Chambers on oem air intake?

[14SWTahoe]

Paranoid much?

With the hundreds of thousands of all forms of CAI's driving around, I have never seen or even heard of someone hydro locking a engine because of it.


The cai on your buddies vette didn't cause his engine failure. He did.
Who in the hell drives a vette through a flooded intersection anyways...
Seriously The car sits 3" off the ground...


But shiet does happen.but I'm about as scared of my cai hydro locking my engine as I am of godzilla stomping my house.

Agreed here, no aftermarket intake is going to damage the engine from hydrolocking unless the operator does something boneheaded.

 

[Sparky_69]

I'm gonna install a snorkel, so I don't hydrolock my motor.

I noticed more power and better fuel economy with my cold air intake

 

[Wake]

Paranoid much?

With the hundreds of thousands of all forms of CAI's driving around, I have never seen or even heard of someone hydro locking a engine because of it.


The cai on your buddies vette didn't cause his engine failure. He did.
Who in the hell drives a vette through a flooded intersection anyways...
Seriously The car sits 3" off the ground...


But shiet does happen.but I'm about as scared of my cai hydro locking my engine as I am of godzilla stomping my house.

Well he didn't intentionally do it. If you're familiar with the way a lot of the streets in the L.A. area are laid out you'd understand how it can happen. A lot of them have dips where it can drop down several inches, he happened to drive through one of those.

I would argue his CAI did cause his problem. Had the stock system been in place the water would have been deflected away from his air intake. The OEM intakes have water traps and drains in them, the manufacturers put those there for a reason. My coworker is the only person I know in real life that has hydro-locked his engine but a lot of the folks I know who did these type of modification also didn't drive their cars in the rain. They had some serious money tied up in their pride and joys and only drove them on weekends.

His CAI was set up for max performance and no safety. As I mentioned, you take out the air filter and you saw straight down to the ground, completely open, no bottom of the airbox, no grate, a completely exposed air filter was the only thing you saw if you got under the car and looked up in front of the radiator.

it also depends on how you set it up. I've seen a lot of guys who go to what I consider crazy lengths to get that cold air or try to set up a ram-air system. On our trucks it might not be too dangerous if you just install the cold air and leave it at that. In other forums though I saw guys who didn't want to leave well enough alone. They cut or drilled holes under the CAI figuring it would be getting more cold air that way. One install I came across even had a hole cut out below the filter and dryer vent hose run down to where the tow hook is to get the cold air coming in.

I'm not paranoid. I carry insurance on my vehicle and hope I never have to use it. Even if it wasn't required by law I still would insure my vehicles. That doesn't make me paranoid. Everything carries a certain level of risk with it and we choose what level we find acceptable.

Maybe I'm just getting old. I do live rural though and never want to worry about what kind of weather conditions I'm driving in. When I approach water I only think about if it is physically a risk to try to cross it. Then again, having worked in D.C., I've experienced some of the roads there that were much more treacherous than what I've seen around my rural home. Some of the rains we get come so hard that the drainage can't keep up and the roads become rivers. I've experienced Rock Creek Parkway in rains so hard that the complete road flooded to the point where the 3 miles I drove it I heard nothing but the constant water splashed up from the tires beating on the underside of the vehicle, it was a 3 mile long puddle. No worries though, I cruised right through it without a care in the world and that was in my 3" off the ground Saturn Sky.

---------- Post added at 02:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:52 PM ----------

I'm gonna install a snorkel, so I don't hydrolock my motor.

I noticed more power and better fuel economy with my cold air intake

You should do it. That would be a better cold air system, getting it far away from that 150+ degree pavement. You could run it as a straight shot right into the intake!

I'm curious about the more power and better fuel economy claim. You have more power at 2000 RPM or are you talking on the dyno at 6000 RPM? My vehicles spend most of their time around 2000 RPM.

Also, with CAFE standards the manufacturers have to meet I have to wonder why they don't incorporate those aftermarket CAIs as standard equipment.

