Recovering from a roll over

KFirst- shut the ignition off ASAP (even during the flop if possible). Prepare for fire, get the extinguishers handy.

Second- evaluate injuries to people or pets. Attend to those first, forget about the stupid paint, metal and rubber damage.

Three- recover the vehicle. This is as dangerous or more dangerous than the initial flop. This takes a lot of knowledge to right vehicle without causing further damage. The use of winch blocks is highly advisable to lessen the work on the winches doing the recovery, it also makes it much more controllable up until the point of gravity taking back over. Doing this type of recovery is exceptionally technical and actually is very helpful if you have had professional lessons/training.

Four- once vehicle is righted, a seriously detailed assessment of the damage to the engine needs to be done before attempting to restart.

Five- No need to drain the oil! That serves no other purpose other than to make the trail even more messy. However, you do need to pull the spark plugs to release any vacuum in the cylinders that might be keeping oil from returning back into the pan from the cylinders. Also pull the air filter to see if oil has made it up through the intake manifold and all the way to the filter element.

Six- once it has been deemed safe to attempt an engine turn over, and with the plugs still out, crank the engine over to purge the cylinders of oil. Caution: this is super messy, oil is going to spray everywhere.

Seven- Once the cylinders seem dry of oil, clean all the spark plugs with brake cleaner really well. Reinstall spark plugs, check engine oil level on as flat a surface as possible and top off. Top off all other fluids too at this point.

Eight- start vehicle, prepare for lots of smoke......which will eventually go away. Now drive off trail.

Wow great info. Thanks. I definitely need to add a couple things to my trail kit.
 
Sheesh!! And here I was thinking I could come in here and post up a response :doh: :rolleyes2: :crazyeyes: :D

Seriously folks, this is about as good of an answer as it gets. Greg, if you're cool with it, I'd like to modify it a bit so that it can stand alone as it's own post. I'd like to make it a stickied article that people can reference.

Eddie, I relinquish all poetic license to you. Add to, take away from, basically work you magic!
 
So I'm curious. Did you follow all the steps in this post? Or do anything different? Any pointers. I cross my fingers every time. But it's always a chance.
I did everything except start it with the spark plugs out because it was only on its side. I Did take the spark plugs out and check everything then decided that was not needed.
 
I did everything except start it with the spark plugs out because it was only on its side. I Did take the spark plugs out and check everything then decided that was not needed.

I would highly recommend pulling the spark plugs and cranking the engine anytime you flop. It does not take long to get enough oil into the cylinders to seize the engine. I got lucky here. After about 2 minuets I decided to fire it back up and try to back out. Won't do that again. Get the jeep on all fours and pull the plugs, it's worth the extra 15 minutes of work.

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I would highly recommend pulling the spark plugs and cranking the engine anytime you flop. It does not take long to get enough oil into the cylinders to seize the engine. I got lucky here. After about 2 minuets I decided to fire it back up and try to back out. Won't do that again. Get the jeep on all fours and pull the plugs, it's worth the extra 15 minutes of work.

I am going to do it tonight. And probably put completely new plugs in just because I'm there already.
 
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