Avoiding hydrolock by drilling holes in the intake?
04-23-2008, 05:04 PM
#1
Rennlist Member
Thread Starter
Avoiding hydrolock by drilling holes in the intake?
A few weeks ago, someone posted a PDF on sealing the hatch glass. Got a chance to read it today; at the bottom was this little nugget:
Anyone ever hear of this? Drilling 5-6 small holes (I'm assuming they would be at the bottom of the intake pipe, to let any sucked-in water drain out)?
Seems like you'd be letting in a bit of the hot engine air.
Do not drive through the puddles unless you drill 5-6 1/4 inch holes in your plastic air pipe intake running from the driver’s side front fender. If not, you will end up with deadhydrolocked engine.
Seems like you'd be letting in a bit of the hot engine air.
04-23-2008, 05:30 PM
#5
Addict
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It would work if it drew air in from the bottom of the fender, but since it draws air in from the top of the fender it would take one hell of a deep puddle for it to suck water in.... And at that point youve got bigger issues.
04-23-2008, 05:34 PM
#6
Addict
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Plus, it will be lower pressure there than in front of the filter (a little), so if it did anything at all, I think it would be ever so slightly more likely to draw in water (if there was any water there in the first place), or hold any water that got in there via the filter.
04-23-2008, 05:53 PM
#7
Race Director
Well guys.. here is a little story.
Back in 2003 I was racing at our newly completed Arizona Motorsports park. Fun 2.25 mile track build off the end of the Air Force base run way. Anyway the track was generally lower speed, but long with fun corners and goobs and goobs of run off. So that day was my 3rd or 4th on that track and it started to rain. We don't get much rain experience here so I make sure I spent every moment I could on track. The rain got really bad and I had the track almost to myself.
I learned quickly that many apxes puddled with water due a combination of a little camber and curbing. Frequently I would splash through a corners and could hear the water spraying hard on the inside of the fender. The rain came so bad later in the day we packed it in having skipped the race. Later I checked my stock air box and found the paper filter WET. Parts if it were very very wet. What was happening was the the intake was sucking this water spashed in the fender area. I had removed my partial fender liner to safe weight. (early 944 and 924s use a partial liner to just seal off the intake area, later cars use full wheel arch liners). Anyway I soon located one of these and have run with it ever since. I have also noted that before putting the liner back in I would get amazing level so of rubber in the air box. Now I get very little.
Back to the water.... So you can get water sucked into the intake and get the airfilter wet. You can even get water in the bottom of the airbox. For years I ran and still do with my hole that goes to the belt cover vent open. IE no hose at all. This can act as a relief to prevent sucking massive levels of water and maybe it make difference and saved my motor. Maybe not. Even so I just put that liner back in and having run in other rain days I have never seen the filter wet again.
Back in 2003 I was racing at our newly completed Arizona Motorsports park. Fun 2.25 mile track build off the end of the Air Force base run way. Anyway the track was generally lower speed, but long with fun corners and goobs and goobs of run off. So that day was my 3rd or 4th on that track and it started to rain. We don't get much rain experience here so I make sure I spent every moment I could on track. The rain got really bad and I had the track almost to myself.
I learned quickly that many apxes puddled with water due a combination of a little camber and curbing. Frequently I would splash through a corners and could hear the water spraying hard on the inside of the fender. The rain came so bad later in the day we packed it in having skipped the race. Later I checked my stock air box and found the paper filter WET. Parts if it were very very wet. What was happening was the the intake was sucking this water spashed in the fender area. I had removed my partial fender liner to safe weight. (early 944 and 924s use a partial liner to just seal off the intake area, later cars use full wheel arch liners). Anyway I soon located one of these and have run with it ever since. I have also noted that before putting the liner back in I would get amazing level so of rubber in the air box. Now I get very little.
Back to the water.... So you can get water sucked into the intake and get the airfilter wet. You can even get water in the bottom of the airbox. For years I ran and still do with my hole that goes to the belt cover vent open. IE no hose at all. This can act as a relief to prevent sucking massive levels of water and maybe it make difference and saved my motor. Maybe not. Even so I just put that liner back in and having run in other rain days I have never seen the filter wet again.
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04-23-2008, 06:02 PM
#8
Rennlist Member
Thread Starter
I don't know. Someone posted a PDF a few weeks ago, something about a hatch reseal (using Krazy Glue 
), some kind of rubber roll, etc. Didn't see a name attached. Wonder how well that Krazy Glue is holding up after these years?
No name on it, but at the bottom was this thing on hydrolocking. Did a search on "hydrolock", found plenty of warnings on it, some questions about coolant causing hydrolock, tifo saying hydrolock is no fun, and one guy in the UK who actually hydrolocked his engine but was able to get it running on 3 cylinders, limped to a garage where they let him use the lift. Oh, and a story someone posted about going through 1-2 feet of water without hydrolocking.
), some kind of rubber roll, etc. Didn't see a name attached. Wonder how well that Krazy Glue is holding up after these years?No name on it, but at the bottom was this thing on hydrolocking. Did a search on "hydrolock", found plenty of warnings on it, some questions about coolant causing hydrolock, tifo saying hydrolock is no fun, and one guy in the UK who actually hydrolocked his engine but was able to get it running on 3 cylinders, limped to a garage where they let him use the lift. Oh, and a story someone posted about going through 1-2 feet of water without hydrolocking.
04-23-2008, 07:52 PM
#9
Three Wheelin'
I did that to my dad's '84 N/A during one of those bad floods in Glendale in 1988 or so. I was going slow but also keeping the rpm's around 5K because the exhaust was under water and it was bogging the engine down (or at least I thought so.) At one point the headlight covers even dipped under water at a low point in the road and water washed part way up the hood. No water sucked in, but it was pretty scary.
