I have a 85 22re with 155k original miles on it, it's in GREAT shape.

I was driving home in the dark at about 50mph going around a slight bend. suddenly I hit a puddle that had submerged the whole road. It was in the 1.5 to 2 feet deep range as best I could tell. I hit the brakes and then when I felt back in control I gunned it out of there.
everything seemed fine except this new sound that I noticed right after i made it through the puddle. Sounds like a "tak tak tak" that increases with throttle (not too loud), like maybe an exhaust leak? It went away after 5mins or so.

1. Now it only does it when the car is cold, as it heats up it goes away.
2. Also my rear passenger side brake (cant be positive its only the passenger side, but seems like it) seems to lock up too easily sometimes, don't know if that is related but it started happening at the same time.

I already checked the plugs, distributor and air filter for wetness, they all seemed fine. Any thoughts would be much appreciated!

 

Just a guess but cold water on your hot Cat might have cracked one of the welds on the heat shield which now vibrates when cold.

If it cracked the cat itself I doubt the noise would go away but who can say

 

Thank you, that's a great idea, ill look in to it.

Keep em coming guys, I really appreciate it!

 

Lucky you didn't hydrolock....

 

The cold on the hot exhaust sounds about right. I have a small exhaust leak that makes a bit of a sound when cold, then goes away as the exhaust heats up.

If you think the rear brakes are locking up pull off the tires and take a look.

 

Yeah I think its something like that, is there a best practices procedure for locating an exhaust leak?

Yeah the breaks, I think I can figure that one out, just wondering if anyone knew of a reason water would cause them to behave like that.

Thank you for the advice!

 

I just start the truck, outside, and follow the sound to the leak. You might see black marks, soot, around the leak.

No idea on the brakes

 

I did that once when I was 19. Got to do my fist long block swap. Op was very lucky.

 

So i fixed it, no biggie really. Where the manifold (right after the O2 sensor) and exhaust pipe were fastened. one of the bolts had become loose enough that you could feel the puffs of air very obviously when idling. It was of course the hardest bolt to get to with out removing a lot of surrounding harware, but I was able to get a 12in extension and a unversal joint with a deep enough 14mil socket to tighten it right back up. Sounds better then ever now. To be fair I also changed the oil and added some Tribotex (<<< that stuff is amazing btw, check it out) not "Tribotech", Tribotex. Compression has increases 5-10% MPG is up, engine runs quieter, HP feels back to the original "right off the line HP".

The problem with the breaks just seemed to be a temp thing cause now everything is running better then ever!

Thanks for the input everyone, it pointed be in the right direction and I owe a couple of hours to you

 

 

Congratulations that's a very nice and clean truck.