Cold air intake sucks up water?

[spooner_dee]

I have heard many horror stories about people with cold air intakes hitting big puddles and what not and sucking up big gulps of water into their engine and basicly destroying them. Having heard that ive yet to ever buy a cold air intake, i have instead played it safe and down short ram air intakes. is there truth to this story? anyone ever have this problem or know someone who did? also anyone ever have both and find out which is better? im guessing the cold air cuz its getting air from direct outside and its not in the engine bay with the heat. any ideas?

 

[miamieclipse]

of course cold air is better , yes it does get colder air. I have my cai going all the way thorough the whole right next to the fog lights. I have a bypass valve on the intake, the filter has to be completly submerged btw. If i ever saw that i would stick it in neutral n roll it to a parking space or somethin n just let it sit for a while (get a ride from someoen)

 

[Daedalus]

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=129014

Make sure you get a bypass if you live where it rains a lot...

 

[ac49er]

This happened to a friend of mine just about a week ago. drove slowly through a puddle after heavy rain and the car died immdiately, won't start back up at all. we changed the oil and pulled out the spark plugs and turned it over and had the water shoot out of the spark plug holes. we thought this would fix it but it didn't quite do the job all the way. i think in the process, the timing got thrown off, so we are trying to replace the timing belt now, and hopefully that will fix the problem and get the car running again. We were however happy to find out that the engine was not blown, cuz that would suck @$$. anyway, yes the stories are true, it can happen if you have a cold air intake that can be reached by puddles. just be careful of the big puddles and try to avoid them if possible. it is a lot of unwanted work to get it back in running order! :thumbdown

 

[kaoticdeath]

if you ever suck up water and you get it shut down in time the only way to get the water out is to tear the negine compleatly down and clean everything cause if you dont wait long enough you risk ####in up your engine and it could take up to a couple months if you wait :thumbdown

 

[big green]

Hydro lock is pretty rare. Just don't be dumb and drive through huge ass puddles/lakes

 

[GSGoinFast]

Hydro lock is pretty rare. Just don't be dumb and drive through huge ass puddles/lakes

dont use car as boat... got it! :laugh:

 

[SoilentGreen98]

Living in Vegas I don't have to worry about rain and puddles too often, but when it rains that shit collects up into huge puddles that you gotta drive way out of the way to avoid. Last time it rained I was meeting up with a friend of mine who has a 92 Accord with a CAI. When I met up with him I asked if he was swerving around puddles like I was and he said he didn't have to cause in the morning he took off the lower pipe of the CAI and just put the filter at the joint of the 2 pipes creating a short ram. I thought that was a pretty good idea. Too bad I can't do it cause I have the AEM one peice. Only choice I suppose I have is to either buy a short ram for those rare occassions or cut the pipe and put in a bypass valve.

 

[Robmoto_7s]

Well, it dont take an idiot to hydro-lock your motor, i can tell you that for sure. Here is my whole story about my blown 97' n/t motor;
It had been raining all night, and it was about 5pm when i started my way home from the shop. If i had known it was going to rain like hell in the morning before i left to work, i would have not drove her to work, trust me, but i had to get my car home none the less in the rain fall. So, i avoided puddle after puddle with my crappy "super white xenon" lights(by the way, dont waste your money, buy a real HID kit like the KATZ one) when all of a sudden i see a massive puddle covering the whole road way. There was no where else to go in the "rush hour-gotta get home to feed the kids" traffic with a car in front, behind and on the right side and a extra tall median on my left.....what was a man to do? So i dumped it down real quick and slammed on the breaks and got her down to like 10mph as i drove into the puddle, praying that it wasnt deep. Ofcourse it was, she stalled out with a bang and hasnt started sience....moral of the story guys; if you are gonna buy a nice $200 cold-air intake, buy a nice $60 bypass valve to go with it...heck, it will save you your nice $1,500 engine!! Peace out guys

 

[spooner_dee]

WOW!!!!!! thanks for the warnings and the advice. Man that sucks that some of u guys lost ur cars to fukin rain puddles of all things... Ok so i got it if im gonna do a CAI i have to add a bypass valve. does that require any like drilling or anything or is it just an add on piece. Also if you add the bypass, do you still have to come to a real slow pass over pudles or can u just fly by like normal? Im one of those neurotic over thinkers, i have to over plan every lil thing, pain in the ass, but it saves me from problems like what you guys have described. Spanks for the info

 

[eclipse13]

It does happen. But when it rains I just drive slower than usual and avoid all the water you can.

 

[GSGoinFast]

WOW!!!!!! thanks for the warnings and the advice. Man that sucks that some of u guys lost ur cars to fukin rain puddles of all things... Ok so i got it if im gonna do a CAI i have to add a bypass valve. does that require any like drilling or anything or is it just an add on piece. Also if you add the bypass, do you still have to come to a real slow pass over pudles or can u just fly by like normal? Im one of those neurotic over thinkers, i have to over plan every lil thing, pain in the ass, but it saves me from problems like what you guys have described. Spanks for the info

you have to get the right sized bypass valve for your intake, and you have to cut the intake tube, and insert the bypass in between the 2 pieces

 

[Defiant]

I've heard worse stories about the bypass valves rotting than I've heard of cars doing the U-Boat Seppuku. It takes a LOT of water to hydrolock, but true hydrolocking might be the worst thing for an engine short of snapping off a valve or the like.

Meanwhile, a small amount of water (such as used in water injection) is very good for an engine.

