The L is in the shop and I went Friday to check up on it... new head... new tranny and some other stuff.

Service writer says he wants to talk to me and show me something... we walk to the truck up on the lift and points to the ram air intake under the bumper... Tells me he knows that I put this on and gave me a warning about it being a scoop for water... Apparently someone recently had one and sucked water into the motor and toasted it... said he went round and round with the guys insurance company and they finally paid for the motor but says he's seen this before and wanted to warn me of pending danger...

Now... I've had this one for well over a year and though ton's of rainy days... I try not to go out but sometimes you just get stuck in the rain and in Texas... it can be a lot of rain in a short time... When that happens... I keep my foot out of it and drive cautiously... If I get splashed I take my foot off immediately... common sense stuff...

Here's my question... has anyone had trouble with theirs and do you drive it in the rain???

 

I drive mine in the rain with no problem. I do avoid deep standing water. That could pose a huge problem.

 

he does have a point. i read an article in Sport Compact Car a while back about that being a problem with a lot of ram air setups. something about the intake creating a vacuum that sucks up water more than you think. they had this huge machine show you how much the water rises from the vacuum created by the intake....showed it on an nsx too i think

it can be a problem. however i know a lot of guys on this board who run a "ram air" type setup with a scoop under the truck, etc. never seen any problems.

it also depends on ground clearance,etc.

i would not go splashing in the puddles though...

 

On "HorsePowerTV" on TNN, when they did their Honda buildup, they installed a ram air setup on it. I remember them putting in a piece that went inline with all the piping. The idea was if anything blocked the ram air (water, leaves, small rodents, etc) it would then draw air in from this other filter. I'll see if I can find a pic of what it looked like.

With that said, I ran a homemade ram setup on my stock box. Had a 3" tube sucking air in from behind the front lower grill. I drove through some pretty nasty rain on a couple occasions. There was only the slightest hint of water in the box.

 

I drive in pouring rain and snow all the time and have'nt had a problem with my home made set up ???

I have also heard that water being sucked in can make motor go Boom though

 

I alos remember on a ricer program where a guy had a small plastic plate that went over the ram air intake to prevent this stuff from having a direct shot... aka "up yours"

It was a clamp on and off device that could attach easily for those rainy days...

I gotta say... I've run mine for over a year... a couple of times on serious rain days... I've looked at the air filter to see if it was indeed wet... nope... dry as a bone...

I'm just curious to see if anyone has had trouble.

 

Theres a difference between ram air and fresh air

I don't think anybody has a ram air set up on their truck. Ram air being an enclosed box with hoses running to the front of the truck.
Most people have air ducted to the open air filter, which draws its air from the surrounding area, so anything being directed to the area isn't forced into the intake.

btw, after driving for 16 hrs in the pouring rain driving to Fla, I checked my air filter and it was dry, with my setup
PSP FastAir

 

No problems here Like Gator said...No vacume...no problem

 

Actually... lots of us have the ram air... mine is from JLP and it does go directly to the box and not an open air filter...

Scoop

 

Pipe


Air box

 

tell your service writer for me -

" R A M T H I S "

 

I hear that...

But in all honesty... he was just trying to help out. Understand that I have mods on this thing that I did not take off and there hasn't been one single question...

I am happy.

 

Just an FYI, taking your foot off the gas if you hit deep water won't help, you'll still hydrolock big time.

 

The ONLY DAMN WAY you will hydolock the engine is by nosediving into a DEEEEEP puddle at an excessive rate of speed. If it happens, then said driver's ignorant *** damn well deserves it for driving too fast and not paying attention.

Why you ask?

The JL/PSP and many DIY 'ram' air kits are NOT enclosed systems, hence not enough vaccum to snort said liquid.

Either the service monkey/dealership is of the anti-mod mentality, the guy had an enclosed system, and/or performed a puddle dive.

Ask him if he can successfully take a swig off his Big Gulp using a straw in one corner of his mouth while keeping the opposite corner of his mouth open.

...just my .02

edit

The pic posted above might is darn close to an enclosed system. Be cognicent of that my friend.

 

Actually Bob, its quite easy to Hydralock these motors is somone gets completely stupid with a water injection kit. Some people think bigger jets are better