Yeah, so I just flooded my engine. It sucks. The puddle was half way up my calves, but luckily some dude helped me push the car into a parking lot. I'm hoping it dries out by tomorrow after noon before I have to work. If not I'm off all day on saturday, so I'll see what I can do then. I'm hoping that this doesn't do any long term damage; my dad said it shouldn't, but we'll see. At least this was an opportunity for me to clean my filter.

sorry to hear that...

i hydrolocked my engine before, and well insurance give me a lower mileage one

That sucks man, hope it comes out okay. Sometimes the cars will just die when they try to suck the water in, and draining the intake and such usually works. If you were pushing it hard through puddle, yeah, you may be screwed.

Did you pull the spark plugs?

I dont see how its possible for it to get all the way up the intake unless it was sitting in the puddle.

How did you now see it and question yourself about it?

Srry that sounds kinda mean but I just think bypass filters are not needed.

Didn't pull the spark plugs; didn't think about it. I'll pull them tomorrow, thanks. I was driving at about 25 mph and didn't see the water until it was too late. It was raining pretty hard. The car just stalled out and without thinking I tried to start it back up, but got nothing. I don't know. I'm just hoping it's not a lost cause.

If you were only doing about 25 MPH, and weren't above, say 3500 K rpm, the vacuum shouldn't be enough to get into the engine I think, so you just stalled.

Trying to start it again while in the puddle...

I dunno.

Let us know man.

I'm the same way by the way, I think the bypasses are silly. I've had a couple of close calls, but I make sure I know where water gathers in areas I drive.

Am I correct in reading your title, that you DID NOT have a bypass valve?

I've locked up twice with my CAI, without a bypass valve, and neither time appears to have caused noticeable damage.

Last time, I was driving on the interstate for about 20 miles in HEAVY downpour, then took the roads. Water collected on my filter the whole trip, and within 2 miles of my destination, it locked up. I was going uphill, moving slowly, but sucking in a ton of air to get up the hill. It buckled a couple times, was better when I let off the gas, and finally quit. I was able to steer to the shoulder.

I took the CAI apart, unhooked the MAF to dry, and took the filter into the shop across the street. I blew the water out of the filter with an air hose, and after about 30 minutes the car finally turned over again.

I don't think I've EVER submerged my filter, but after a while, the water seeps in. But, as you can see, the tip of my filter is also an air inlet, so the water would roll right off the front bumper into the filter while driving. Attachment 650

identical to this:
http://www.jperformance.co.uk/images/airfiltertop.jpg

Yeah no by-pass valve. Never thought I'd need it. Guess I was wrong. Now I know where one water gathering spot is, haha. It's fun learning things the hard way.

I'm glad to hear that it's not a lost cause and I should be ok. I'll check the MAF and the spark plugs and make sure they're not f'ed and then I guess just go from there.

Thanks for all the help guys. And in a timely manner! fing02.gif

The plugs are the least of your problems, you pull them to help it dry out quicker, and I think some folks use it to pump out ingested water too by turning the car over. I'm not 100% on this, but I think I've read that here before.

I hydro-locked my tib once as well. Long story which I wont get into, actually I think I have a thread about it on here.

Anyways. If it wont start tomorrow then you have water in one or more of the cylinders keeping the cylinder from being able to compress. You need to disconnect the fuel pump via fuse or unplug it under the back seat like I did. Take out your spark plugs and lay a towel across the top of the engine over the open spark plug holes.

Turn the engine over for a second then move the towel around a bit so a dry area is over the holes. This just lets the towel absorb the water that sprays up quicker. This will run the battery down a lot because the starter takes a lot of power to turn. It also heats up fast so give it a chance to cool down every few tries and never let it turn for more than 5 seconds at a time.

What i did was have my moms van parked beside the car and have the jumper cables connected with the van running to give me power. Once the water is all out you can put the plugs back in and hook the fuel pump up again. Try to start it and it will probably start but run very rough because of the water. My car wouldn't idle which was fun because it was an automatic...

Anyways after it runs for a bit it will be fine if a rod hasn't been bent from the sudden stop of the water in the engine. Water doesn't compress as well as air... who'd have thought.