 

[ninjai_ruken]

Before My car went turbo I had a cai on my car....not once did I ever have a problem I drove 90miles in a Rain storm. Drove trough many puddle's the filter would have to be partialy submerged for anything bad to happen..sorry for any spelling dont give a shit right now

 

[Evolver]

yea i have a cai in michigan, and so far i have had no problems, but if you follow the advice given here you shouldent have any problems. and i have been in some serious rain. just avoid the puddles and youll be fine

 

[Ballin' GS]

I hydrolocked my engine last winter. I've have CAI's on all my cars and this was the first time its ever happened. It has to be a DEEP puddle in order for it to happen. But most of the people on here will tell you if the motor is hydrolocked its gone before they even try to check it out. I went through pulled the plugs and cranked the motor over just like the other guy on here. Except unlike him i didn't stop there. Drain your oil, then you will see where all the water went . After this i was able to start up the car and it ran horrible for about 5 minutes shut it off, changed the oil again, then drove it for a week like it was new again, then changed the oil one last time. Now my motor is fine and this is about 7k miles later. Hydrolocking your motor is easy if you are dumb and drive through big floods, but bending a valve or a rod because of it is even harder.

 

[Robmoto_7s]

....if you can avoid them Bypass valves rot out? How long is the life on a bypass then? I just had one installed today on my CAI with the help of my homies down at 'snow's auto' here in spokane. Oh boy, cant wait to put it on the j-spec 420A i just ordered, hehehe

 

[Ballin' GS]

IMO a bypass valve ruins the purpose of an aftermarket intake. Why resrict it? I have a ram air intake that i put on during the winter months and leave my injen race division CAI on summertime.

 

[big green]

I had my CAI on during Michigan winters, you will be fine.

 

[91hondahatch]

I went thru this puddle with mine and nothing happened to mine at all

Check it out at http://www.angelfire.com/ct3/pirateoffroad/movthelaser.htm

 

[TurboGraphX]

I used to run CAI on all of my cars... untill i got smart and did a little research..
go to Radio shack and buy a very cheap $10.00 digital thermometer with remote sensor.
Tape the sensor onto your air filter with the Short ram intake. set the themometer inside the car and drive the car for a few miles. Notice the min and max temps. at the filter.
Now install your high dollar CAI and do the same, you will see that once you are up to about 15 miles an hour... the temp at the filter is the same regaurdless of where the filter is.
Reason... Once the car is moving at about 15 miles per hour, the air passing under the car creates a vacume which pulls all of the hot air out of the engine compartment and pulls fresh cold air in behind it. Thus giving the filter the same cold air that it would see if it was located elsewhere.
Final conclusion...
CAI's look nice, but that's about it. They only have a benefit if you are traveling less than about 15 or 20 miles an hour.
And as for hydrolock... it takes less than a Tablespoon to hydrolock a 4G63....
Does this look good to any of you guys??... (see pic)

 

[Robmoto_7s]

Wow!!! ya'll see that bent rod!?!? As soon as my old 420A is taken apart, ill put my pics on as well. Even if a cold air intake is only helpfull at giving you power between 15-20 mph, dont you want that power off the line anyway? Plus, its not all about how cold the air is either(even though it is a HUGE part of the systems function), the cai has better air flow, it frees up the breathing of your motor....and that works for me!!

 

[Ballin' GS]

it takes less than a Tablespoon to hydrolock a 4G63....

I doubt that. What are you using for proof of that? Tests have been done and filters have to be almost submerged in alot of them in order for an engine to be hydrolocked... Besides how do you explain water injection?

 

[TurboGraphX]

Hmmmm,... Let's see... "How do I explain water injection"...??
Well, first off, it isn't what most people think it is.
you see, water injection is the process of injecting a VERY FINE mist of water into the induction stream. This FINE MIST is used to cool the combustion process which in turn lessens the chance for detonation which is better known as knock.
Now, you see, The amount of that FINE MIST that is actually drawn into each cylinder on it's intake stroke is way, way, less than a tablespoon. Infact, it is just bearly a measurable amount. Infact, if you took the same amount of water that is drawn into the cylinder on it's intake stroke and put that amount of water in a spray bottle and sprayed it on your arm.... you would never know it hit you. because when the FINE MIST of water inters the induction stream, it is atomized along with the air/fuel mixture. So water injection will not hydrolock an engine.. UNLESS it is malfunctioning really badly.
Now, on to the tablespoon of water idea. I have hydrolocked many engines in my 34 years of building them. I have hydrolocked many 4G63's in this time aswell. Now, not too long ago, when the CAI was just getting popular and everyone wanted one but were too afraid of hydrolock, we desided to test the idea. we strapped a warnout- but running 4G63 on the test stand and started adding small amounts of water to the number one cylinder. We are talking CC's here. After each dose of water, the plug and wire were replaced and the engine started. We repeated the process untill we managed to get a uncompressable amount of water in the number one cylinder. After all was said and done, the final result was right around a tablespoon. I can't remember the exact number of CC's, but i remember that it rounded off to right about a tablespoon of water. Now, this doesn't mean that every engine is going to hydrolock at the same amount. Lord knows that each engine is different in every aspect. But it is a fact that it did happen once.
Now, as for the filter having to be submerged in order to hydrolock an engine... well, keep thinking that. It isn't true, but keep thinking it. All you need is enough water to get sucked into the intake tube.... regaurdless of how much of the filter is in the water or not. you can hydrolock a chevy small block with a filter ontop of the engine if it sucks in enough rain water. (comonsense huh?)
Ken

 

[GSGoinFast]

i believe the table spoon thing, but you are making it seem like if i a table spoon of water hits your filter, it will hydrolock. it takes a lot of water for your engine to start suckin it up. why suck up a heavier and denser liquid when a gas is still available. when the water starts taking over the entire filter it will start sucking in water and kill it. it doesnt take much water in the cylinder to kill it but it takes alot for it to start sucking it up.