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New to me M35A3, suggestions needed

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Karl kostman

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I am surprised just how clean the engine is you can of course see residue on the tops of things like the head but its way less dirty than I thought. The only part of this project that causes me worry is the 3 year time frame it sat untended after it was under water! I do hope my concern is unfounded!
 
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Falconair07

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Karl kostman said:
I am surprised just how clean the engine is you can of course see residue on the tops of things like the head but its way less dirty than I thought. The only part of this project that causes me worry is the 3 year time frame it sat untended after it was under water! I do hope my concern is unfounded!
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This might be somewhat of an indicator of how high the water sat.
 

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glcaines

glcaines

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You can see the water level from the rust on the air cleaner housing at the gauges. It looks like total immersion of everything that counts. The only good news here is that it was fresh water and not salt water. After you get it home, I would pull the valve cover off as well as the oil pan and see what rust is in there. You can pull the injectors and look in the cylinders with a bore scope camera. I have one from Milwaukee that works great for this. I would also go ahead and pull the transmission pan for a look. If there is a significant amount of damage, I would part out the truck for anything that can be salvaged. The body is obviously good from what the photos show. The other alternative is to buy a running, but rusted out, A3 and swap drive-line parts, but that is a lot of work. The body appears to be too good to scrap the whole truck. It's too bad the FD didn't address the issue immediately after the flood, since it could have been brought back in service relatively easily compared to now.
 
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Falconair07

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glcaines said:
You can see the water level from the rust on the air cleaner housing at the gauges. It looks like total immersion of everything that counts. The only good news here is that it was fresh water and not salt water. After you get it home, I would pull the valve cover off as well as the oil pan and see what rust is in there. You can pull the injectors and look in the cylinders with a bore scope camera. I have one from Milwaukee that works great for this. I would also go ahead and pull the transmission pan for a look. If there is a significant amount of damage, I would part out the truck for anything that can be salvaged. The body is obviously good from what the photos show. The other alternative is to buy a running, but rusted out, A3 and swap drive-line parts, but that is a lot of work. The body appears to be too good to scrap the whole truck. It's too bad the FD didn't address the issue immediately after the flood, since it could have been brought back in service relatively easily compared to now.
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Thanks for the tips. The rest of the truck is in really great condition. The city immediately serviced all other vehicles but our dept doesn’t get any attention…so there it sat. But if they fixed it, I wouldn’t have the chance! So win/lose.


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cattlerepairman

cattlerepairman

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Ok, everybody is concentrating on the worst case. That is fair. What about the best case scenario? That the water was high enough to wet the air filter but not high enough to flood the intake, leaving the engine dry? That there was water only in two cylinders, the rest are totally fine? That there is no trace of water in the tranny or the axles? All possible.
I know I would have a case of beer ready when I did the first preliminary inspection, draining the diffs, the tranny , the oil sump and see what's what.
All the best for your project, these trucks are tough as nails and I hope she ain't as bad as in theory she could be!
 
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Falconair07

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cattlerepairman said:
Ok, everybody is concentrating on the worst case. That is fair. What about the best case scenario? That the water was high enough to wet the air filter but not high enough to flood the intake, leaving the engine dry? That there was water only in two cylinders, the rest are totally fine? That there is no trace of water in the tranny or the axles? All possible.
I know I would have a case of beer ready when I did the first preliminary inspection, draining the diffs, the tranny , the oil sump and see what's what.
All the best for your project, these trucks are tough as nails and I hope she ain't as bad as in theory she could be!
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Thanks for the optimism! Honestly, seeing how the truck looks in person, I’m optimistic. Supposed to be above freezing tomorrow (52°) so I’m hoping to get a look at fuel tank, oils, etc to see how much, if any water is in it.
 
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HDN

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Falconair07 said:
Thanks for the tips. The rest of the truck is in really great condition. The city immediately serviced all other vehicles but our dept doesn’t get any attention…so there it sat. But if they fixed it, I wouldn’t have the chance! So win/lose.
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Maybe it was totalled by the fire dept and they got another truck 🤷‍♂️ I guess it's a thing to just let equipment sit when it's no longer desired. A local fire dept is selling a big 3-axle ladder truck that's just sitting outside right now! They do start and run it every so often though...
 
glcaines

glcaines

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You can filter the diesel to get the free water out. You can buy filter funnels for filtering water out of diesel. You may find someone who wants the filtered diesel, perhaps someone that burns fuel oil for heat. Otherwise, you have 50 gallons of contaminated diesel that you need to dispose of. If the amount of water in your tank is truly reflected by the photo, there wasn't much water that entered the fuel tank. I'm assuming that the diesel fuel in the tank is ~3 years old?
 
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DaneGer21

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glcaines said:
You can filter the diesel to get the free water out. You can buy filter funnels for filtering water out of diesel. You may find someone who wants the filtered diesel, perhaps someone that burns fuel oil for heat. Otherwise, you have 50 gallons of contaminated diesel that you need to dispose of. If the amount of water in your tank is truly reflected by the photo, there wasn't much water that entered the fuel tank. I'm assuming that the diesel fuel in the tank is ~3 years old?
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With fuel prices these days, I’d spend a few bucks to filter the fuel both with a small micron filter and a water separator and then add a gallon here or there back in as you fill up. Just my opinion. Might be a little work up front. But 50gals around me is close to $200
 
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Falconair07

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glcaines said:
You can filter the diesel to get the free water out. You can buy filter funnels for filtering water out of diesel. You may find someone who wants the filtered diesel, perhaps someone that burns fuel oil for heat. Otherwise, you have 50 gallons of contaminated diesel that you need to dispose of. If the amount of water in your tank is truly reflected by the photo, there wasn't much water that entered the fuel tank. I'm assuming that the diesel fuel in the tank is ~3 years old?
Click to expand...
It might be as old as 2015. That’s the last time the department ran the truck on fires. I’ll look for filters.


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