'08 3: CAI causing hydrolock, confirmed!

[Al's Chop Shop]

i finally had enough time to get this thing finalized this weekend. it took some oil soaking down on the cylinder walls, plus a little atf to break the rust built up on the rings from the water in the cylinders, then i was finally able to free the motor at the crank with a very large breaker bar. once she was freely turning we bumped it with the starter for a bit, then put the plugs back in.

the moment of truth was upon us, and unfortunately the car started with quite a racket. but it was sink or swim time. a minute or two with some help with the throttle to keep it running....




sink.

with a few pieces of the engine block on the ground surrounded by oil and coolant, she was pronounced dead.


next move: put the stock air box back on, tow it to the dealer and hope they just write it off under warranty. one can only hope. if that doesn't work i'll have to find a short block and swap everything out.

Al

 

[05maz3subd]

see this entire thread could have been avoided if you made water and heat shields to go around the filter and the wheel well..... 20 dollars for sheet metal at ACE and your set with no problems

 

[Yuko]

I custom built mine and it points up. i have had it hellacious rain storms with no issues what so ever... Bottom line becareful, take precautions, and you should have know what you were getting into before you started modding.

Just my 2 cents here is my intake.

 

[superdoughboy4]

Custom built? Looks exactly like the Injen CAI. Lol.
Why didn't you bolt the pipe to the frame?

 

[bazooka joe]

If there was water pouring on the filter when the car is parked then there is a problem the seals and/or panel gaps on the car. That does not happen normally. Many people have driven around with CAI's for years through heavy rain with no issues.

same here, no problem for 5+ yrs

"the cone filter points upwards in the drivers side inner fender and when it rains (quite often here in oregon) water runs down the hood line and right onto the filter"

This is what immediately caught my attention! Unless it's mis-worded...filter pointing up would alow water to puddle inside the piping. A typical cai dives down so that gravity would not allow water to get in unless the filter was nearly submerged.

8yrs running cai in a slammed vehicle...5min to switch to sri if needed which as slammed as my car is I would have water in the car first before it got to my filter

i can see where if rain water was running continously down the pipe and into the filter then pooling in an elbow, sure...face it downward so the water runs off half the problem solved, now stop the rain from running in and we'd be at 100%

 

[05maz3subd]

Custom built? Looks exactly like the Injen CAI. Lol.
Why didn't you bolt the pipe to the frame?

i did a literal lol when i saw it

 

[Yuko]

Custom built? Looks exactly like the Injen CAI. Lol.
Why didn't you bolt the pipe to the frame?

Lol because i built it for about $25 and the picture was taken while changing the air filter, had to pull it off frame to get to clamp on back side. and no not from injen.
Wow people on here always have to be judgemental instead of appreciating time and effort.... never understood that.....

 

[superdoughboy4]

Didn't mean to seem judgmental or anything like that. I was just saying.

 

[05maz3subd]

yeah it just only looks exactly the same as mine without the metal plate with the double sided sticky tape

 

[Yuko]

Fair enough but it does bolt up and is custom built/welded by me

 

[superdoughboy4]

Yeah man. If you did that work yourself, props. It looks really good and professionally done.

 

[Yuko]

Thx man it took a min. + no hydrolock lol.

 

[Yuko]

Did u custom fab. Yours

 

[superdoughboy4]

Nah. Mine's from AEM.

 

[Al's Chop Shop]

finally some good news to report.....

mazda replaced the engine under warranty after taking 2 weeks to try to figure out what the cause was. they couldn't figure it out, and i wasn't about to help them. we're picking up the car tonight!

and no more CAI for this car, ever!

Al

 

[shane02pro5]

Lucky...glad it worked out