mechanic at the BMW dealership, agreed to help me once I get the bike back from Cocuye. You should have seen the light in his eyes... he was, like, (in spanish) Damn, I wish I didn't have to work today because I want to come! Then he got worried about the truck- would it be strong enough? It's a toyota hilux diesel with a flatbed. It's strong enough. It's going to be a trick getting the bike onto it... We've got a concrete-form panel for a ramp: aluminum with marine plywood. I've got a rope and pulleys to lift the bike.
Like said above more or less...change the oil..start..run up to operating temp. Stop..change oil again..run for as long as you can..maybe ride her 100 miles or so..then..stop..change engine oil/transmission oil/plugs..DO NOT let your bike just sit there for a couple days.."I'll get to it later" will start corrosion in your engine..which most likely is already happening as you sit.....you may want to change your FD fluid as well as sitting in the deep water..there is a chance some water sucked in through that seal..your choice. Running her at temp as much as you can will cause all the water in your engine to evaporate and exit the exhaust pipe..it will take a while but your motor should be fine...You may see some chocolate milk streaks in your oil sight glass for some time to come... don't ask me why I know this..
The starter makes a terrible clang-clang when I start it. Once running, the engine sounds fine. The bike is on the back of a truck. I'll take it to the BMW dealer tomorow. I'll clean it and change the fluids and find out about the clang and I'll have Torreo check the pressures to make sure the pistons are working ok. Then I'll ride to Yavisa. 400k each way. Wait. I can't do Yavisa until I fix the side cases. They both got bent terrible. One kind of broke. I'll get it welded.