My Eventful Night

[J-hop]

Re: My Eventful Night

yea I am wondering too, I'm leaning towards electrical not hydrolocking. If the engine bogged due to a hydrolock situation than you would have engine damage for sure. its like slamming a piston against a brick wall

[aliencurv]

Re: My Eventful Night

yea I am wondering too, I'm leaning towards electrical not hydrolocking. If the engine bogged due to a hydrolock situation than you would have engine damage for sure. its like slamming a piston against a brick wall

depends how much water was in there. if it was just a little, then the computer would recognize misfires and assume a coil/spark/fueling problem.

he did have water in one of his cylinders when he took the plugs out.

thankfully not enough to bend a rod (we hope)

[JPO]

Re: My Eventful Night

depends how much water was in there. if it was just a little, then the computer would recognize misfires and assume a coil/spark/fueling problem.

he did have water in one of his cylinders when he took the plugs out.

thankfully not enough to bend a rod (we hope)

Ok, so please forgive my unsavvyness but - honest question - does the water make its way into the combustion chamber (let alone in sufficient quantity to cause harm) simply by driving in the rain? I could understand driving into a lake, but is the intake suction really powerful enough to pull water from a saturated (not submerged) filter all the way up the two foot long partly vertical tube, past the MAF, throttle body, intake and in the OP's case an intercooler?

[luunta]

Re: My Eventful Night

if that's the case, the entire city of vancouver is hosed!

:(

i should mention this is relevant to my interests, as it's downpoured twice really bad so far, with big splashy rain.

[VW337]

Re: My Eventful Night

I think it was almost hydrolocked. My air filter sits right in the opening of the bumper vent which I have no grill in. When I felt the filter it was pretty wet and it looks like water was running down in between my hood and fender and then pouring/dripping onto the intake pipe and runing down onto the filter. The top of the engine was completely dry so I don't suspect it was a coil pack. When it happened there was no puddle but there was alot of water on the road and I already had my hand on the key and shut the car off as soon as the engine light flashed once. I figured it was best to play it safe and not drive it home. I let it sit in the garage with the plugs pulled and the intake pulled apart with the heat cranked for a full day before I fired it again. I'm just happy it runs and there doesn't seem to be any damage. I think I might have to cut the intake pipe in half and make it a short ram instead lol.

[p951]

Re: My Eventful Night

Ok, so please forgive my unsavvyness but - honest question - does the water make its way into the combustion chamber (let alone in sufficient quantity to cause harm) simply by driving in the rain? I could understand driving into a lake, but is the intake suction really powerful enough to pull water from a saturated (not submerged) filter all the way up the two foot long partly vertical tube, past the MAF, throttle body, intake and in the OP's case an intercooler?

YES! I helped a friend out with a cold air intake that sucked up quite a bit of water when going through a puddle. I took off the lower intercooler hose and water POURED out of the system. Took the spark plugs out and had him crank the engine over a few times and water shot out of the spark plug holes (with amazing force I must add). Luckily he didn't seem to bend a rod that time (he was going very slow - clutch in - and the engine died immediately). When we put everything back together he still had issues until the engine fully got rid of all of the water in the intake (and spewed it out of the exhaust). It was interesting to see him drive and water stream out of the exhaust once in a while. I've never been a fan of CAIs for this exact reason. The performance increase is not worth the cost and hassle of dealing with issues like this when it rains.

Oh yea, change your engine oil immediately! You most likely got water past the rings in the engine if your car ingested water. My friend's car had quite contaminated oil after that episode.

[VW337]

Re: My Eventful Night

Oh yea, change your engine oil immediately! You most likely got water past the rings in the engine if your car ingested water. My friend's car had quite contaminated oil after that episode.

Already changed the oil, but thanks.

