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Old April 5th, 2020, 11:33 AM   #1
nocturncal
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My Air Intake Box Got Wet Inside While Riding In the Rain

Anyone have this happen? It's raining pretty bad in San Francisco and I had to go from SF to Oakland, and my motorcycle started loosing power half way through the journey past 1/4 throttle but I was able to maintain 45 mph speed. I made it home.

I took my air filter off and my air box got wet inside, my filter is damp, there's water droplets all over the intake. Water was on both sides of the filter, leading to the motor and the side that sucks air in. I'm assuming the motor wasn't getting enough air.

I'm drying it out now, but is there anything I should do? Concerned about hydrolocking (don't know much about it) but the motor still runs.
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Old April 25th, 2020, 08:14 PM   #2
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Have you had any problems with the bike after the rain?
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Old April 25th, 2020, 11:33 PM   #3
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I've thought about this, but haven't actually had issues. Take look at where snorkel of air-box gets its air, right next to fender-edge where splashed water would accumulate. I've thought about moving snorkel to centre of airbus, far away from edges. But again, haven't had issues on my commutes or many, many rain-days and races at track. I suspect biggest danger is hitting large puddles which may splash A LOT of water up at one time.
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Old April 26th, 2020, 06:51 AM   #4
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I've thought about this, but haven't actually had issues. Take look at where snorkel of air-box gets its air, right next to fender-edge where splashed water would accumulate. I've thought about moving snorkel to centre of airbus, far away from edges. But again, haven't had issues on my commutes or many, many rain-days and races at track. I suspect biggest danger is hitting large puddles which may splash A LOT of water up at one time.
I was thinking about it too, I get a lot of rain out here in oklahoma. I looked into preventative stuff and there is a screen made for after market car cold air intakes. it basically looks like a lacy sock that you slip over your intake filter. I am considering modding one to fit over my newgen snorkel.

Here is a pic I found of one. I wouldn't have any problems hitting a good puddle around my area. When I order one and mod it I'll do a test and see if it works out.
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Old April 26th, 2020, 08:56 AM   #5
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Engines don't mind a fair amount of water getting sucked in if they're running and warmed up. If the water clogs up the air filter, that's obviously a problem, but I have to wonder if the filter was dirty at the time, making it worse than it normally would have been. Is it a stock foam filter?

Hydrolock happens when the engine is not running and enough liquid gets into the combustion chamber to nearly or completely fill it when the piston is at the top. It won't happen to a running engine unless the engine goes underwater.

Do you think the problem could have been that the spark plug wires got wet and were arcing to ground somewhere, making you lose spark intermittently on one cylinder? That's a lot more common than a little water in the intake causing power loss.
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Old April 26th, 2020, 09:52 AM   #6
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Many Porsche 944 engines have been destroyed by hydrolocking after hitting big puddles. Air intake is out by left-front tyre. You end up with bent or broken con-rods. Don’t have to completely fill cylinder; but just enough to raise compression to high enough levels to resist other cylinders.
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Old April 26th, 2020, 05:31 PM   #7
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Many Porsche 944 engines have been destroyed by hydrolocking after hitting big puddles. Air intake is out by left-front tyre. You end up with bent or broken con-rods. Don’t have to completely fill cylinder; but just enough to raise compression to high enough levels to resist other cylinders.
Yup, that also happened to my first tiburon, I threw on a whole bunch of ricer stuff, including a clod air intake, first puddle I hit in a big rain trashed my motor. It wasn't a massive deep one either,, just a constant stream of water being thrown up into the engine bay. I never put on an aftermarket intake after that.
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Old April 26th, 2020, 07:57 PM   #8
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Many Porsche 944 engines have been destroyed by hydrolocking after hitting big puddles. Air intake is out by left-front tyre. You end up with bent or broken con-rods. Don’t have to completely fill cylinder; but just enough to raise compression to high enough levels to resist other cylinders.
Ha... I guess if you try hard enough to get a slug of water directly in the intake, it can happen. It won't from rain getting into a Ninja 250's air intake though unless a couple hours worth gets in all at once.
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Old April 26th, 2020, 09:46 PM   #9
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I suppose this may be an issue Kawasaki engineers tested, they do build massive ships. I've never had issues with commuting in rain or many days @ track in rain. In Cal's case, it appears to be worse case scenario with hitting massive puddle. And that didn't appear to cause any problems. Water was trapped by filter and engine wasn't damaged.
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Old May 9th, 2020, 12:38 AM   #10
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Have you had any problems with the bike after the rain?
bike runs fine now
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Old May 9th, 2020, 12:41 AM   #11
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Originally Posted by Triple Jim View Post
Engines don't mind a fair amount of water getting sucked in if they're running and warmed up. If the water clogs up the air filter, that's obviously a problem, but I have to wonder if the filter was dirty at the time, making it worse than it normally would have been. Is it a stock foam filter?

Hydrolock happens when the engine is not running and enough liquid gets into the combustion chamber to nearly or completely fill it when the piston is at the top. It won't happen to a running engine unless the engine goes underwater.

Do you think the problem could have been that the spark plug wires got wet and were arcing to ground somewhere, making you lose spark intermittently on one cylinder? That's a lot more common than a little water in the intake causing power loss.
I've got a K&N filter, and had just cleaned it <300 mi ago

It's possible that the wires could have gotten wet. There were water droplets that got into both spark plug holes. Though prior to this, I put dielectric grease on both ends on where the wires connect

I ended up drying the air filter, lightly re oiling it. I sprayed WD-40 down both spark plug holes to dry them out, them changed my oil.
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Old May 9th, 2020, 12:46 AM   #12
nocturncal
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I suppose this may be an issue Kawasaki engineers tested, they do build massive ships. I've never had issues with commuting in rain or many days @ track in rain. In Cal's case, it appears to be worse case scenario with hitting massive puddle. And that didn't appear to cause any problems. Water was trapped by filter and engine wasn't damaged.
Yeah, thank goodness nothing bad happened. Scary when it happened tho, I thought I was gone be stranded on the bay bridge in a heavy downpour
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Old May 9th, 2020, 12:17 PM   #13
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Yeah, thank goodness nothing bad happened. Scary when it happened tho, I thought I was gone be stranded on the bay bridge in a heavy downpour


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Old May 10th, 2020, 10:31 PM   #14
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Yup, that also happened to my first tiburon.
Doesnt help thread, but a Tibby owner/ afficianado here! WOOT WOOT!



Anyways, if it helps, i learned the hard way to keep the engine running, if it got wet. Not to turn it off, but let it run until it runs better. Assuming I am way too late though. ( mine was pressure washing near engine, while cold, rather than keep the motor running, if spraying near engine. Something about if sparkplugs get wet. I could be in the wrong. Just future reference, if the bike runs horrible, after getting wet, dont shut it off, until AFTER it runs better.
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