The Houston 04 SE

[Smallblock454]

Originally Posted by 78F350

Fresh, clear water... like Evian. My guess is that the water entered the cylinder by the exhaust valve.

Sounds good.

My proposal would be:

Don't turn over engine.

Replace engine oil and oil filter with cheap new ones.

Remove spark plugs and fill cylinders with engine oil / rost inhibitor as good as you can. Let it soak.

Remove air intake at tb. Check air intake filter and clean air intake housing and hose as good as you can without ripping it out of the car. If the air intake filter is intact and no debree passed it, chances are high that the intake system ist free of debree like sand etc. That would be a big plus. For first turn over don't connect intake hose to tb.

Remove headers from engine. Best would be to pull the complete exhaust system and check for water and especially for engine oil. If there is a bigger amount of water / engine oil sludge in the cats this can be problem. For first turn over don't connect headers to engine.

Remove all fuses you don't need and check all electronic parts you need to turn over the engine with the starter.

Check fuel tank for water. If there is water inside, pump all old fuel out and replace it with new fuel. The SE doesn't have an external fuel filter. So if you want to check the filter you have to pull the fuel pump - integral part of the pump.

Check cooling water for debree oil etc. If there is oil in the cooling water check why.

Check belt, tensioner etc.

Remove fuel pump and ignition fuses. Connect starter battery to terminals. Check electronics and fuses once again for shorts and functionality.

Turn over engine with starter motor. This will throw all oil and debree out of the cylinders. This will also make a mess – so be prepared.

If you like you can refill the cylinders with oil and do the procedure again until all oil came out of the cylinders.

Install spark plugs and ignition coils / cables etc. install fuses (fuel pump, ignition).

Start engine without headers and tb intake hose. Prepare - this will be loud. Check if all cylinders are present. Check for unusual noises etc. If everything is OK let the engine warm up at idle / lower revs for 10 minutes. That should be enough time to get humidity out.

Than check other components and think about what needs additional cleaning, replacement etc.

Hope that is useful.

Again good look with the SE Houston project…

Regards, Markus