Stock Airbox, Water Ingression, Hydrolocking, etc
11-02-2008, 12:45 PM
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Stock Airbox, Water Ingression, Hydrolocking, etc
Hey guys,
Has anyone looked at the root cause for the ingression issue when blasting through puddles, or light fording with the Wrangler?
Let me preface this by, this obviously is not a replacement for a Great Pro Snorkel like River Raider or AEV has or this will not work for a CAI.
I try not to blast through ditches or large puddles but, hey at my core I am a little kid and you know what hey do in water.
Yesterday at Rausch Creek going through a water ditch I have been through a bunch of times before, I injested water big time. I knew what happened, the second it happened and kept the RPM's up and although misfire and sputtering it cleared the water without damage (whew)!
Looking at the mudtrail, Water Injestion for the stock box seems to come from the Top following the hood across. Meaning is sprays up into the hood and maybe due to the rotational direction of the belt it sprays hard towards the box. My use of an aftermarket front valance skid plate actually allows much more water to spray up then would be with the OEM plastic piece.
Looking at the hood, it hits up and straight for the intake
Subsequently pouring into the air intake (my KN actually makes it worse again since the high flow allows more water to pass)
Anyway, straight shot in.
So, I fabricated a spray-shield over the stock opening, which should curve the water away and out. The problem seems really to be water coming from the top down and not bottom up. Obviously for Fording it would ingress bottom up but, this is for spray.
Using some old plenium duct material from behind a dahboard of a old mustang. I cut, heated and set this up. It almost resembles an "S" and only allows the air to enter from the bottom. In theory water should not be able to enter from the spray.
It really was pretty straight forward just, heating the platic to match the stock opening. Then plastic welding the parts together. The "shiny" black is Ford Liquid Butyl sealer that is used for windsheilds and I went over all the seams with it. It dries not shiny but, it was still wet when taking the pics.
I have not noticed any lack-loss of performance.
This is still an experiment and I will be down at GWNF next week and really see if any water ingreses into the box.
I'll keep you informed how it worked out in a real-world test but, it might be something simple for us to do if you are worried about sucking water in.
Has anyone looked at the root cause for the ingression issue when blasting through puddles, or light fording with the Wrangler?
Let me preface this by, this obviously is not a replacement for a Great Pro Snorkel like River Raider or AEV has or this will not work for a CAI.
I try not to blast through ditches or large puddles but, hey at my core I am a little kid and you know what hey do in water.
Yesterday at Rausch Creek going through a water ditch I have been through a bunch of times before, I injested water big time. I knew what happened, the second it happened and kept the RPM's up and although misfire and sputtering it cleared the water without damage (whew)!
Looking at the mudtrail, Water Injestion for the stock box seems to come from the Top following the hood across. Meaning is sprays up into the hood and maybe due to the rotational direction of the belt it sprays hard towards the box. My use of an aftermarket front valance skid plate actually allows much more water to spray up then would be with the OEM plastic piece.
Looking at the hood, it hits up and straight for the intake
Subsequently pouring into the air intake (my KN actually makes it worse again since the high flow allows more water to pass)
Anyway, straight shot in.
So, I fabricated a spray-shield over the stock opening, which should curve the water away and out. The problem seems really to be water coming from the top down and not bottom up. Obviously for Fording it would ingress bottom up but, this is for spray.
Using some old plenium duct material from behind a dahboard of a old mustang. I cut, heated and set this up. It almost resembles an "S" and only allows the air to enter from the bottom. In theory water should not be able to enter from the spray.
It really was pretty straight forward just, heating the platic to match the stock opening. Then plastic welding the parts together. The "shiny" black is Ford Liquid Butyl sealer that is used for windsheilds and I went over all the seams with it. It dries not shiny but, it was still wet when taking the pics.
I have not noticed any lack-loss of performance.
This is still an experiment and I will be down at GWNF next week and really see if any water ingreses into the box.
I'll keep you informed how it worked out in a real-world test but, it might be something simple for us to do if you are worried about sucking water in.
11-02-2008, 06:12 PM
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Interesting bit of observation you have done. I actually considered throwing a cut-off switch onto the fan motor for water crossings, as it seemed to me that the electric fan might be throwing up some water. I'll keep an eye on your progress as well.
11-03-2008, 05:30 AM
#4
I think you're right about the fan spray. I do my limited crossings slowly as those that wheel with me can attest; however, I still get the same affect on the hood.
