hydrolock and a cold air intake

[sleeper3]

ok, a ton of people are using this hydrolock scenario as an argument against a cold air intake. There are several reasons why this is really not a concern at all, and I just wanted to quell this little witch hunt with the facts.

To create a hydrolock situation, you need more than just a spash of water on your intake. not only is it extremely unlikely that water will be sucked UP through the intake, but after going through the turbo, it will almost certainly evaporate completely. I'm no expert, but I'm almost certain that small amounts of water vapor will not be enough to lock an engine, as GASSES compress.

Also, the air intake draws from the left side of the vehicle, which is the wrong side if you want to get tons of water in there. Roads are crowned so that rain runs off to the right side of the road and then drains.

I've had cars with cold air on both sides, and I've lived in some of the rainiest places in the US (if you know about rain storms in Texas, Louisiana, and Florida, you know what I'm talking about), and I've never had a problem with water induction.


just my dos centavos.

 

[subparpunk03]

Whatever dude.

I had a short ram intake on my old car and it hydrolocked when it was drizzling out. It wasn't even raining that hard. The only way to prevent hydrolock is to leave your stock airbox on, and even then its no guarantee.


Or maybe I'm just saying that to perpetuate peoples fear of hydrolock because it amuses me and I would really hate it if people stopped saying "Dude, I can't drive my car in the rain, it'll hydrolock!"

I think this has happened like twice in the history of automobiles and both times its because the person was driving through a lake.

 

[Sierra117]

I had a cold air on my BMW, and over this summer, we had some pretty nasty flodding in North Texas where I live. I parked outside, in what is basically a drainage ditch every day at work. Water came up to the hole in the bumped that coincided with the CAI. Never got hydrolock. I've taken the Speed3 and the BMW through the carwash plenty of times. Never got lock. Driven around when the humidity is aboe 1%. Never got lock.

The "Uze guyz wi11 g37z hydrozlocks oh noez haxorz!!!!111!1!!!!" is the stupidest argument against a cold air. Almost every cold air on the market today is designed to protect against it with its mounting. With the CP-e, you would need to get water up halfway over the wheel before you would even need to start worrying about it.

 

[Powerslave]

i drven through water with the speed about ten inches and i checked the water never even spalshed or got up in there, you would have to park in a foot or 2 of water and purposly rev your engine. atleast thats what it looks like to me , I could be incorrect..

 

[sleeper3]

I love cold air intakes. so pretty in the engine compartment.♥

 

[ZoomVT]

complete hydrolock is not an issue, but be ready for your maf to act up. i had a CAI for a couple of years and 99% of the time it was fine, but when the ground was saturated with water, some would splash into the filter. not a big deal at all, and yes with the heat from the engine it mostly evaporated. but if your MAF gets even a little wet, you will experience problems. Mostly loss of power, to the point where the car wont rev up above 2000RPM, and therefore it wont go anywhere... that has happened to me on the highway more than once. not a huge deal as i could maintain a nomrla speed (55mph), but couldnt accelerate. and couldnt climb hills either... if you tried to step on the gas, the car would stall. My understanding is the maf would shut off air intake cause it thinks there is water there. no air, no combustion, no power.
i say get the CAI, i love them too. but be prepared to deal with an annoyance every now and then.

 

[USAF_TRobertson]

(smash)

If you're worried just take a plastic grocery bag and wrap it around your air filter. That's what I do if it's wet outside. Also helps to keep the filter clean.

 

[Sacrilicious]

i'm all for the SRI for convenience reasons. quite honestly, i doubt you will see enough of a performance difference to care. my two top reasons for going sri:

1. install/maintenance convenience.
2. extra turbo spool/bpv sound!

PEW PEW! (gun)

 

[AllLostThings]

My friends sister hydrolocked her 1.8t golf with a CAI a few years back by going through a huge puddle. It can and does happen, maybe that was an extreme case.

 

[knowledge007]

(smash)

If you're worried just take a plastic grocery bag and wrap it around your air filter. That's what I do if it's wet outside. Also helps to keep the filter clean.

Yeah, real smart...

 

[sleeper3]

I call it the grocery bag mod. it almost completely nullifies the effect of putting the cold air intake on at all! DOWN WITH HORSEPOWER UP WITH PUBLIX BAGS!!!!

 

[Boosted03MSP]

I hydrolocked my MSP last year ! Dont post s*** that you dont know about, it makes you sound like a retard. Saying that " it extremely unlikely that water will be sucked UP through the intake, but after going through the turbo, it will almost certainly evaporate completely" is ridiculous. Do you know how hard your intake is sucking? It will "evaporate" in the turbo, hahaha. Thats the silliest thing i have heard recently. It rains alot here and I know about 5 people whom have hydrolocked their cars besides me. It doesnt need to be knee high waters either.

There is no need for a "cold" air intake on a turbo car. You have an intercooler. The cold air would go from your intake, through your turbo and right back into your intercooler. for a messily POSSIBLE 1-2whp difference it is not worth it.

 

[camrycev6]

I have had my CAI for about 9 months... I drive in rain all the time (MD area) and I get car washes that do the undercarriage cleaning. (They literally spray water from underneath directly "up" into your car.) I have never had the slightest issue...

 

[Sacrilicious]

I call it the grocery bag mod. it almost completely nullifies the effect of putting the cold air intake on at all! DOWN WITH HORSEPOWER UP WITH PUBLIX BAGS!!!!

gawd i wish i had publix around here...they RULE! (eek2)

 

[sleeper3]

I hydrolocked my MSP last year ! Dont post s*** that you dont know about, it makes you sound like a retard. Saying that " it extremely unlikely that water will be sucked UP through the intake, but after going through the turbo, it will almost certainly evaporate completely" is ridiculous. Do you know how hard your intake is sucking? It will "evaporate" in the turbo, hahaha. Thats the silliest thing i have heard recently. It rains alot here and I know about 5 people whom have hydrolocked their cars besides me. It doesnt need to be knee high waters either.

There is no need for a "cold" air intake on a turbo car. You have an intercooler. The cold air would go from your intake, through your turbo and right back into your intercooler. for a messily POSSIBLE 1-2whp difference it is not worth it.

soooosooooo qt♥

 

[mazdaspeed32007]

I hydrolocked my MSP last year ! Dont post s*** that you dont know about, it makes you sound like a retard. Saying that " it extremely unlikely that water will be sucked UP through the intake, but after going through the turbo, it will almost certainly evaporate completely" is ridiculous. Do you know how hard your intake is sucking? It will "evaporate" in the turbo, hahaha. Thats the silliest thing i have heard recently. It rains alot here and I know about 5 people whom have hydrolocked their cars besides me. It doesnt need to be knee high waters either.

There is no need for a "cold" air intake on a turbo car. You have an intercooler. The cold air would go from your intake, through your turbo and right back into your intercooler. for a messily POSSIBLE 1-2whp difference it is not worth it.

Or a proven 20 hp change. but whose counting.

 

[sleeper3]

Or a proven 20 hp change. but whose counting.

I think he's talking about the difference between cold air intakes and short ram?

 

[Sacrilicious]

I think he's talking about the difference between cold air intakes and short ram?

+1

 

[camrycev6]

Must be... the HP intakes on the CAI have been demonstrated on this forum dozens of times. Mine included...

 

[sleeper3]

I believe that the mazdaspeed cold air intake gets you the most horsepower by far due to the futzing with a/f ratios that takes place due to the larger MAF housing. hopefully EMS manufacturers will take this into account, or I think it could hurt you down the line on tuning. for an out of the box solution though it's pretty freaking sweet.