---------- Post added at 02:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:02 PM ----------

Agreed here, no aftermarket intake is going to damage the engine from hydrolocking unless the operator does something boneheaded.

Well, have you ever found yourself in deeper water than you anticipated? I have. A couple of times in my almost 30 years of driving I've actually had water touching the underbody of my vehicle while crossing. It turned out to be a little deeper than I thought.

Standing water masks those dips and grades in the road.

 

[14SWTahoe]

Well, have you ever found yourself in deeper water than you anticipated? I have. A couple of times in my almost 30 years of driving I've actually had water touching the underbody of my vehicle while crossing. It turned out to be a little deeper than I thought.

Standing water masks those dips and grades in the road.

This is how I look at it:

1. If I am in an area/road I am unfamiliar with and I cannot see the road, or at be able to maneuver around the water, without going off of the road, I dont go thru it. If I am in an area I am familiar with then I will be more inclined to drive thru water as I know said dips and grades.

2. Typically most places, especially cities, have good drainage and it takes a hell of a lot of rain in a short period of time to make something flood to the point of possible damage for cars. At that point Im on high alert, see number one if you are in an unfamiliar place.

I just so happen to live around Tampa FL which I swear quite possibly has the worst f*@%$ing drainage known to man! Just last week it rained so hard in about 30 minutes there was standing water everywhere. I happen to get caught in it, I was driving my POS 99 Honda accord. I knew the area well enough to know the any hard rain for more than 15 minutes causes huge problems and puts me on alert when driving.

Granted I dont give a rats if the car hydrolocked, I still would like to keep it, so I didnt venture down any roads that had standing water, unless I could see the road through it. Let me assure you, there were plenty of morons out that were probably less than an inch away from sucking up water cause they were in too much of a hurry they didnt want to turn around and find another way around said water.

I have spent some time in AZ during monsoon season as well and for anyone that has been thru that, knows what it is like to have a damn river flow thru a road. You dont have to worry just about hydrolocking your engine but your car being swept away completely.

I pay a great deal of attention to the roads. I know where the curves are, whats on the other side, how sharp it is, where there are dips that could cause undercarriage damages if I take it too fast. I drove an M3 once, and while not as low as a vette I was very much aware of the roads so I could comfortably push the limits without fear of damage or worse. If I didnt know the area, I would drive much more reserved until I became familiar with it.

Regardless of having the stock OEM intake or not, you can still hydrolock albeit harder to do. But typically only cause the point of where the air is first entering the OEM intake track is much much higher than an aftermarket CAI. IF an OEM intake were to injest air at a lower point, similar to a CAI then you would suffer the same problems. This usually only applies to cars though, for the NNBS I havent seen many aftermarket solutions that are pulling air from some ridiculously low point.

Im not saying your buddies issue wasnt all just a ****** combination of events but to blame it on the CAI, I think, is incorrect. Was it part of the problem sure, but it was in no way the entire problem. In my 20 years of driving on public roads and working on a farm since I was tall enough for my feet to hit the pedals, I have never come close to damaging anything from water related events.

**Maybe I am just being overly cautious**

 

[ezdaar]

Wake, I agree with most of what your saying and understand your need for safety with your vehicle.
What I don't agree with is the OEM intake tubing protecting the engine from a extreme hydro lock and you mentioned with your friends vette.
If the oem intake was blasted with or submerged enough to get water into the system, It will not matter if the tube has water traps or not. as the sheer amount of fluid entering the system will instantly overwhelm any traps not to mention the drain hole will do absolutely nothing as its aprox 1/8", combine that with the engine vacuum and it might as well be no drain hole.

Btw those water traps are not really water traps. they are resonator tubes designed primarily to quiet intake track noise.

I can however see under most lite rain conditions the oem tubing protecting the engine from a hydro lock.

My CAI is the extreme case you describe. there is absolutely nothing below my filter. when you pop my hood and look down past the filter, you see the ground.
As I live in Houston, we get ALOT of rain and these streets are notorious for flooding.
While I don't purposely try to hydro lock my engine, I also don't give deep water, as in knee deep a second thought.

