Advice on Flooded Excavator...

I had lots of machines that worked on the Thames Barrier slip off mats that they were working on and get stuck in the mud of the river bed,depending on how far out they would be some would be part submerged some totally covered when the tide came in,if the water stayed below the filler points of the fuel,oil and hydraulics one was lucky and put the machine back to work after checking the oil in the final drives,we never worried about the undercarriage and I never seen any component fail as everything is sealed up pretty well,different storey if the machine got totally submerged and the water got into the hydraulics,engine and fuel the machines would be craned out and everything have to be cleaned,after it happened a few times I had some air tight caps made for the hydraulics tanks of the machines that I was concerned with,as all the hydraulic system is sealed the breather in the filler was the entry point and once the air tight cap was on no water could get in,same with the fuel tank,more difficult with the engine,lots of entry points,the common machine was the U series Hitachi with either an Hino or Isuzu engine,we used to block off everything,air intake,exhaust,filler,dipstick and breathers,when that was done the tide would not come in high as if to spite one,the machines had to be pressure washed after as there would be an 1/8 of an inch of slurrey left behind,the starters and alternators we used blow out with compressed air,if they failed they failed and if they didn't they didn't,one could not be pulling everything to clean it.so in your case if the water level does not reach the fill points you should be safe enough,but check everything and if you find water in any component drain and refil it before you start to avoid mixing,pump plenty grease into the swing bearing to expel any water,check the final drives that water has not got in and I doubt if it can,6 inches in the cab should not reach the electrics but would be getting close,blow any water off and spray all the multi plugs with water repellent to avoid corrosion of the connectors in future,run the machine with the cab door and windows closed and the heater on full blast to dry it out.
AJ

Thank you. 😊

KwD75, I apologise for not replying sooner. We had a Komatus 400 go into the river in the San Juaquine River delta in California at 4 months of age. It was nose first with the batteries going under water. The water is subject to a 2 to 3 foot tide so it is quite brackish. The machine was only under for 4 hours because we luckily had a 300 ton hydro on site. The batteries were so dead they would not take a charge the next morning.The current from the batteries went to groumd through the swing bearing causing etching on the balls and also on the race. Even if the batteries didn't discharge water and silt will get into the swing bearing and it should be checked out while the insurance co. is still on the line as a premature failure later is very expensive. Also check for water getting in to the swing transmission through the oil check dip stick. Due to the corrosive water on our site every wire,electrical componate, circle bearing, and swing transmission bearings had to be replaced. VERY EXPENSIVE Good Luck RT