The cards of life...

[SierraFox]

just are not being delt to me at all.

Got the car running, was running like a champ. Slowly breaking it in to get ready for Danville.

Well on my way back to work today from lunch nature decided to give us some much needed rain. Well the rain came down so hard and fast that it was collecting on the road and making it quite deep in some spots.

Well as I approached the intersection at King Tire (where I work now) there was a lot of water. Unfortunatly for me my motor took a huge gulp of it.

Hydorlocked when I got in the intersection. I was able to let it coast to King Tire.

Once I got it in the shop, pull the plugs, then crank it. Horrible tall gysers started spewing out of the cylinders. Mainly #1 of the 4.

However I hoped for the best, let it dry out and came back later. When I came back I put the plugs in and cranked it up. Took a second then it cranked up, ran a little rough for about 2-3 seconds then started to run fine for a moment. Decided to pick up the rpm just a hair, 2000 rpm to get the spark plugs firing nicely and then

BANG! Engine locks up.

Pull the plugs and find #1 at the top, 2 $ 3 in thier respective spots near the bottom and #4 completely at the bottom. I fear that some water must have damaged the connecting rod pretty bad, possibly breaking the cap or bolt or something.

So now it sits at King TIre, co-worker is gonna trailer it back to teh house tomarrow.

So now here I sit, broken hearted & very broke because I spent what I had saved to rebuild it the first time.

So my question is this, "Life when are you going to please give me good cards."

Needless to say Im out of the points race for sure and Im sure I wont back it to the next couple of events most likely.

[MR2 KIX]

Sorry to hear the bad news Shawn. Can you get a ride in a STX legal ride? Think outside the box on this one, find a car even if it is a stock legal ride and run it STX to keep up on your points.

I did this once by running a CS Miata in SM2 and was able to stay in the points race. Actually, I did quite well in the Miata and thought one of the guys was gonna protest me for not having the car prepared enough. That would have been a hoot. If there is anything I can do to help, let me know. Hang in there, better days are coming.

[IamRascal]

I need someone to help me sort out the sunfire. Got the teins on it and havn't autocrossed it with them yet. Not sure how it will do in STX but should be fairly good, since I couldn't bear having a stock diameter catalytic anymore.

Doors open if your interested.

[Chiketkd]

I'm sorry to hear this Shawn. Hope you get her fixed soon!

[hemitud]

I have heard of hydro-lock, but never first hand. I read about it on a couple neon boards, but never thought it could actually happen. I run an Iceman on my neon and the filter is about 4 inches off the ground, but it is straight up about 18" from there, so to imagine water getting through the filter and up the pipe would mean I would have to be submersed..but I still cringe to drive through standing water or even heavy rain. Believe it or not, there have been times when the weather forecast convinced me to drive the truck. Let me know if I can help out, I am glad to offer tools or an extra set of hands.

Tim

[DLingenfelter]

AEM makes a Water bypass valve that's hardly expensive and in this case would have been worth it's weight in gold. It was tested in Sport Compact magazine and even when they submerged the conical airfilter in a bucket of water on an NSX at full throttle the bypass valve stopped it from going up the air intake any further than a few inches. It's worth a look for you guys with the low mounted airfilters.

[SierraFox]

AEM makes a Water bypass valve that's hardly expensive and in this case would have been worth it's weight in gold. It was tested in Sport Compact magazine and even when they submerged the conical airfilter in a bucket of water on an NSX at full throttle the bypass valve stopped it from going up the air intake any further than a few inches. It's worth a look for you guys with the low mounted airfilters.

Problem with that is that AEM doesnt make one to fit the V2 intake or at least I havent seen one in a long long time.

[DLingenfelter]

I thought it was one of those "universal fit" parts. Universal meaning some hacking splicing may be required. In any case I hope your luck gets better and that the car gets back on the road.