dolebludger

Yes, my fear of hydrolocking comes from posts on this board, wherein S2k owners are denied warranty coverange by Honda on the grounds that their internal engine problems were caused by hydrolocking from a low mounted CAI. In many of the stories told (too many to be discounted), the owners swore they had not driven in the amount of water that would cause hydrolocking. Still, no warranty! So my fear regarding low mounted CAI's is not so much of hydrolocking itself, But fear of warranty denial should something internal go wrong, should I have one of these units.

On the other hand, High mounted units would seem to prevent Honda from using this as an excuse (absent a major flood), and the PRM unit was praised in a post above. Does anybody have any information on other high mounted units? Has anyone installed the Coastal Metals modification of the existing airbox which draws air out of the fender well?

Thanks
Richard

ultimate lurker

Hydrolock is very rare, and requires lack of caution on the driver's part, but it doesn't take much water to make it happen.

In the case of the S2000, ingesting as little as 55-60 cc of water in one cylinder would be enough. It doesn't have to be a large mass of water (and there is no MAF/MAS on the S2000), it just has to be an accumulated amount in one cylinder on the compression stroke. So, those living in very wet climates with lots of standing water on the roads should be cautious.

UL

mxt_77

I could see how hydrolock could easily happen, though. I had a CAI on my Prelude, so I was accustomed to watching for deep standing water (like along the curb on a roadway where drainage is not good). However, a few weeks ago, I was caught in the S2000 in a heavy downpour, with some pea sized hail in it. In my frantic effort to get home before the hail got worse, I took a different route than usual (to avoid traffic). It just turned out that this particular route had a crossing that, with all the heavy rain, had a 8-10" deep current of water running across it. I remember consciously thinking: "I'm glad I don't have a cold air intake right now", because I'm fairly confident that the water was deep enough to get sucked into an intake.
So, let's just say that hydrolocking is definitely possible, and you don't have to be an idiot to have it happen to you... just unfortunate. I personally have not decided what type of intake to go with on my S2000 yet, but the PRM is looking better and better. I just have to do a search for before/after dynos, first. Plus, the intake is about 3rd or 4th on my wish list right now, and I don't plan on buying any of these items for a while.

xviper

You are well justified to have this fear. This is only one of the reasons I have very little faith and respect in dealerships - their ethics are somewhat lacking.

dolebludger

Everyone's replies have been most helpful. However, one aspect remains unanswered. How well does the Coastal Metals CAI (or anything like it) work? For those unfamiliar with this CAI, it retains the stock airbox. Some of the guts are removed to allow air passage from the left "dead"
chamber to the right chamber where the filter element is located. A 3" or 4" hole is then cut in the left side of the airbox, and a flex tube is run into the hole between the engine bay and the fender well, where cool air (and additional air) is supposedly available to be sucked into the box and filter.

Anybody out there have one?

How well do they work?

Thanks,
Richard

ksalik

Well guys to you whom think hydrolock is a myth, i had it happen to me today with my 4IG CAI. My car was parked on a parking lot, after a heavy downpour, my car would not start and the engine would not even turn over, apparantly the water pours down into one of the body weep holes and onto the air filter. I sat and retried to fire the engine time and time again, to no avail, then finally my starter motor fried. Finally, after 5 guys and 10 mins of push starting, i finally was able to turn this engine over, to anyone whom tries to turn over a 11:1 CR engine by push start, good luck!!! But this had happened to me 2x before while my car had stayed parked in my driveway.

My car is at the dealership, hoping to get a new starter under warranty, but after this, out comes my CAI. This is just my opinion and many will disagree, Its simply not worth it to me and the performance gains from seat of the pants are virtually unnoticeable to me, i think the sound fools many people subconsciously to thinking the car is going faster due to the louder sound emanating from the intake manifold. I realize people have posted dyno curves but theres enough variables from run to run to affect a few bhp.

I think the honda engineers knew something about this car which is why the stock airbox is the way it is, ie.. it has provisions to prevent hydrolock, maybe the aftermarket has a little ways to go...

xviper

[QUOTE]Originally posted by ksalik
[B]Well guys to you whom think hydrolock is a myth, i had it happen to me today with my 4IG CAI.

ultimate lurker

ksalik, by definition you didn't hydrolock the engine. The only way to get an engine started post-hydrolocking is to allow the water in the chamber to gradually seep out past the rings (meaning your oil is now waterlogged) or to pull the plugs and crank the starter over. The first takes a very long time. Most starters wouldn't even be capable of turning an engine that is hydrolocked. And if they could, they'd break a rod or something.

I have hydrolocked an engine before after a water injection system error and the starter could not budge the engine. Having it happen on the road with a CAI is rare, but it does happen if one is not cautious. I've had experiences where excessive water on the filter has caused poor running (the massive El Nino storms in LA in 1997), but I think this is more an issue of poor airflow through a soaked filter.

UL

dolebludger

Let me return if I may to my question a few posts up as to whether anybody has had any experience with the Coastal Metals CAI. I've asked this on several CAI related threads, and have never received a response from any s2k owner who had one. Always seems, as here, that the subject just seems to change.

The reason for my interest is that it seems that this thing would work well IN THEORY, because it retains the stock box and snorkel, while adding an additional air source from the fender well (where the PRM, for example, gets all its air). And IN THEORY, it looks simple, inexpensive, effective, and immune from allegations of causing hydrolock. But we know that theory does not always prove out, so I am just hoping for some input from an owner with experience with one of these.

Thanks,
Richard

MacGyver

UL,

Reiterating what you said in your previous post, would it be safe in assuming our starter motors would not be strong enough to start the engine if there was water in the cylinders? Therefore the only way to truly hydrolock our engines is to have it actually running when the water was sucked up?