location: bay area, ca
weather: lots of hard rain


95 integra gsr, injen cold air intake

ive had the cold air intake for about 2 years and never had a problem with it, in the past i researched and followed the belief that you will only hydrolock if your filter is basically submerged in water or shitloads of water splash at it.

so i was driving home on the freeway with 3 other ppl in the car, gsr lowered with gsr blades so car is a little closer to floor than normal(though that probably doesnt matter much). i feel my car start to bog and i see a shitload of white smoke i think coming out my exhaust, i let off the gas to close the throttle body a little, then i keep driving a little, car bogs on and off. it goes away, then like a minute later car bogs and shuts off. im like **** and pull over, stupid me i tried to start the car a little and it started but bogged so i turned it off right away thinking okay this is hydrolock symptoms i think. push the car to a gas station, grab some tools. pulled off the intake, a little water comes out of throttle body. have my friend step on gas to open the throttle and water comes out, maybe enough to fill a glass like 2 inches, i dont know if thats much but it freaked me out because water is NOT supposed to be in the tb. so i wipe the water out of the tb, pull the plugs and wires then crank the car, no water sprays out so i think okay i didnt suck up enough water to blow the block hopefully. put everything back together, car starts up and i keep it at 3k to warm it up. drive home,and now think i should throw that cold air away. oh yeah my plugs on cylinders 1 and 3 were light brown which is normal? and 2/4 were semi light grey, i forget what light grey is but all 4 plugs did not match, so thats my question, did the water cause some damage to my motor to make plugs 2-4 light grey? thanks everybody. ill change the oil soon too.

 

Scary story. . . its raining here in Orange County too, but if your parting you cold air give it to me!!

 

Doesn't sound like you did any damage. Just change you plugs and oil and you should be fine. Maybe with any luck you just cleaned out your cumbustion chambers and valves. But sounds like you did no harm at all.

 

i was going to keep my cold air and use it as my turbo piping. i have almost every part ready, just need to pick up my mani/dp when its done. tonight really discouraged me from my turbo project, i dont race/drive fast/nothing. i just want to turbo now so i dont have a midlife crisis later. cuz i know turbo will give me some type of problem, small or large. but i think i should keep up with the project.

 

If you are still skeptical about the water. Remove all four plugs and your ecu fuse and crank your motor. I did something similar and I saw the water shoot out of the spark plug holes. That is if its not too late. Hope that helps

 

well i pulled the plugs and wires and cranked, but no water shot out

 

hopefully it all burned up then. run a compression test. If the are all equal +-5psi it should be fine

 

yeah you might wanna run a compression test, see if you ruined anything or not.

all this cali rain is back once again