 

[Wake]

This is how I look at it:

1. If I am in an area/road I am unfamiliar with and I cannot see the road, or at be able to maneuver around the water, without going off of the road, I dont go thru it. If I am in an area I am familiar with then I will be more inclined to drive thru water as I know said dips and grades.

2. Typically most places, especially cities, have good drainage and it takes a hell of a lot of rain in a short period of time to make something flood to the point of possible damage for cars. At that point Im on high alert, see number one if you are in an unfamiliar place.

I just so happen to live around Tampa FL which I swear quite possibly has the worst f*@%$ing drainage known to man! Just last week it rained so hard in about 30 minutes there was standing water everywhere. I happen to get caught in it, I was driving my POS 99 Honda accord. I knew the area well enough to know the any hard rain for more than 15 minutes causes huge problems and puts me on alert when driving.

Granted I dont give a rats if the car hydrolocked, I still would like to keep it, so I didnt venture down any roads that had standing water, unless I could see the road through it. Let me assure you, there were plenty of morons out that were probably less than an inch away from sucking up water cause they were in too much of a hurry they didnt want to turn around and find another way around said water.

I have spent some time in AZ during monsoon season as well and for anyone that has been thru that, knows what it is like to have a damn river flow thru a road. You dont have to worry just about hydrolocking your engine but your car being swept away completely.

I grew up in AZ so I'm very familiar with monsoon season. I also wouldn't run through rushing water, but standing water is a different story and we all do it.

Getting in and out of D.C. can be a real challenge, taking a detour in that city can mean an hour due to traffic or even more if you get lost because of the way the city is laid out. I've gotten lost in D.C. before and GPS is useless, it was constantly stuck on "recalculating" because I would miss almost every turn before the GPS finished recalculating the previous reroute.

Regardless of having the stock OEM intake or not, you can still hydrolock albeit harder to do. But typically only cause the point of where the air is first entering the OEM intake track is much much higher than an aftermarket CAI. IF an OEM intake were to injest air at a lower point, similar to a CAI then you would suffer the same problems. This usually only applies to cars though, for the NNBS I havent seen many aftermarket solutions that are pulling air from some ridiculously low point.

Thank you, bolded is the point I was trying to get across. It isn't only because the intake point is lower but with the design of the aftermarket CAI removing any water traps you've lost a lot of the safety built into the stock intake system. I haven't looked at my newer Escalade yet but my previous 05 had a trap that dropped down probably more than foot before going to the throttle body. Several of my previous vehicles also had some pretty crazy looking intake plumbing for water traps. It was a PITA trying to get them out when working on the front of the engine.

Even in our higher standing vehicles I've seen people try to funnel the cold air to the filter, see my previous post on the dryer vent hose run to the tow hook. Higher up vehicles like our trucks also do get wet under the hood. I've hit water fast enough that I found water all over the engine bay from the splashing it does. That rooster tail you see coming from the sides of your vehicle when you drive through water is also present on the inboard side that you can't see.

I'm not saying you WILL hydro-lock your engine, only that you've removed some of the safety the OEM provides.

I'm not saying your buddies issue wasnt all just a ****** combination of events but to blame it on the CAI, I think, is incorrect. Was it part of the problem sure, but it was in no way the entire problem. In my 20 years of driving on public roads and working on a farm since I was tall enough for my feet to hit the pedals, I have never come close to damaging anything from water related events.

I still believe if he had the stock intake and no hole in the air deflector where it was mounted that he wouldn't have hydro-locked his engine. The air inlet wasn't any lower on the Vette than the stock box, but with the stock setup the water wouldn't have gotten to the air inlet. To ingest water with the stock setup he would have had water in the cabin of the car.

The manufacturers design these things for a certain amount of bonehead moves on the owners part and also for some safety and capability. I feel pretty confident that if the aftermarket high performance CAIs were run through the same water tests that GM does on their stock vehicles that you'd see some pretty high failure rates compared to the failures they see in the stock intake.

