instrbTSX

hey everyone, some people have been telling me that if i drive through a deep puddle or something then my cai will actually suck the water up thus severely damaging my engine. is this true? and if so, is there anyways to prevent this? (besides not going through puddles ) thanks

GTSX-05

iTrader: (1)

Hydroshield.

Audioserf

Have you seen where the cone filter is placed inside the TSX bumper once the CAI is installed? It is pretty high up, and is protected by the car's underbody covering and the bumper. You would have to drive through no less than a foot of water to even have to worry about this at stock ride height.

Unless you encounter a truly freak flooding situation it's not really an issue. And if you ARE worried, just get a short ram.

msmching

i drove through a puddle of water that reaches the height of fog lights.. and i m lowered.

and i def. believe it reached my CAi already.

but anyway, even if u happen to drive through those, dun step on your engine.. once u step, it sucks, then water gets in...

rex.

^What he said, but for clearer translation: Do not accelerate if you feel that your intake may be submerged underwater.

LukeaTron

Have you ever been too the midwest? Out in the flat lands where water just stands around, it's a hardly a freak occurrence to find puddles deep enough to dip the intake. The thing that sucks is when there's a dip in the road that you can't see and you expect yourself to be fine but in a very short amount of time the water is up to your bumper.

GTSX-05, the hydorshield is only to help prevent the filter from jamming up when water gets splashed or sprayed onto the filter. It won't do a thing for you in puddle situation.

To the OP, yes it most definitely can happen. It's called hydrolocking. The water is incompressible so when you suck it into the engine and the engine tries to compress it, something has got to give. I've seen a piston blown through the side of an engine block as a result (see above about dips in the road underwater). Just don't drive through deep puddles if you can afford it. It generally means a new engine, which is 1/2 the price of your car.

JTso

iTrader: (2)

You can try the AEM air bypass valve. However, it may cause slight power loss.
http://www.aempower.com/Faqs.aspx?FaqCategoryID=19

SCC did a test on the device.
http://www.sportcompactcarweb.com/te...lve/index.html

Audioserf

Admittedly no, I've not ventured out to the Midwest. I've seen some pretty insane puddles/floods here once in a great while, though. So if you routinely encounter things like that, then no question, I would run a short-ram intake setup. No hydroshield is going to do a thing for you if the filter actually ends up underwater. Can you get away with a CAI in areas that get crazy puddles? Sure... but I'd be too nervous, haha. The gains between CAI/SRI are pretty negligible anyway.

msmching

you saying that my english's bad?!!?

HahAha..

moda_way

^^I'll go one step further... if you are going to travel into an area where water would be that high up on the car as to reach the filter in CAI mode, you'd have water past the bottoms of the doors. That in itself doesn't seem like something you would want to do.

shmork53

One guy on here did get hyrdrolock sucking water up from his CAI. He had to get a full rebuild, but I think insurance just totalled his car. It is possible to suck up water. Don't assume there will never be a situation where it will happen, always plan for the worst. I have the ingen CAI and yes it does sit up high in the car and I don't think I have ever driven through water that high, but never say never. During fall through early spring here in portland I do convert to the SRI just in case I some how end up in a small lake in the road.

moda_way

I don't recall seeing an honest hydrolock thread, but I've been wrong before. Again, if you are driving through an area where there is that much water to even threaten a hydrolocking situation, I don't think anyone should/could fault the CAI setup.

AccordCL9

from my experience dontever go in really deep water with a CAI .. i hydro lock my engine like that before on my old car..