2001 pathfinder high water hell....

[sonnyviruet]

alrighty....sooo i drove thru some high water and sucked in water thru the intake...she shut off, towed her home and wouldnt start....next morning i drain the oil and flushed it out with some used oil, then added fresh oil and filter.... sprayed some starter fluid in the manifold and she cranked over after about 3 trys...ugh, thank goodness.
Now its got a really bad knocking noise, sounds like its right in the upper plenum...and sounds worse if i give it gas.... drove it down the street and doesnt seem to have lost much power...But i'd rather grind my teeth for an hour instead of hearing that terribly loud knocking sound... someone told me to let it run so the lifters can charge (whatever that means) and the sound should go away.... it hasnt. i was also told that maybe the oil pump went bad and it isnt sending oil thru..
Prior to my idiocy she drove beautifully...always got sunoco 93, oil change every few months, new air filter after long drives, and fresh fuel filter at least once a year...if engine light came on i'd jump right on it and take care of her within the week... shes got 202,??? miles and purrred like a kitten before this...
incidently thru all of this, the check engine light is not on (thank goodness, electrics werent damaged)
any insight? help? advice? name calling? please help if able?
if you look on youtube (nissan pathfinder bad engine noise) thats EXACTLY what it sounds like...

[Turbogst]

How high was the water? I have gone though some deep stuff and never sucked up anything.

Just watched your video, some of the guys here might say it is the screws on the valves But my pathfinder had that same noise. I have no idea what caused it as I had just left the store and started to hear it. I didn't do anything to it and when I got my tools to take a look it just went away. Later took a look and all my screws were in place.

[Towncivilian]

I was also thinking power valve screws potentially getting ingested. You should remove the upper intake manifold to take a look at the screws and apply red threadlocker to them - see this guide.

What oil & filter are you using right now?

I think you have been replacing your air filter far too often. How many miles do you get per air filter, approximately? All filters filter more efficiently as they load up with contaminants - just because they look dirty doesn't mean they are clogged. If I recall correctly, around 97.5% of the contaminants an air filter will pass is within the first 10% of its usable life.

[sonnyviruet]

so last night I started to take her apart....the 12 screws are good and tight, actually had a hard time loosening one to test it...but I didn't stop there, yeap I keep going...i also pulled off the fuel injection block...got a couple cans of carb cleaner and polished it up (they were pretty gunky, along with the plenums....oh yea the pcv valve looked pretty bad too...
I'm still going to locktite the screws....but regarding the loud knocking noise.... should I keep going to continue to treat the sucker apart? where should I stop while it still resembles an engine?
I'll take a few pics in about an hour and post them before I continue.

the water was about two feet high, the big problem was that a few months ago I read a post where guys were cutting the clear plastic underneath the intake box as a cheap power mod, that's how water got in.
yesterday I drained the oil again, put in some 10w 30... I also pulled the oil pan off yesterday, found a tiny piece of aluminum, maybe about a quarter of an inch, with a hole in it like a straw... ????

[sonnyviruet]

alright.... how do I post pics

[Towncivilian]

You can upload pictures to http://www.imgur.com. After uploading, it'll give you copy & paste options for displaying the photos here.

Did you replace the PCV valve along with its grommet?

Use red threadlocker for the power valve screws.

I don't know whether you should keep going, I guess if you're inclined to do so you might as well continue and see if there is any obvious damage.