What happens to an engine that takes in water? I've heard about people with cold air intakes going through deep pudles and sucking up water instead of air and blowing their motors. Exactly what gets damaged and how?

 

one word, your engine goes BOOM.
search for hydrolock, lots of posts

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by scott21 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">What happens to an engine that takes in water? I've heard about people with cold air intakes going through deep pudles and sucking up water instead of air and blowing their motors. Exactly what gets damaged and how?</TD></TR></TABLE>
When the pistons rise up to try to compress the (water) And unsuccesfully fail, They either break valves, crack pistons, blow out rings, I've heard of snapped rods, Everything can start to come apart! On lower compression motors things arn't as bad, although it still ruins your motor. On high compression motors, Things let go!

 

this kid in new mexico hydro-locked an he didnt know what was wrong. i poped teh hood an i counted 8 holes in his block. i pulled the head off an all 4 rods were snaped in half. about an inch of water was still in the cyl after the car sat for a month. that is what happens with a cold air intake. a bypass easily will fix that problem.

 

Air=compressable. Water=not compressable. Take your bicycle pump apart, fill it with water, put it back together, plug the hose, and try to compress the water to half its volume. You could do it with like a billion psi, but nothing on earth is strong enough to do that. Basically, irresistable force meets immoveable object, engine go boom.

 

What if it's only for a short period of time, like a few seconds. Afterwards, the car ran kinda boggy for about 5-10 minutes, then started clearing up. Now it runs okay, but gets bad fuel economy and the oil temp rises quicker than usual. Also, my compression is down in 3 out of 4 cylinders.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by scott21 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">What if it's only for a short period of time, like a few seconds.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Thats all it takes....

 

rings man. do a leakdown test and see if you car pinpoint your problem. see if there is are coming outta your dipstick hole

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by scott21 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">What if it's only for a short period of time, like a few seconds. Afterwards, the car ran kinda boggy for about 5-10 minutes, then started clearing up. Now it runs okay, but gets bad fuel economy and the oil temp rises quicker than usual. Also, my compression is down in 3 out of 4 cylinders.</TD></TR></TABLE>


Welcome to the wonderful world of Hydrolock. You werent the 1st and damn sure wont be the last. Do a search on "shortblocks" cause you need one.

 

If your motor is running now, then chances are that you lucked out, and didn't suck up enough to fill the combustion chamber on any given cylinder! It stopped running cause the water caused a flame out! When the motor shut off the heat more than likely turned the water into vapor, and when the motor was cranked, the vapor moved out of the cylinder like the rest of the pressure does! There was probably some residule vaop/water in there, that more than likely was burned off, and if it is running right now, my main concern would be with the rings, as they probably took the blunt of the damage!

 

Thanks! That sounds pretty good..at least against the worse things that could've happened.

 

who drives their honda anywhere near water deep enough to submerge your filter?

 

This is what happens when you hydrolock your motor:

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=591622

 

if your motor is still running then you are ok just remove your spark plugs and crank the motor 2x then get new ones and then change your oil 2x and you are good.

for me it only took 1 secs or less i was driving around nite time big big storm ( i should have put set it up for short ram but was too lazy)i got off on a dark exit an it looks like the sewer in there was plugged but i saw the puddle right when i was almost on it, as soon as i hit it i instantly turn the car off then pushed the car off the big puddle,turn the key but it dint want to tun on. towed the car home only to find out i had broken 2 rods and 1 was bend almost in half, also the rods i guess when they broke off went strait into the block and made a big dent on the block itself.
i have no luck with motors though i later bought a ls block made it ls/vtec and one of the injectors broke and dumped excess amount of fuel on one of the cylinder and blew the whole wall with brand new srp pistons.

 

When you suck water, you end up with little bits and pieces of motor all over the place. Just today a friend showed me some PR3 rods warped all to hell and snapped in half.