HydroLocked :(

J

Joost27

More Power Made Me Slower
Contributor
:
2000 Mazda Protege ES V6
alright, well tonight the worst possible thing happened.
Went to go to the store and well it has been raining all day after we got 10inches of snow last night. Well all the drains around the area are over filled so the roads have laked sized puddles. Anyways, came across a puddle that took up the whole road, and this is one of the major roads in concord, nh. I made it through 3/4 of it and it started to bog so i shut the car off, and coasted to the side of the road. GOt a friend with a jeep to tow me to a near by parking lot, bought some tools and took the plugs out and cranked it over to force the water out, got it all out well probably still tiny drops left, but alright put the plugs back in get the coil-packs bolted down and start her up, it starts but now cylinder 1 or 4(however you like to number them) is making a loud knocking noise. I shut it off and opened the oil cap and some water had made it to the valve train, but not as bad as i've seen with cars with blown head gaskets. but pulled the dip stick and the oil looks perfect down there. So basically this is what I am asking:

Question:
What do you think is the cause of this noise? Bent Valve, Bent Rod, Possible Detonation or knocking from the maf getting wet and ******* with the computer?

Any input would be great

-Justin
 
its not going to hurt your computer....

but if you truely hydrolocked the motor, then yeah, bent rod and/or damaged piston would be my diagnosis.... hard to know without pulling it down...
 
well i know its not gonna hurt the computer, but if the maf is wet or messed up could it be sending the wrong info and the computer not give enough fuel and make it lean out dramatically. Whatever, anyways by having the oil in the valve train and not down bottom, would that lead to a possible valve problem? rather then a connecting rod or piston?
 
IukekiniProtege said:
well i know its not gonna hurt the computer, but if the maf is wet or messed up could it be sending the wrong info and the computer not give enough fuel and make it lean out dramatically. Whatever, anyways by having the oil in the valve train and not down bottom, would that lead to a possible valve problem? rather then a connecting rod or piston?
Click to expand...

hydrolock generally causes piston and rod damage. The engine "inhales" water, this enters the engine via the intake valve.....

again, you're not going to know for sure until you pull it down.

you asked for an opinion - in my opinion, its going to be rod and/or piston damage.

Lift the head, drop the crank, have a look....
 
you should've NEVER started the engine without changing the oil... you may have damaged it more than it has

change the oil then try again
oh and you KNEW the water was deep and you chose to drive through it... that was smart! after seeing many people who got their s*** hydrolocked, you think it won't happen to you and you get the superman syndrome and think you can make it
 
alright, i didn't know how deep the puddle was before entering it, i was following traffic, on a main city road, no other cars had broken down around there and no one was turning around, so i figured it was just like every other puddle that was on that road before, ones i made it through with no issues, i didn't realize how deep it was until it started stuttering. When I started the car it was on for maybe 15seconds
 
you see a big ass puddle and you have a CAI, don't drive through it! it's that simple! why chance it?
if you don't want to worry, then get a WAI like I did... CAIs are overrated
 
Sometimes it is very hard to gauge how deep the water is before you go into it if you are not familiar with the road. Last summer there was a flash flood in the city, it rained about 6in in less then an hour. I was driving on a road that looked flat and seemed to have water about 1/2 in deep. Once I started driving over it the water came up to my door sill. I turned straight into a parking lot and waited for over an hour for the water level to go down. I only later found out that the street had a huge curved dip by the curbs (like 1/2 foot). All I'm saying is that it is very hard to gauge water level on roads sometimes.

Good luck with fixing your car.
 
Report back when you have the block torn down and figure out for sure what it is.
 
CAI will only cause hydrolock if the filter becomes immersed... usually, if you have the balls to do it, driving through a puddle at speed will prevent a hydrolock - its stopping, or driving slowly, through a body of water that will cause the engine to inhale water....

if you have the presense of mind, you can also get off the throttle and engage the clutch to close the throttle, coast through then shut the motor down.

But the easiest way of surviving it is to not drive through puddles in the first place..

puddles wreck havoc with more than just engines...they are bad for brakes (wet brakes wont stop you), you get muddy yuck strewn under the car - its just not good...
 
Tom03es said:
Report back when you have the block torn down and figure out for sure what it is.
Click to expand...

agreed....to add to that, look on the bright side...tearing the block down gives you an oppertunity to build a better engine....

if you've bent a rod, replace them with longer, forged items....if you've fried a piston, go for some nice high comp items....

its expensive - but you need to look on the bright side...
 
TheMAN said:
that reiterates the fact... CAI FTL
Click to expand...

Ohhh now you say it. We should have all consulted TheMAN before hand and this problem would not have happened, lol (rei).

Seriously though, 99.99% they work great and sometimes even better then a WAI (well, maybe not specifically on the protege). It's only that .01 % of the time you need to watch out for water. I also like the look of the CAI then a WAI in the engine bay.
 
a WAI with a heat shield gives equally as good gains as a CAI (which is a measily 1whp difference as the most)... the temperatures may not be as cool, but the air doesn't have to travel as far nor as many bends
 
TheMAN said:
a WAI with a heat shield gives equally as good gains as a CAI (which is a measily 1whp difference as the most)... the temperatures may not be as cool, but the air doesn't have to travel as far nor as many bends
Click to expand...

and you honestly think that an extra 18 inches less pipe and 1 or 2 less insanely wide radius bends makes up for a significant increase in air temp?

a typical "WAI" as you call it will be no match for a CAI for gains - especially once you have after market management (the air temp adjustments yield significant gains).

Obviously a CORRECTLY designed short ram will stomp a CAI (due to leveraging resonance to improve plenum filling) - but unless you've calculated your ram length exactly (length, effective length through bends, and pipe diameter against RPM and VE), and have an intake manifold that can take advantage of it, then CAI is certainly worth it.
 
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