Hydrostatic lock . . . (archive)

That hypothetically could occur if an injector didn't close completely after the engine is shut down, & dribbled many cc's of gas from the still pressurized fuel rail, into a cylinder which just happens to be on its way up on the compression stroke the next time the engine is started. Again, hypothetically speaking, it could bend a rod, extrude a head gasket, snap a head bolt, strip a head bolt out of the block etc. due to the gas being a non-compressible fluid with no other place to go when the piston reaches the top of the compression stroke. A highly unlikely event with new injectors unless one was faulty to begin with. This assumes the raw gas didn't leak past the rings down into the crankcase overnight, & it would take many hours to fill up enough to be a concern, not an event that could ever occur while driving. If the DME or some other component in the F.I. circuit were to fail, at worst the injectors wouldn't open at all, since the solenoid pulls the pintle up against a spring to open it, it will remain closed. The hydro-lock in my opinion is more likely to happen with old injectors & if anything, new injectors would be good insurance against it. The Saleen Mustang take-off's have less than 100 miles on them since new.

gale

I think we're mixing metaphores here... overclocking a CPU had nothing in common with a 1 ohm difference in injector coil resistance... the DME had better be able to handle that much less resistance in the injector circuit or it was designed way too close to the edge... and whatever is BMW talking about ...hydrostatic lock up?

Kevin

BMW warns that an excessive increase of fuel will cause a hydrostatic lock. Being an electrical engineer I know you are putting strain on the DME just like over clocking a computers CPU. If it goes better pray the injectors shut off and not stay on.

Dave

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