Hydrolock

Has anyone really ever gotten hydrolock? Ive always driven in rain and all that with my cai, but a few days ago i really thought i was screwed. I hit the hugest puddle ever and my car stalled out so i just rolled through it and started it back up again. Am i just really lucky or what?

yeah in late october me and my girl friend were playing around in the rain and i took this turn going to fast, i have taken this turn before at this speed but never in the rain. well in the middle of the turn i hit a puddle and i was stupid and slammed on the brakes which would not have been a problem if i had abs but i do not. so i slammed in the curb screwed my ram jacked my control arms, and cv shaft and popped two tires. it really sucked it cost me over 800 to fix.:mad:

Originally posted by Lxcivic4u
yeah in late october me and my girl friend were playing around in the rain and i took this turn going to fast, i have taken this turn before at this speed but never in the rain. well in the middle of the turn i hit a puddle and i was stupid and slammed on the brakes which would not have been a problem if i had abs but i do not. so i slammed in the curb screwed my ram jacked my control arms, and cv shaft and popped two tires. it really sucked it cost me over 800 to fix.:mad:

what did that have to do with hydrolock?
but no i havnt got hydrolock but a friend of mine sucked a shit load of water into his engine threw his cai but no hydrolock

Originally posted by Lxcivic4u
i slammed in the curb screwed my ram jacked my control arms, and cv shaft and popped two tires.

You are talking about HydroPLANE... not HydroLOCK. It's cool though man... everyone knows what you were talking about. Anywayz... hydrolock is when water gets into your motor and fills the cylinders. Usually it gets in there when your Cold Air Intake sucks up water through a deep puddle or something. Anywayz... your intake sucks up air and sends it to the chambers where it is mixed w/ fuel, compressed, and ignited. Anywayz... air can be compressed... water can't. So when your engine takes in water and tries to compress it... it will seize up and your motor is screwed.

Originally posted by GhettoLegs


You are talking about HydroPLANE... not HydroLOCK. It's cool though man... everyone knows what you were talking about. Anywayz... hydrolock is when water gets into your motor and fills the cylinders. Usually it gets in there when your Cold Air Intake sucks up water through a deep puddle or something. Anywayz... your intake sucks up air and sends it to the chambers where it is mixed w/ fuel, compressed, and ignited. Anywayz... air can be compressed... water can't. So when your engine takes in water and tries to compress it... it will seize up and your motor is screwed.

HOLY CRAP :eek2: were the hell did you come from? crawl out from under a rock? welcome back ghettolegs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yup... I'm back. My car's coming up homie! I want to go back to school but before I did I wanted to have my car done. I got EVERYTHING I wanted before school starts except paint. I just lost my job so now I can't paint the car for a little while. Oh well... damn. I didn't put the kit on yet 'cause I don't wanna be ghetto like that... gotta wait for the paint. But I'll get some pics up and show them off. My car has now survived 2 attempted thefts... I don't know why these fools even try. It pisses me off having to replace crap that they break!

frien of mine sucked up some water in his CAI. jus had to let his motor "dry out." it ran like shit an only 3 cylinders would fire correctly, but no permanent damage. we jus pulled each out seperately to figure which was wet, an found it...let it dry out from the heat of the motor, an were on our way.

a guy i kno w/ a civic wasn't as lucky tho. hydro-locked his motor an well...now he has an excuse for that DOHC VTEC swap he's always wanted...

im confused as to how hydrolock works. Ok I understand if water gets into your engine its bad. I know it can rust everything and stuff but how exactly can it seize the engine? cant you pull out the sparkplugs and let it dry out? I would take off all the spark plugs and then just turn the key to the "crank" position so it will move the pistons and let it dry out... yea I know it could flood a lil but it will evaporate. more gas is better than more water isnt it? Or does hydrolocking have anythnig to do with anything bending do to the way tries to compress water?:confused:

gas...combusts. water...does not. wut it basically does is exactly wut it sounds like. it locks up ur motor. without the compression/combustion, the motor locks up an can't do anything. therefore...hydro-lock.

Originally posted by sageuvagony
Or does hydrolocking have anythnig to do with anything bending do to the way tries to compress water?:confused:

You said it. Your motor is working to compress water... but water cannot be compressed... so the stress 'causes everything to break.

I've seen this happen in a jet ski engine... it was running at high rpm when the air snorkle sucked in a pretty large amount of water. The motor started to run like crap right away so we took the heads off. (polaris, 3 separate heads) Well only the last cylinder got water in it... almost looked as if it had been sandblasted, no carbon left in the cylinder at all, rough surface on everything, domed piston was now dished. Now I know that was in a jet ski motor but I expect the same results to be possible in almost any engine.

wow, sorry I didn't realize how old this post was when I clicked the link from the other post

ok so today, I drove throught a puddle and my car stalled.... my cai was submerged, I took the plugs out and the intake off and dried all the water out of the cyclinders and the throttlebody. now my car starts but it knocks like crazy..... you think i fucked up this time? whats this sound like?

in the 88-91 civic / crx forum there are a few threads about this cause one of the guys there fucked his shit up and is working on fixing it ... heres the links

http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=112040

http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=110684