CAI in the rain, NO GOOD?!?

[CONAN]

A friends integra with a CAI was driving in wild rain yesterday, and his engine failed to rev when he engaged the throttle. He said the car started JERKING real bad and the revs dropped and the engine just stalled.. He tried to start it and it stalled again. After a minute it started again, but he could only tap the accelerator slowly in order to drive. (If full throttle it would stall again)

Why could this be happening? He noticed that his CAI pod filter was soaking wet in water and he's thinking maybe the engine was trying to suck air but air wouldnt pass the filter. And that caused the revs to drop to 0?

Now he's afraid of water in his engine, he said the pod filter dried up today and the car is driving normally now. So do you think the main cause would be the CAI?
If so, thats a bloody bad invention!!
:thumbdwn: or :thumbsup:

[Tony]

check the dip stick, if the oil turned into chocolate milk colour then there's definitly water in the engine. do an oil change if he's worried. the connecting rod might have been damaged though because the engine was compressing water instead of gas at high rpm.

[Boost]

If the engine is revving normal at low rpm and high rpm after the filter has dried...then it could be because when the filter was wet, the material the filter is made of expanded when wet, thats why the car was able to just stay on.. but when u rev it it chokes and dies, cause of the lack of air flow due to the expansion of the material when it was wet. Take the lid of the air box off when its pouring rain....

[bennjamin]

Im sure an engine will suck in air in preference to water under most cirumstance - that is , unless the pod was TOTALLY submerged i dont think alot of water was sucked into your engine.

Does the car work fine now ?!? IF water was sucked into your engine AFAIK the cylinder that copped the first water-based stroke would break the conrod etc as it hit TDC . Ive seen alot of pictures of similar stories on HT of the rod pushing a hole thru the side of the block ! Water cant compress quite like air :(

But , sounds like your friend is lucky - stick with a panel filter n box instead methinks .

[CONAN]

what is TDC?.. stories on HT, what is that as well.

[tRipitaka]

HondaTech

[Boost]

CONAN: TDC - Top Dead Centre.

[zen]

sorry kinda old thread.
was the CAI a short ram like in the engine bay or was the pod sitting behind the front bumper??
coz thats alot of rain to get in ya engine bay if its the short ram ...

[dc2r]

well he did say CAI not SRI so I would assume it is the pod in the front bumper...

[elim]

sorry kinda old thread.
was the CAI a short ram like in the engine bay or was the pod sitting behind the front bumper??
coz thats alot of rain to get in ya engine bay if its the short ram ...

I reckon it also depends a little on luck, my mate's mechanic had a black dc5r there which hydrolocked it's engine with an SRI. :confused:

[Zdster]

I have noticed for some intakes that you can purchase a seperate valve that closes to prevent hydrolock if the intake is submerged.

[CONAN]

CAI, right behind the front bumper.

the car is okay now i think, but its not worth the horror

stick with a panel/sri/stock