Air intake

i have a 1990 buick lesabre. The air intake was inside of the engine bay, very close to the engine, so lots and lots of very hot air got sucked in. I rigged up a cold air intake out of some 3 inch flex duct which runs to behind the grille, where i attached the bottom half of an air cleaner box from a scrapped lesabre that faces directly forward and acts as an air scoop. Is it bad if i leave this connected in the rain, or in the winter time? What are the chances of water or snow getting in and damaging the engine?

if you still have an air filter you should be ok. it all depends on how low to the ground the scoop is. i can't imagine rain being an issue considering it would evaporate probably before it got near the engine (assuming it makes it up the tube). I don't think there would be a problem, but if there is, I am sure you will find out someday.

You need to be carefull because even with a filter you can still suck up water into your engine and get hydralock (NOT HAPPY)

If you stay outta puddles you should be fine. And hydralock only really happens when you suck in significant ammounts of water, but i would still be careful.

what would hydra lock do to the engine? Permanent damage?

Id depends on the ammount of water, but if it is really bad you might have to get your engine rebuilt.

An engine can can take some water without a problem, but its not really something you wanna mess with.

My friend's mom got hydra-lock in her sebring and it cost her $2k

would you recommend i just disconnect the air ram then? are the benefits worth the risk?

The benefits are definatly worth the risk. Just becareful not to drive through huge puddles. To be completely honest you do not have very much to worry about.

will going through the car wash cause any harm? Is it too much water?