Car's engine underwater.

The message from "Dave Plowman (News)" contains these words:

That's how I knew my head gasket had gone! Came out one morning, turned the key and it just when "Donk" and refused to turn further.

That's the way an IC engine works - by compressing gas. Water doesn't. ;-) But if you'd removed the plugs, the engine will pump out most of the water when spun over.

Yeah, this would be the problem area.

Most of the electronics modules are tough - under the bonnet is a harsh environment so the bits and pieces are mostly sealed in with potting compound, (when I've tried to bodge them, anyway).

Bits like the stereo system would be recoverable in the way you say, though. Equally, the first thing to do when you spill coffee into your laptop is yank the battery and put it under the tap to get the coffee out.

Yep. Taking out the plugs and watching the water spray yards into the air while you crank it is also fun.

The message from "Dave Plowman (News)" contains these words:

Mostly true, but of course many modern ECUs control the alarm and the central locking and many other things and are powered up all the time. Immersion even in "fresh" water would kill 'em off very rapidly if only by electrolysing the supply rails away.

Years ago I worked for a firm which built some monitoring equipment for Ford's Dagenham engine castings plant. The atmosphere in there was vile and condensation was acidic. Some berk (my boss) refused to use IP67 cases 'cos they were too expensive. After a few months most of the cards came back with no tracks left where acidic condensation had crossed the supply rails, which by habit I usually laid out across the top edge of the PCB.

The message from "Clive George" contains these words:

Balham Food and Book CoOp spilt concentrated apple juice over the keyboard of a Superbrain [1] but had the presence of mind to switch if off at once. I took it home and washed it in the bath and rinsed and dried it thoroughly and after a few days in the airing cupboard (during which time I took the keyswitches apart) it was fine.

Wow, haven't seen one of those (Superbrains) in years. I remember there was one at school (around 1983, it had been donated) and trying to get it to talk to various printers and so on. The screen was awful (compared to the Beeb) and it weighed a tonne (for a seven year old, at least). The school had a "sale" of all their crappy systems and was giving away Superbrains for a fiver or so. Somehow, they managed to sell one or two, I recall struggling to fit one in the boot of someone's car.

Guy King ( snipped-for-privacy@zetnet.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

New Year's Resolution - Get to Bletchley Park.

My history started with a ZX80, then Sharp MZ-80K and an ST. Next door has a ZX81 and a Speccie, and Uni mates had Amigas. At school, 380Z and 480Z (plus, of course, the ubiquitous Beeb and Archie). My mother had a PC XT home from work a couple of times then an Apricot lived at home for a while.

You cannot get the same volume of water through a haed gasket that you can get through the inlet valve. Immerse a diesel in water and you will probably punch a hole through the piston or bend a rod. A petrol may get away with it.

The message from Chris Street contains these words:

If it's running. When I got the head off mine one bore was brim full of water and that didnt' bend a rod. It might have done if it had only been partly full...

I blew the head gasket on a Renault 12 once. One of the symptoms being a lack of water in the radiator I refilled it and cranked the engine and watched the water sloshing out of the radiator.

Aaarghh... another saddo...

ZX80 - VIC-20 - Commodore PLUS/4 - Tandy 1000 (almost PC) - various PCs to now, when there's four PCs in the house (1 non-working, 1 in the living room, one in the boys bedroom and my laptop)

Yes quite. I was thinking of the usual situation where someone goes through a ford and ingests water in the intake.

I've had panel van (may have been a Transit but cannot remember) before where it's drained oil past the worn valve guides and been impossible to turn over. I took the glow plugs out and cranked it just in time for the boss to walk past and get a liberal shower of used oil all over his silk tie.

I didn't last long at that firm....:-(

I'll raise you my ZX81, Nascom 1 and horror of horrors an Altair 8800B.... Not sure if any of them work now but I still have them in the attic...

Tim S Kemp ( snipped-for-privacy@timkemp.karoo.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

One laptop (and another on order shortly), one desktop mainly used by 'erself, one ancient desktop running as a Linux mail/domain/print server, and a large contribution towards one car load of aging crap being delivered to ComputerAid tomorrow by a colleague who makes me look like Mr. Minimalist.

I still recall being in the shop with my parents trying to decide between the MZ-80K and a TI99/4a. I wanted the TI - more games to type in. They wanted the Sharp. Thought it looked more edumacational or something. Since they were paying...

ZX81, Dragon 32, Sord M5, Atari 65XE, Amstrad CPC6128, Amiga 500+, P133MMX, couple of 1-box 16-bit Macs, iMac, iBook, Celery 1ghz, Powerbook, some sort of AMD chipped Shuttle PC.

Of those, I still own all but the Atari, Amiga and the P133.

That's not to mention the vast numbers of handhelds I've been through since the late 80s.

Chris Street ( snipped-for-privacy@chris-street.demon.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Heh. A friend exhumed a Dyane that was last on the road in the early 80s this summer, and trailered it - untouched - to a 2cv camp.

The engine, of course, refused to rotate. A bit of diesel was nicked out of a handy BX and lobbed down the bores, then gently jump on the starting handle. First one degree, then another, then a bit more. Eventually, it would travel back and forth over most of the piston's travel. Then - a complete rotation! Stiffly, then freely. It's amazing how much diesel came out and how far it went. And how many people and tents it covered.

Ten minutes later, with a handy pint glass nicked from the bar (well, purchased and the contents placed in, erm, safe storage) gently pouring fuel down the carb throat, and a points box nicked from somebody else's car, it was coughing and spluttering. Another ten minutes with the pint as a gravity-feed tank, it was running through what little remained of the exhaust.

I'm not sure that the normal punters in the beer garden that we had the trailer parked in were amused, though... It was, to be fair, a little loud and smoky.

The message from "Tim S Kemp" contains these words:

Pah - you're not trying! There must be half a dozen lurking under the stairs.

The message from Chris Street contains these words:

The boss at a firm I once worked for asked me to check the oil level on a running diesel welding set. I reached to switch off and he told me not to be such a wimp and to pull the dipstick with it running.

Shame about his brand new fawn raincoat.