CAI and Hydrolock

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peanut

Member
I was driving my friend to downtown and it was raining heavily, flooding in some areas. It was pretty bad. I drove through a deep puddle and the next thing my car started chugging and sputtering. I stalled out at least four times at the stop junctions. However managed to drive back home. I noticed a severe loss in power when the car is under load such as driving steep uphills and in some cases I stalled out.

I have a CAI into the resonator compartment of my Civic, the splash guard panel was bent in such a way there was a large opening into the resonator area. This must have happened during the last servicing due to frequent or overbending of the splash guard that couldn't recover to its optimal shape. This allowed coupious amount of water to enter into the intake compartment. I have the CAI on for more than 2 years and this is the first time it happened. I heard one tablespoon of water is enough to hydrolock the engine till it couldn't run.

This morning I took out the spark plugs and give each chamber a good spray of WD40 and ran the engine for a while. It seemed to have recovered but I noticed the slight hesitation when accelerating and slight loss of power. In short, it ran shitty. Also checked the oil for water, there was none. Wonder any of you guys experienced this before and how long does it take for your affected engine to recover?
 
Just check your distributor cap for water. I got water in my cap before and the car ran lke shit until I put a new cap on.
 
well, I would have shut the car down right after I noticed some hesitation.

but it seems that your fine.
 
It doesnt seem likely that your car has suffered a hydrolock. Usually this causes something to break, but it sounds like your doing okay now. Having said that, if you did indeed get water into a cylinder, you might have bent a connecting rod slightly. This would lower your compression and give you a loss in power. Just an idea. Hope it works out for you with, minimal expense :lol:
 
if you hydro locked it, you'd know it. cuz you'd be standing in the rain waiting for a tow truck looking at a hole in your block instead of posting :)

a LITTLE water won't cause too much problem in a lower compression motor. where minute differences won't matter as much as in a 11+ motor. a little water actually disipates the heat of the cly.

do what jeef said and check the dizzy. also, dry out the filter. its harder for the intake to suck through even a moist filter cone.
 
Originally posted by pissedoffsol@Mar 16 2004, 05:10 AM
if you hydro locked it, you'd know it. cuz you'd be standing in the rain waiting for a tow truck looking at a hole in your block instead of posting :)

a LITTLE water won't cause too much problem in a lower compression motor. where minute differences won't matter as much as in a 11+ motor. a little water actually disipates the heat of the cly.

do what jeef said and check the dizzy. also, dry out the filter. its harder for the intake to suck through even a moist filter cone.

Thanks fellas.

It could have been the wet filter cone restricting the air flow into the engine. It could also be that the engine took in minute amounts of water. Whatever it is, its okay now. Luckily I did not do a mini-me swap with a z6 head onto the block yet, with a 12+ motor, I could have broken a rod or two or broke a shaft. I also checked the dizzy, and its dry. Now I have plugged the gaping holes in the right fender well to prevent this from happening again.
 
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