well, I'm gonna start on it right now. I'll take my time and do a whole write up for anyone else who has this happen in the future.
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It happened cause it's been raining all day and evertyhing is flooded. I was at the mall when the rain started and I still had my CAI on. ( I usually remove it on rainy days but got lazy this morning)
I made it all the way home before it happened which was lucky for me. turning into my culva sac, there was a lil waterthat I had to cross. I didnt think anything of it cause there wasnt much there at all. but the second I hit the water the engine started chuggin so I shut it down and pushed it to my driveway. let it sit for a sec and tried to start it. It didnt want to idle so I shut it down. Talk about a stupid way to screw up your engine.
now I'm gonna go pull the plugs and the intake manifold and hope I didnt get enough in to get in in the cylinders. cause that will suck big ones. but we'll see.
when I took off the intake, at least 10-15 oz. of water came pouring out. (not a good sign)
pulled out the spark plugs and they were ok (thank god)
pulled off the Throttle body and it's soakin wet (very not good)
next I'll be pulling off the Intake manifold. Hopefully theres not too much water resting inside of it. also the oil doesnt look like its got any water in it yet so I may get off with a bad scare so far **crosses fingers**
Yea, it doesn't sound like you hydrolocked it. Just let it sit open for a few days. If you don't have grey oil, you should be fine. If you have a compressor, try shooting air in the parts that you have apart. I'd bet most of the water was just sittin in the CAI itself, and not in the engine.
Man that's why I'm never going to get a CAI. I live in wet-belt of North America where it rains all the time and I'm not going to chance this ever happening. That's why I'm going to get a Rod Millen style SRI /w the heat shield, its the best most safest way to go. I saw it tested an intake temps were about 5 degrees cooler then stock, which is good enough for me.
I'm just curious how much is a little water that you had to cross? I'm just wondering what would you estimate the depth of the river flowing in front of you while this happened and were you hauling ass? All out of curiousity mind you.
actually the best we can figure is that it is largely due to a design flaw in the AEM gen 2 cai's. once any amount of water goes into your intake, it gets caught in the intake tube because the first bend is angled up. This creates a pool. so most likely the water had been building up the whole time and slowly being sucked into the intake manifold. Now our Intake manifold runners curve up which means it pulls the air from the top. When I hit the small dip it wasnt the water but the fact that I hit the dip that caused my engine to choke. My guess is that the bump splashed the water in the intake manifold and the engine then sucked some in. So far doesnt seem like enough to have caused any damage but enough to be annoying. also shutting the car down right away helped keep the water out.
You wrote the intake was building up water because it pooled it up due to AEM's intake flaw. Is that correct? The intake manifold was building up water as well? You didn't notice anything going wrong especially going as slow as you said you were in what was it? An inch, foot, 3 feet of water? I missed that part. Or over time? A bump in the road is that right? caused this pool of water in your intake and manifold on the same car that you were driving before hand with no troubles to suddenly hydrolock? A bump in the road made your engine do something more spectacular like induce more air or water or fuel? Is that correct?
Afterwards of you rexplaination you said, " yeah this is why I really cant wait for the TPR cai. this way in the rare times it rains here I just pop off the bottom tube and instant SRI". Is this correct?
You wrote the intake was building up water because it pooled it up due to AEM's intake flaw. Is that correct? Yes
The intake manifold was building up water as well?
Yes refer to this quote... "once any amount of water goes into your intake, it gets caught in the intake tube because the first bend is angled up."
You didn't notice anything going wrong especially going as slow as you said you were in what was it? An inch, foot, 3 feet of water? I missed that part. Or over time?
The water I crossed at that moment was not a large amount. From taking apart everything I found it was most likely building up over time. refer to this quote... "so most likely the water had been building up the whole time and slowly being sucked into the intake manifold"
A bump in the road is that right? caused this pool of water in your intake and manifold on the same car that you were driving before hand with no troubles to suddenly hydrolock?
Yes refer to this quote... "Now our Intake manifold runners curve up which means it pulls the air from the top. When I hit the small dip it wasnt the water but the fact that I hit the dip that caused my engine to choke. My guess is that the bump splashed the water in the intake manifold and the engine then sucked some in."
A bump in the road made your engine do something more spectacular like induce more air or water or fuel? Is that correct?
Nope. refer to above comment
Afterwards of you rexplaination you said, " yeah this is why I really cant wait for the TPR cai. this way in the rare times it rains here I just pop off the bottom tube and instant SRI". Is this correct?