[JPO]

Re: My Eventful Night

YES! I helped a friend out with a cold air intake that sucked up quite a bit of water when going through a puddle. I took off the lower intercooler hose and water POURED out of the system. Took the spark plugs out and had him crank the engine over a few times and water shot out of the spark plug holes (with amazing force I must add). Luckily he didn't seem to bend a rod that time (he was going very slow - clutch in - and the engine died immediately). When we put everything back together he still had issues until the engine fully got rid of all of the water in the intake (and spewed it out of the exhaust). It was interesting to see him drive and water stream out of the exhaust once in a while. I've never been a fan of CAIs for this exact reason. The performance increase is not worth the cost and hassle of dealing with issues like this when it rains.

Oh yea, change your engine oil immediately! You most likely got water past the rings in the engine if your car ingested water. My friend's car had quite contaminated oil after that episode.

So was this a deep-assed puddle, deep enough to put the filter under water or just really splash it good? Again, I can imagine submerging a filter is bad but how bad is just getting it good and wet?

[MentalSideArm]

Re: My Eventful Night

VW337, I was wondering whose car that was on the forums. I read your gas meter in Coach Hill yesterday!

[aliencurv]

Re: My Eventful Night

So was this a deep-assed puddle, deep enough to put the filter under water or just really splash it good? Again, I can imagine submerging a filter is bad but how bad is just getting it good and wet?

it's a process that takes a bit of time when splashing through puddles on a drive...

- at first, it starts sucking water into the pipes and intercooler, etc.

- then eventually under high load, the water will start cooling the piping and making it's way (in the form of droplets rather then steam) into the cylinder.

- initially the cylnder is hot, but the droplets steam up quick, and then prevent ignition.

- after enough misfires, the piston and cylinder temp drops and the water begins to collect.

also, if you submerge the filter in the water, then yah: good bye rod(s)

next time you are under the hood, take off your air filter while the car is idling. try to cover the hole with your hand, see how that feels

and idling is a real low load... imagine a high load suction lol

edit: oh oh one more thing. by adding even an ounce of water to a cylinder, do a calculation to see what your new improved compression ratio is

[JPO]

Re: My Eventful Night

it's a process that takes a bit of time when splashing through puddles on a drive...

- at first, it starts sucking water into the pipes and intercooler, etc.

- then eventually under high load, the water will start cooling the piping and making it's way (in the form of droplets rather then steam) into the cylinder.

- initially the cylnder is hot, but the droplets steam up quick, and then prevent ignition.

- after enough misfires, the piston and cylinder temp drops and the water begins to collect.

also, if you submerge the filter in the water, then yah: good bye rod(s)

next time you are under the hood, take off your air filter while the car is idling. try to cover the hole with your hand, see how that feels

and idling is a real low load... imagine a high load suction lol

edit: oh oh one more thing. by adding even an ounce of water to a cylinder, do a calculation to see what your new improved compression ratio is

Well, there you go. I guess I'll keep the drycharger on there for no. Kind of negates some of what ever usefulness (if much at all) is provided by the filter on a tube in the first place.

[Errol.]

Re: My Eventful Night

Glad your car is fine Tyler.
Such a crazy night!

[Bucky]

Re: My Eventful Night

Glad it's all good. similar thing happened driving to Calgary sunday with a buddy's car. Cruising on the highway the car was making no boost. his cai is in a similar spot. we shut the car off and it gushed out a bunch of water. got it towed home, checked spark plugs, maf and intercooler tubing. then we popped the intercooler off and drained about a 1/2L of water out. dried it out now it's golden. Sounds like rain can be a real ***** sometimes.

[bart]

Re: My Eventful Night

orrrr you can leave the intake nice and high once i drove through water so deep it ran up my hood, i was fine lol

[J-hop]

Re: My Eventful Night

orrrr you can leave the intake nice and high once i drove through water so deep it ran up my hood, i was fine lol

I vote stock intake, I sprayed down my whole engine bay a few weeks ago with a low pressure washer and just to be safe stuck my hand into the intake flange for the stock box on my VR and not a drop of water made it in. CAIs sure clean up the bay nice but everyone I talk to seems to have problems with them no matter their location.