NKYAuto’s Matt Ryan actually bought a flood-hit 1966 Ford Cobra kit car for $23,000 to see if he could get it back to working condition. However, he eventually finds more water draining from the car than the amount of engine and transmission oil.Fortunately, the previous owner did not crank the Cobra after it was flooded, meaning all that mechanic Danny had to do was drain out every drop of water from the system, replace electrical components that had been flooded, and put everything back together.However, draining water that had been sitting in the system, including the fuel tank, for quite a while is one of the most challenging things to do, as it takes multiple oil and fuel flushes. Additionally, as water is extracted, other problems begin to surface, such as the issue with the carburettor on the Cobra, which had to be replaced.AdvertisementAdvertisementThe extensive trial-and-error method is the only way to deal with a flood-damaged car, unless one wants to strip apart the entire engine. But that would add significantly to the labor cost and could take much longer to put the car back together.Ryan posted videos of the water extraction process, highlighting the efforts and patience required for such jobs. While he has gotten many flood-damaged cars up and running in the past, he did admit that he had never seen anything like the amount of water in the Ford Cobra kit car. He said:“This thing was just full of water. I mean, that is more water than I’ve ever seen. And we have done, no kidding, thousands of flood cars.“Let’s start with the gas tank, and wow, that thing was completely full of water. He (mechanic Danny) took the inspection plate off the top of it, and water just came pouring out.AdvertisementAdvertisement“So, what he ended up doing was taking a jump pack, hooking it up to the fuel pump, which is up here, just took the leads off of it, hooked up a drain hose up here to the front of the fuel line, and just ran the fuel pump and pumped all of the water out of the gas tank.”Ryan said the oil in the rear differential was brown, which is better than having milky oil. He added:“The rear differential, here it is. Here you can see that the oil is brown. It’s not black, but it’s not milky milky milky, but it still had a little bit of water in it. So, obviously, we’re changing that out.“The key with the rear differentials is the water actually gets in the tubes as well on both sides. So, you got to be sure to get the water out of the tubes, clean all that up, put the cover on it, fill it up with some fresh oil.”AdvertisementAdvertisementWith a lot of water pouring out of the gearbox, it needed fresh oil to be flushed at least four times to remove all the water. Ryan said:“The gearbox, fortunately, is a manual because that thing was completely full of water. I mean, look at this. Look at this oil. This is what came out of the transmission. That’s really bad. So, we will end up flushing gear oil through this, two or three or four times, until we get nice clean oil.”Describing the condition of the engine, Ryan said it had more water than oil:“When we inspect it, the engine, oh my gosh. I mean, the thing was just completely full of water, plum top. As he’s draining it, it’s just water, water, water. And then at the way end, he got just a tiny bit of oil. It was like there was no oil in the engine to begin with, which kind of doesn’t make sense that the car would be sitting around with no oil in the engine.AdvertisementAdvertisement“So, it must have got so much water in it that it literally just pushed the oil out of the top, is the only thing I can guess. The combustion chambers were all full of water as well. So, he took all the plugs out, put a wrench here on the end of the crankshaft, and just manually cranked the engine around to get all the water out of the combustion chambers.”He added:“I’ve never seen an engine with that much water in it. I’m really concerned about it. This is not good. Hopefully, we don’t end up putting an engine in this thing. All we can do at this point is wait and see. But that’s not good.”In Part 2 of reviving the Ford Cobra kit car, Ryan gets the car going after several attempts, even spinning the wheels on the freeway during the final test drive. Breaking down the cost, he revealed that the Ford Cobra kit car cost him $23,456, followed by $650 for transportation, $2,200 for labor, $2,300 for car parts, and $400 for detailing. The total expenses were $29,006. He plans to sell the car for $35,000.