D73

Question... How much water would it take to hydrolock our engines?

My math says this:
We have a 3.2 liter engine, 6 cylinders, meaning each cylinder's chamber is 533 cc
Taking our compression ratio of 10.5:1, smallest chamber size is 533.33/9.5 = 56.14 cc
1 cm = 0.3937 inch
56.14 cc = 3.4256 cubic inches
==> About 3.5 cubic inches of water will cause our engine to hydrolock

By way of comparison, 3 cubic inches of water is about 10 teaspoons...

OK, so I conveniently neglected the fact that injected fuel and compressed air also take a chunk out of the initially calculated 3.4256 cubic inches, but apart from that, is my math correct...?

But if we install the bypass valve, we can supposedly minimize problems created by immersion.

So the next question is, what if the intake isn't immersed, so the bypass valve never gets enough pressure to open? Stray water droplets could be introduced into the chamber from ambient moisture, condensation inside the intake, splashes, wet filter element etc. Can such stray water droplets accumulate in the chambers and eventually cause the engine to hydrolock? If it's possible for water to accumulate, how can we "dry" the chambers? Will evaporation take care of that?

In my dreams, the combustion will be hot enough (>2500C!!) to break down the water molecules in its hydrogen-oxygen-hydrogen components. Not rather likely, considering petrol has a 52C flashpoint... :P

jimcol711

this is a great question, i dont have the answer but ill give it a bump up to the top!!

CLpower

The chances of the water not evaporating by the time it gets to the intake are very very rare. You can always say what if this what if that. Even AEM will tell you the bypass valve isn't really necessary, just a gimmick to get more money for those who are over worried.

chikai

i imagine that the water would at a fairly high velocity up to the intake manifold. Does that give it enough time to evaporate?

Shawn S

OH....That’s so funny, (and wrong), I don’t know where to begin with a reply.

Shawn S

tmk70

I'm with Shawn. I just talked to a good Honda/Acura shop about CAI's and they told me they get at least 2 to 3 Hondas/Acuras in EVERY WEEK with hydrolocked engines. They won't even do CAI installs without the bypass valve.

SiGGy

With your car lowered /w CAI and driving through a big puddle your going to take a chance of this happening. I've done it before in my old TA. (carburated) Without a CAI. But I did have a shaker hood, with ram AIR. (essentially an enhanced CAI)

Very easy to do....

Or the people who cutout fog lights, headlights, and make their own ram air... Just heavy rain is enough to lock those setups up.


DON'T MOD YOUR DAILY DRIVER AND BITCH WHEN IT BREAKS! Buy a 2nd car to drive... and have a weekend warrior.

Also stop spending so much a CLS, it's not a $$ to HP friendly car. Just drive it!

IntegraVT

iTrader: (1)

IIRC, one of our members hydrolocked his CL just as SiGGy mentioned.... small puddle, moderate speed and he didn't even have a CAI.

Pull_T

Damn...water all the way up to the shaker...not what I would call driving through a puddle

Bluto

You need enough water to cause the compression to exceed the limits of the engine. The amount and what fails will differ from engine to engine. It will be much less than the 3.4256 cubic inches.

D73

To be fair to the CAI bypass, it will surely save your engine in cases where the CAI opening is immersed in water. The bypass valve works because once the opening is immersed in water, air pressure at the bypass valve is higher than air pressure at the opening, and that causes the bypass valve to open up, thus drawing air from the valve, and not the normal opening. This in turn causes air pressure inside the CAI to increase, effectively dumping the water back out the opening. So yes, the bypass valve would save your ass. I'm not disputing that.

What I'm asking is, how will a bypass valve help against water splashes?

ghander:
You stated that water droplets would probably evaporate by the time it reaches the intake, but why? Is any part of the engine/intake hot enough to instantly vaporize a water droplet? Remember that we're talking about a split second between when a water droplet enters the CAI, and when it reaches the engine itself...

Samer007

water droplets would stick to the walls of the CAI (since its bent). The walls will guide them toward the engine, if it encounters the bypass, the wall is kind of broken and it will flow onto the bypass, I believe the bypass leaks air out as well, so it will leak the droplets out. Other wise if there is no bypass it will make its way inside the engine compustion, small dropets will evaporate when it reaches the engine and will not do much damage. The problems would occur if you have alot of droplets comming all at the same time, then you would have too much water vapor/or fluid form in the engine and that would not be compressable.

I bought my CAI with the bypass but I did not install it. Just by thinking it over, and seeing how much it can leak worm air in.

I've had the CAI for 6 months now, and I have driven it through have rain and snow at fast/slow speeds.

I think a person should get the bypass only from the fear of immersing the front of the car in water. To me that is just common sence of keeping your self out of deep water.

my $.02

SiGGy

lol, ya it was like a monsoon outside, I was sucking water in the shaker scoop (I had it dremeled out so it was functional) from the crazy rain,then I hit a puddle, water went up the hood, and got sucked straight in.

It was not running good from the rain, and the puddle was just the last nail in the coffin.

CLpower

explain then. I know hydrolock is very possible. But the chances are very slim. You'd have to be driving in water up to your door. If you do that then thats your problem.

D73

I like the idea of water leaking out, but you can't leak air in and out at the same time...

I would think that the bypass valve would leak air *IN* since air pressure would be lower inside the intake than outside. If that's the case, then water droplets wouldn't leak out.

Samer007

water is more dence than air so its (heavier) and has an out force since there is an air chamber pushing it away (to the walls) so it would leave the bypass.

HellaWhat

I'm with Scott on this one. If ur dumbass is knee deep in water, bypass valve or not, it's your own fault. I have the Bypass for piece of mind, but when igo over apuddle that looks deep, i don't ACCELERATE so more AIR/WATER can be drawn in.

mattg

i live in portland oregon. it rains like hell here.

i have no bypass valve.
my car is very low.
am i worried, no.
do i drive thru big puddles, no
is the bypass a waste of $ and hp, yes imhfo

common sense is yor best defense.

JZ

Before we go any further here, the bypass is not made for water to leak out. When you suck up a column of water it becomes very heavy and hard for the intake to pull up. At this time the flaps of the bypass open and allow air to be sucked in through this path of lower resistance.

If you've ever looked at where the filter is for the CAI you will see that it is completely covered by palstic, thus driving through a puddle is not going to expose the filter to any water at all. I have driven in torential downpours and through big ass puddles and had problems at all.

Point is, if you're in water up to your bumper you probably have more to worry about than hydrolocking your engine (i.e. being swept away by the water and death).

Second point is that while the valve may do what it is supposed to, there have already been defects and broken valves. And, do you really think that POS valve is worth the 40-50 bucks they are charging for it? What a rip off.

If they were really concerned about hydrolock they would include this with every one of their intakes and bill the customer the difference.

mattg

amen.