How to resolve a Waterlogged Engine – F650GS fuel injected

It occurs to me now that it’s not that easy to find information when you need it most. In particular, I really needed to know how to solve my problem of having dropped my bike in a river and the engine got waterlogged.

This is information for the BMW F650GS fuel injected version.

STEP 1: BEFORE YOU GO!

Before you set out on your travels you will be much better off getting hold of a copy of the Factory Workshop Manual for the F650GS. These are found on ebay and I bought a CD copy for £1.98 including postage. I have printed out a copy and, believe me, it’s brilliant and the instructions are clear and well illustrated.

Also add a 24mm hex 6 point socket to your ratchet set. Now, BMW supply a spanner to get the oil sump plug off. Do not use this! Use the 6 point socket with flat sides that hold the sump plug snugly, with an extended handle and have this as part of your tool kit. With a long handle and a short crack movement, the plug should loosen without damage. If you use a wrench with 12 points (star) it is likely to round the sump plug and the BMW tool will never get it off. Don’t use brute force on this plug as the engine casing is soft and can be damaged. The plug is also soft and can be damaged.

There are ways of getting damaged oil sump plugs out eg filling edges to make 2 flat surfaces to grip. Heat the engine with blowtorch and then ice cube on the plug should also loosen it by the engine expanding faster than the plug and so it’s slightly looser.

You might like to invest in a long socket to remove your spark plug because, again, BMW have supplied us with a pants tool and the spark plug is in a very awkward place. Unless you have small hands and a lot of patience, it’s unnecessary hard work.

Keep a new oil filter and air filter in your spares kit. These parts are not all that expensive and can be bought from www.motorworks.co.uk and posted to you. The parts are small and light enough to carry as spares and that way you won’t be waiting for post to arrive.

I don’t really know how practical it will be to carry extra oil with you but if you are at the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, you might wish you had an extra 5L of oil to flush through the engine. Perhaps carry and extra 1L and you will have to find some cheap oil locally.

STEP 2: CROSSING RIVER

The obvious advice is to avoid dropping your bike in a river. The air intake on the F650GS is high up just under the headlight so basically you should make it through relatively deep water without problem.

However, as soon as the bike has dropped, turn the engine off as quickly as possible. Those seconds make a very big difference. The difference between hours of work on the engine, a couple of days waiting and quite a lot of £ being spent – especially if you need a mechanic to help.

STEP 3: ON THE BANK OF RIVER

Once you have pushed the bike to the bank, if it starts up immediately, it is fine. You are lucky. If not, you have water in the engine and so don’t keep turning the engine over as it just pushes the water through the whole engine. I repeat: DON’T KEEP TURNING THE ENGINE.

I know you will not want to believe that this is a disaster but you must accept it’s a bloody disaster and move on so that you can keep calm and maintain control of the situation.

[A side note for girls: guys don’t know more about bikes than you do, so don’t let some hero step in – make sure you sort the problem out yourself because a lot of things can still go wrong.]

STEP 4: GETTING IT TO RUN

There is water everywhere so try to get out what water you can by tipping the bike to the sides and if possible tip upwards to get water out of the exhaust.

* Remove the oil sump plug and drain the oil out of the engine.
* Remove the spark plug.
* Add fresh (cheap) oil and turn the engine over.
* Drain the oil.

Repeat this a few times and then when the oil looks clear you can put the spark plug back in and hope the engine fires up. Oil mixed with water turns into something creamy that looks like Baileys. Delicious to look at but will make you cry.

If possible, empty water out of air intake tank too at this point. Use the manual for this – it’s easy.

The bike will struggle a bit but you could drive to the nearest town.

STEP 5: AT A BIKE SHOP

What you have to do next is get all the water out of the oil, fuel and air intake.

* Make sure the oil is really running clean.
* Change the oil filter.
* Change the air filter.

To check if you have water mixed with petrol, peer into the petrol tank (open under the seat) using a torch and as petrol and water don’t mix you will be able to see the different colours in the liquids. Petrol shines blue.

* Drain the fuel tank.
* Drain the fuel filter.

To drain the fuel tank according to the Workshop Manual requires removing the frame of the bike. It’s much easier to raise the bike and get a bucket at a lower level. Place a section of hose in the tank and suck until the fuel starts to move down the hose – gravity will then pull the fuel out of the tank and drain it.

Using the Workshop Manual to guide you, all this is not that hard to do.

But good luck all the same as you will probably be stressed out and an unhappy bunny for a while. But look on the bright side; if you read this and are prepared, you will get through with minimal damage and delay, all things considered! I’ve learnt it all the hard way and its costly and frustrating.

Hey, if someone else has some ideas and advice, then please send them and I’ll add to this blog. sandilangton@yahoo.co.uk.