Water In Fuel

I purchased fuel for my Cadillac, and the fuel had water in it. I drove about 1/2-mile and the auto stopped. I had it towed into a cadillac dealer for repair and they informed me that I need a new engine because it was destroyed (cracked head and busted block) Can this be possible.

This was not covered by my warranty because the gas was contaminated with water and they do not cover this. At this point it will cost me approximately $10,000 for a new engine. I don't believe water could cause the destruction of an engine. Who would be liable? My mechanic says that water in the fuel would not cause this kind of damage. So my question would be should I sue the:wallbang: repair shop? because I believe when the repair shop was vaccuming the water out of the engine lines, they had the car started thus causing the cracked head and busted block.

Thanks, Quattro

Water can cause the destruction of a running engine because when introduced into the combustion chamber it raises the internal pressure by flashing to steam (the same mass of water vapor/steam occupies 1400 times its liquid volume). In fact this principle is used to to raise the effective compression ratio of low compression engines by using controlled water injection to produce more power. The water is usually mixed with alcohol and little oil for engineering reasons, but the concept is the same.

Water can also damage an engine that isn't running but is cranked over and/or started as if there is enough water (in a cylinder) it will raise the pressure excessively in a cylinder that is in the compression stroke/cycle as water is an incompressible fluid.

Either way, auto engines aren't designed to operate or survive at the extreme pressures created in these scenarios.

Which happened in your case, or perhap even when both did, I couldn't say. It will be difficult to determine which event caused the damage, but it all leads back to water in the fuel tank being the proximate cause.