Urgent! Guys, I need some help here

[Matt UK]

Long story short, I need to replace the gasket between the throttle bodies and inlet manifold.
Car was running OK, but was making a squeaky noise and sucking air.

I'm a learner at DIY, but have worked slowly and methodically.

Dropped all coolant using the bolt at bottom of the rad, removed electrical leads, fuel rail and undid the throttle bodies.

As I was getting to the last two bolts the TB wiggled so I supported it as I undid the last bolt. Bit of coolant fell out (not much, just assumed it was some dregs that hadn't drained)

And this is what I find. Cyl 4 is literally full to the brim with coolant!

Questions I have are:
What do I do next?
Have I somehow fecked it?

[harry b]

No, this is no disaster. Take of the valve cover to check if the inletvalves are closed.
Don't turn the crankshaft!!

If the inletvalves are closed your ok. Just dab out the water with pape rtowels and blow the inlet dry with compressed air.

If the inletvalves were opened, then a lot of water got in the cilinder, but again, not big issue.
Take out the sparkplug and turn the crankshaft by hand. The water will either go out at at the plug or inlet side. due to the 4stroke cycle, if the inlet was open, no water will enter in the outlet manifold.
If you have turned the piston to TDC again blow dry through the sparkplug hole and you're fine.

[dsl2]

Have you a wet vac in the house? If not I would use my dry only little henry vac & just empty it out straight away after sucking it out.

[Matt UK]

OK, I've used some rag and paper towel to mop up and this is what I now see.

What I plan to do it get some compressed air tomorrow morning to blow out any final liquid.

So, here is a silly question...

Am I right in thinking that fluid could not get past the valve?
So, if it leaked in from the bottom, it couldn't get 'up' past the valve to sit on the top like the first pic?
And the reverse, the coolant that was sitting on the top could not go down past the valves?

[harry b]

Matt UK said:

OK, I've used some rag and paper towel to mop up and this is what I now see.

What I plan to do it get some compressed air tomorrow morning to blow out any final liquid.

So, here is a silly question...

Am I right in thinking that fluid could not get past the valve?
So, if it leaked in from the bottom, it couldn't get 'up' past the valve to sit on the top like the first pic?
And the reverse, the coolant that was sitting on the top could not go down past the valves?

Right. The valves are gastight, so a bit of lfuid ain't no problem as long as it's not there for long time.
To be comletely sure, better check twice then be sorry afterwards you didn't, take out the sparkplug, and turn the engine manually in the normal rotation direction to check if our way of thinking was correct.

If you are sure there is less then a spoonfull of fluid inside, turn over the engine a few times with the starter (with the plug still off, and there you have your compressed air to dry everything.

[Steve-B]

I'd recommend you spray a little oil down there or some such lubricant so that when the water dries up you don't have a seizure. But I could be wildly wrong that something that small could cause issue.

[Matt UK]

Thanks for all the help guys.

Mopped up, blew out the air, few squirts of WD40, rebuilt and is running perfectly.

A friend posted on Blatchat and the first reply up said that if you drain the cooling system from the rad the block will still be full, and as soon as you break the TB gasket fluid will run straight from the waterway into cyl 1 - so lesson learnt there!

No massive HGF, just a useless DIYer wearing L plates!

Appreciate all the replies on this one.