---------- Post added at 04:10 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:44 PM ----------

Wake, I agree with most of what your saying and understand your need for safety with your vehicle.
What I don't agree with is the OEM intake tubing protecting the engine from a extreme hydro lock and you mentioned with your friends vette.
If the oem intake was blasted with or submerged enough to get water into the system, It will not matter if the tube has water traps or not. as the sheer amount of fluid entering the system will instantly overwhelm any traps not to mention the drain hole will do absolutely nothing as its aprox 1/8", combine that with the engine vacuum and it might as well be no drain hole.

Btw those water traps are not really water traps. they are resonator tubes designed primarily to quiet intake track noise.

I can however see under most lite rain conditions the oem tubing protecting the engine from a hydro lock.

My CAI is the extreme case you describe. there is absolutely nothing below my filter. when you pop my hood and look down past the filter, you see the ground.
As I live in Houston, we get ALOT of rain and these streets are notorious for flooding.
While I don't purposely try to hydro lock my engine, I also don't give deep water, as in knee deep a second thought.

They are combination noise resonators and water traps and they do provide a lot more protection that you realize, even with that small hole.

Now at high RPM they're not going to be able to overcome the air velocity the engine is pulling through the intake but under most conditions where we're cruising at 1500 RPM, or in most cases probably slowly driving through puddles the air velocity is lower and the intake plumbing will do a good job of separating the water out through gravity.

We all ingest a little bit of water, even through the stock intake setup but I'd wonder if you ingest a little more than I do with my stock setup. Not enough to damage the engine but I'd be willing to say that under identical conditions where it was severe enough that you did suffer engine damage that I wouldn't as my filter isn't exposed and I have the stock plumbing in. My whole argument for more protection.

I live in an area where the roads are salted as well and take the vehicles through the car wash with underbody spray frequently in the winter. I wonder what that type of underbody wash would mean for the amount of water being sprayed directly on your exposed filter.

I guess I'm just out of touch with the majority of enthusiasts anymore. I'm older, and I'm spoiled a bit as I have 5 vehicles to choose from when I leave the house. I don't see the need anymore to modify my vehicles and they all do quite well for what my mood or weather conditions call for. About the only thing I do to my vehicles now is change the exhaust for sound or fuel economy or tuning for economy over performance.

 

[ezdaar]

If I get water of any amount on my filter it shows inside the filter on the rubber mount, as well as inside my tube, mine is painted black with ceramic paint so any thing shows up very well..
Only once did I have any water marks inside it.
This was after I went splashing in the puddles like a madman and even then it was only a very small amount. Absolutely nothing to be concerned about.


This has turned into a nice and fun thread . i'm actually enjoying it..

 

[Clean07Burb]

^Lol. I can't believe I read this whole thread. Its silly. Don't drive your vehicle through three feet of water and you'll be fine, no matter what kind of intake you have installed. I've never come across standing water that I thought was inches deep, but turned out to be deep enough to submerge my undercarriage. How about avoiding driving through any water your unsure of? Sounds like the reasonable thing to do. I always laugh when I see idiots on the news driving their Civic's through flooded roads.

As for your buddy driving his Corvette through a flood....Must be a smart 'fella.

 

[Goodinblack]

Who in the hell drives a vette through a flooded intersection anyways...
Seriously The car sits 3" off the ground...

 

[14SWTahoe]

I guess I'm just out of touch with the majority of enthusiasts anymore. I'm older, and I'm spoiled a bit as I have 5 vehicles to choose from when I leave the house. I don't see the need anymore to modify my vehicles and they all do quite well for what my mood or weather conditions call for. About the only thing I do to my vehicles now is change the exhaust for sound or fuel economy or tuning for economy over performance.

Yep you are out of touch, ha i kid. I could never stop modding regardless of number of vehicles unless i am trying to keep it all original for resale purposes.