Yes, I did write that as you can clearly see in my last post.
Now, I'm not sure if you're trying to mock me or find fault in something I said or what. Might wanna clarify your intentions before you receive some potentially undeserved comments
You wrote the intake was building up water because it pooled it up due to AEM's intake flaw. Is that correct? Yes
The intake manifold was building up water as well?
Yes refer to this quote... "once any amount of water goes into your intake, it gets caught in the intake tube because the first bend is angled up."
You didn't notice anything going wrong especially going as slow as you said you were in what was it? An inch, foot, 3 feet of water? I missed that part. Or over time?
The water I crossed at that moment was not a large amount. From taking apart everything I found it was most likely building up over time. refer to this quote... "so most likely the water had been building up the whole time and slowly being sucked into the intake manifold"
A bump in the road is that right? caused this pool of water in your intake and manifold on the same car that you were driving before hand with no troubles to suddenly hydrolock?
Yes refer to this quote... "Now our Intake manifold runners curve up which means it pulls the air from the top. When I hit the small dip it wasnt the water but the fact that I hit the dip that caused my engine to choke. My guess is that the bump splashed the water in the intake manifold and the engine then sucked some in."
A bump in the road made your engine do something more spectacular like induce more air or water or fuel? Is that correct?
Nope. refer to above comment
Afterwards of you rexplaination you said, " yeah this is why I really cant wait for the TPR cai. this way in the rare times it rains here I just pop off the bottom tube and instant SRI". Is this correct?
Yes, I did write that as you can clearly see in my last post.
Now, I'm not sure if you're trying to mock me or find fault in something I said or what. Might wanna clarify your intentions before you receive some potentially undeserved comments
No I'm not trying to mock you or find fault and the threat of "some potentially undeserved comment" doesn't persuade me. The answers you wrote were exactly what I expected. What you wrote in the beginning of this says it all. I know where the fault is and so do you. That's all. I'm just trying to understand the whole situation from your perspective so I don't happen to find myself in that same situation. I'm sorry if I was being a bit elusive or confronting on my questions and once again I'm sorry for your misfortune. Good luck with everything.
FUCK...sorry to hear about that mike..i work in fontana..and i know you know as much as me how bad it floods when it rains...thats why i got the sri..but like someone said up there...the only good thing is that you know how to do all the engine work yourself..if something like that happened to me id be shittn bricks because if have to pay to find out if my engine was fkked..not that you care anymore but my friend said 450 for a 7" screen and dvd player..installed, if you can find a jdm console. i hadnt stopped by until yesterday, so thats why im barely gettn back at you. and about where they would install the dvd player...its up to you..they could even make it work with your stock deck if you wanted.
Hey Mike, reading this got me all scared and feelin paranoid, you wanna come down and take my CAI apart for me? I don't notice ne thing wrong with the engine at all but still you kinda have that feeling in the back of ur mind.
well compression test came out to 220 psi per cylinder YAY. I also drove it just now and its running beautiful. It's idling at 2k for some reason but I'll have that fixed in no time.
well compression test came out to 220 psi per cylinder YAY. I also drove it just now and its running beautiful. It's idling at 2k for some reason but I'll have that fixed in no time.
Wow, way to go! The pics were great, too!
If I ever go from the stock intake, it'll most likely be an SRI, but I might consider a TPR.
I used to live in Berdoo, too, and am pretty familiar with Fontana. When it rains, it pours!
hey lucky, or anyone else that might know. the shield that they sell with the aem and injen intakes, doesnt that help keep the water form reaching ur intake and getting sucked in? do you have that shield? or would a splash still end up getting water to the intake?
Dont worry man i know how you feel. Just got my car back today with a new engine.
Was leaving the gym at around 12am about a week ago. street lights were out from all the rain. to make a long story short i turned my celi into a submarine in a 3 foot puddle. major hydrolock. Tried to cut the engine but it was too late. Threw a piston rod, cracked a piston and some other minor stuff. after all is said and done $500 deductible to my insurance company and i got a brand new engine straight from good ol' toyota.
on a side note there was about 7 other cars who went in to the puddle after me. 2 of which were celicas and a couple civics.
*edit*
forgot to mention I had no CAI or SRI installed. removed my CAI a couple weeks prior to avoid this. LOL well atleast now i know you can hydrolock with a stock airbox.
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I don't notice ne thing wrong with the engine at all but still you kinda have that feeling in the back of ur mind.
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jsut takin a lil bit of time cause I'm workin on some other projects right now too 
