I'm thinking of removing the stock air system and putting on an air intake system. I was looking through this site and found a link talking about installing a heat shield for a cold air intake so you don't have to worry about the hydro-lock normally associated with cold air intakes. What is this hydrolock and how do you prevent it? Is there a difference with short air intake vs. cold air to prevent this?

Thanks in advance.

 

hydrolock is when you suck in water and when your piston compresses it locks up cause it cant compress enough and most of the time your rod shots thorough the block cause it has to go somewhere the bypass valve helps cause it is easier to suck air then water the bypass looks like a foam coupler that will suck air out of it rather then water from your filterreally simple design

 

Thank!! By the way, sorry if I annoyed anyone. Did a search and found a lot of info.

Thanks,

The Noobe

 

if you want a cold air intake and are scared of hydrolock then get a air intake bypass and it wont suck water into your head. also cold air intakes are better for performance because it breathes the cold air from outside the car instead of the hot air from the engine bay, but with short ram intakes you dont have to worry about hydrolocking

 

Most of the companys that make the intakes say to take off the bottom half when it is wet weather outside, but that is a pain in the a**. the best bet is a bypass. AEM has a video on their site. They ran a NSX with a intake that put the filter in 6 inches of water, then done a full pull. the bottom half of the intake was clear and you could see the water came up about 3 inches but never got near the engine. Also you CAN NOT compress water! If the water makes it in the engine, bye bye. About the same as busting the timing belt.

 

I say go for it, get a nice intake AEM/Injen as long as its CARB certified. You shouldn't worry about the hydro lock I had a cold air in my car and ran it in deeeeeep puddles ( not recommended) and nothing ever happened besides there is a plastic guard underneath the whole bottom of your to keep water out. Now I have a short ram just beacuse it is so much easier to acess.

 

I've got air bypass valve by AEM on my AEM cold air intake. Just in case water gets sucked in there! That's what happen to my bro's 96 h22ed accord, he ran into a huge puddle and got water sucked into the intake through the engine and throw a rod right through block! It sucked it was a fast car too! That's ok I got parts off it for my 95 accord.