iveheard of quite a few people who said they have hydrolocked their gsr with a cai. i bought my gsr like a couple months back. the guy i bought if from hydrolocked it a few months before i bought it and swaped a new engine in, and replaced allthe preformance parts he had in it. how catious should i be about hydrolocking it? like how much water does it really take to lock and what can i get to avoid it? thanks...
... Alex

 

going through it right now man...
https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=415431

 

Im not really sure, but i have heard it takes a good deal of water for you to hydrolock. Just as long as you dont drive into a pool of water you should be fine. You might want to get the bypass valve.

 

Been there...no fun

Wanna buy a bypass valve?

 

&lt- has 234 holes in his block.. still have peaices of it in my room... on the upside.. i got a new motor..

 

i think i know how a bypass valve works but why doesnt it affect your intake?

 

the bypass valve does affect your intake...it basically defeats the purpose of having a CAI because it lets all the hot air from the engine bay into the intake.
I've had my CAI for a while now, and haven't had any problems (but i also live in So Cal and avoid rain as much as possible)
If you really want a CAI i recommend buying a 2 piece one or cutting a 1piece. that way you can convert it to short ram if you must drive in the rain. thats what i used to do with my Iceman when it was the only car i had.

 

You have to fully submerge your filter in water. As in phsycics, air will take the path of least resistance, so if you get you filter only half-way submerged your motor technically speaking should not hydrolock. It takes a fair amount of water though. I am catious here in ohio, it does rain alot in the spring. I do not avoid rain but I try to be as careful as possible. But if I do hydrolock my motor I will do a 92-92 sohc vtec motor in my GSR, probablly a first and put a Greddy Turbo Kit on it. My shop did one today and at 10psi it made 210whp and 185ft/lbs. Nice numbers ehh.

 

i had it happen in my dumped(way to low) da, but i got lucky(low rpm).i pulled the plugs and cranked

it for a couple of minutes,till all i smelt was gas.it was probly half to a gallon of

water.changed the oil like 5 times till clear.that was 50,000 miles ago

 

i took my cai off just to be safe.

rain+stock intake=

 

well i have no idea where kennebunk is but down here in so cal we don't get all that much rain so i've been ok thus far and my car is dropped pretty low on neuspeed race springs. However, i do avoid the rain as much as i can.

If you do decide to get a cai and must drive in the rain, then i guess your options are 1) drive careful and take wide turns, 2) get a short air intake as a rainyday back up, 3) install a bypass valve.

Which brings me to a new point... why doesn't AEM or ICEMAN or any of the other cai manufacturers design a new take on the bypass valve so that it has some sort of removable cover. Something that could totally cover the bypass valve during dry weather usage and thus keep the intake from drawing air thru it at all. Then on rainy days you can remove/undo the cover and drive on and have the peace of mind of having ur bypass valve.

Any of u hardcore Do-It-Yourself-ers wanna attempt designing one of these??

 

Juat take the cold air part off if its raining or goin to rain....it takes 5 min....always keep a straight slot.

 

go with the Comptech or DIY Icebox. If it gets too wet, just pop off the cover and it's all good

 

ya, i had a cai on my 95 ls and i hit a puddle and blew a huge hole out of my block. really sucked. insurance wouldnt cover it becuase they thought i just didnt put coolant in my car, till i took it to honda and they told them that the damage was due to water intrusion, something my insurance covered, but took three months just to settle the claim cause there bitches. i say **** the cai and just get a normal one

 

Why not just fabricate a splash guard, I should get my cai tomorrow and Ive thought on this and Im thinking if I use aluminum flashing because its flexible, sturdy and light weight and place it all around the area where the filter will be because most all of the water if not being submerged comes from either the fender well from the tire or from the front end opening. The fender well prob cant be fixed with the aluminum and securing the splash guard thats already there because on mine and my friends gsr those damn things never stay put on the front bumper which alows a lot of water in behind there because of the tire. So Im thinking of trying this because if the filter isnt submerged there should be no problem dampness shoulndt hurt anything.

 

I about hydrolock'd my motor but i was lucky and i was able to ride it out.... scared the **** out of me to tell you the truth.....

 

<---Hydrolocked his Civic...Bought LS motor...Sold car 4 months later...WHAT A WASTE!!!


[Modified by arizsun21, 12:42 AM 2/17/2003]

 

good thing i took out the cai extension before the rains in cali this past week.

btw, the aem bypass is a waste as it only prevents full submersion, it does not prevent partial 'suck-up' which is what a lot of people are suspecting caused them damage.

 

i did one time myself

 

I don't know about any of you guys but i live in oregon and i have a one piece aem cai on my ls. It rains all the time and i drive my car in it no problems. The only way i've really heard about hydro locking is if you drive through a deep puddle. Which i hope any person with a cai on their car knows to avoid the deep ones. I on the other hand avoid all puddles, it may make me look like a crazy driver but what do i care what the cops think.

 

I don't drive my GS-R in the rain, so I keep my CAI in one peice without the Bypass Valve...

 

this is why i wont buy an intake. driving with a cai in the rain, 2hp isnt worth the risk of a $3k engine. why not buy a bypass valve, you ask? because bypass valves do infact decrease the hp gain of a cai. so basically, if you have a bypass valve, you lost all the gains of the cai that you would have got without one, so you made yourself about equal to stock, or that of a short ram intake. and that is after spending what? $250 or more? not worth it. i'd rather buy a short ram intake for $120 than a cai plus bypass valve for $250+.. id get about the same gains in both. and thats not even worth it. ill keep the stock intake for now. comptech icebox sounds the best to me.

 

We have seen three hydrolocked engines in the past month. 2 GSR's and one RSX. The RSX and one GSR had big holes in their blocks. The other GSR just had a couple of bent rods. I have a CAI and I drive very carefully when it rains.