shadowdaze

So let's start off by saying if anything could go wrong it's been the past few weeks. My wife was driving her trans am home from work and hit a big puddle that was on the road which stalled the car so she coasts off the side if th road gives me a call and tells me what happen so I go there and have her try to turn it over with in 3 seconds of trying to start it I hear a loud pop under the hood I instantly got mad so now I pop the hood looking for something sticking thru my block couldn't see anything. So now I look under the car I see a broken bolt, couple pieces of metal and maybe Like 1/8 of a quart of oil on the ground if that. There wasn't much oil at all on te ground. So needless to say called AAA had them to it to a shop so they can tell me it's trashed. And 4 days ago I just got it back from the shop because the ignition coil and control module were bad and now this. I don't know to much about cars but is something he replaced that could cause the engine to blow or was it te puddle?

Kurt D

iTrader: (2)

Hydrolocked the motor, sorry not his fault/

BigBirdLS1

These cars are known for big puddles causing the engines to blow up. Water gets sucked into the motor then it just dies. DO NOT try to crank the motor. You can't compress water which causes junk to break take the spark plugs out and turn the motor over by hand and see what you get. Some insurance companies will actually cover this type of thing so try calling them. Good Luck

anheuserbusch08

iTrader: (11)

hydrolocked engine water kills inside a combustion chamber lol

R6cowboy

iTrader: (3)

Agreed with the first two. If you ever run through water and the car stalls, NO NOT try to crank it over in attempt to start it. As mentioned above, water does not compress. Pull the plugs and crank the motor over so there's no compression and any water will blow out the spark plug openings. If there is a puddle of water sitting in a cylinder, it's not a good idea to leave it there. Then leave the plugs out for quite some to help dry any water in the motor. Using a blow gun through the spark plug opening also will help dry up any water.
Sorry to hear of your troubling issue. Good luck.

Scott97LT1

What big bird said, call your insurance company!

shadowdaze

ok thanks guys well that sucks. now either i buy a whole new engine, keep till i want to get it replaced, or trash it.

Scott97LT1

well if the car is fully covered on insurance, your insurance company may cover hydrolock as some do.. ive read on here a few times of people blowin there blocks from hydro and getting the insurance company to cover it.

428 78T/A

iTrader: (3)

How could water come through the air filter if your driving over or through water. How come it doesnt happen during hard rain?

LeanPocket

iTrader: (6)

free ram air mod?

myk

iTrader: (4)

I'm sure the rain can't get in because the hood and all of that completely covers the airbox. On the fake ram air cars like the WS6 and (I think) the SS there're a ton of baffles that prevent any significant amount of water to penetrate (which is why the ram-air is fake). Now if you drive through a puddle, these cars are bottom breathers by design, so a large impact with a small body of water might throw up enough water to push it past the air filter and then get it sucked into the motor. Not pretty for sure.

Anyone correct me on this if I'm wrong.

Also, do these cars stall because they sense something's wrong?

BigBirdLS1

No you are 100% correct. The cars stall and die because the water screws your maf readings with the water getting on the wires.

redbird555

iTrader: (14)

No they don't at least not to my knowledge they stall if they suck in water like his did because the water gets sucked into the intake and actually stops the rotation of the engine. Then the next time it trys to crank...boom. Btw hydrolocking can and does happen in hard rain. These cars have really bad hood seals and during hard rains water will drip onto the take. If you have a leaky injector o-ring or intake seal water can get in that way. After that the next time you go to start it, well you know what happens.

shadowdaze

well I only have liability on it so I doubt insurance will cover it but im going to call and ask anyway the worse they can say is no.

LeanPocket

iTrader: (6)

goodluck op

02v8ta

iTrader: (8)

sad

SparkyJJO

iTrader: (11)

With where the intake is located at I cannot see how driving through a puddle would get water in the intake and hydrolock it. Unless said "puddle" was more like a lake.

shadowdaze

Ok let me clear some things up for the people wanting to know how the water got in there. First it's 93 trans am the intake that is on there runs down to being in front of the left tire. The car is lowered and the filter sits maybe 5 inches from the ground. Hit a puddle that was about 7 inches deep because the storm drain was backed up and was not draining properly so with the filter 5 inches from the ground in front of the front left tire the first thing that gets nailed with water would be the filter which sucked it up in the intake and so forth.

Scott97LT1

Holy crap I would never put a cold air filter that close to the ground lol.. If I did id keep the splash gaurd on..is yours off?

Starz T/A 17

iTrader: (6)

If the filter is completely submerged in water a splash guard isn't going to do anything. And most cars that have aftermarket CAI systems are lower in the bumper so that it pulls air away from the hot engine. I know some companies like AEM have an emergency filter so that if the larger lower air filter gets submerged with water the engine will pull air through this emergency valve filter since it takes less effort to pull air then water.

And in the case of a LS1 I wouldn't say this is a common occurance, but in the right situation if you hit a big enough puddle and enough water gets splashed up and hits the filter and it gets through the filter its going in the engine. A lot of people find it hard to believe this can happen but imagine if you were stomp on a puddle of water the water can splash a few feet. Now imagine a bigger puddle and hitting it with the force of a car, its not hard to imagine how it can reach the filter