Procharged Z with 15psi pulley and 11psi wastegate setup got water into intercooler, all piping, engine and exhaust. How? Any suggestions?

Back in July 2008 on a sunny day(It rained really hard the night before), my girlfriend and I hopped in my 350z and was getting ready to drive to Ocean City for the weekend. Started driving out of my apartment community and the car started to "choke". It felt like it was cutting fuel on me. So I pulled over and let the car sit for a while. I tried to crank up the car again but the car would not crank at all!!! I've had this "choking" issue before and Dave Shiroma from Function:Tuned had driven all the way to my apartment complex to fix the issue. It was a weird A/F ratio issue. But it's different this time. It would not crank at all. So the car was towed to Function:Tuned for further diagnosis.

After going through a couple things, Dave found out my car was filled with water. The intercooler, the piping, the exhaust, etc, etc. Now the main concerned was if the water got into the motor. And it sure did! After taking the motor apart, water was everywhere and it also caused a rod to bent. Dave and I thought through a lot of ways to fix this(note that I was on tight budget). Finally we went with swapping out the short block from another motor and did some clean up of my motor. The car was fixed and running again by around mid September!

The car then was shipped to a body shop and got some work done. I just got the car back last week and I am still very paranoid about the incident. Can anyone suggest any possible causes of the water issue?

A few things that I want to point out. I did not have fender liner installed on the driver side. I did not have the plastic under tray to cover the bottom of the engine bay area. I had a wide open aftermarket front bumper(Look at picture below).

 

If you ingested water, then there was a route of entry... Identifying the route of entry would seem like a good place to start. Are you saying you did not drive through a puddle?

 

I don't recall driving through a puddle. But that past couple weeks did rain a lot and I did drive my car in the rain. The engine and piping was FILLED with water. That's why we couldn't come up with a possible explanation for it.

 

the intake on the procharger is right where that vent is on your bumper. I would bet the procharger just sucked it all in.over a few rainy days.

 

The side vent on the driver side right?

 

Yes, your filter will be soaked.When I was procharged I got into a bad rain on the freeway.When i got home idle was rough.So i checked the filter & it was soaked.I got lucky just dried out the filter.And it was fine.

 

Does the intake face forward, backward or downward? I'm thinking if my missing under tray and fender liner have anything to do with it.

 

Off topic, but what is an rx-8 doing trying to blend in with all the other z's in the background?

 

I don't think driving in the rain would be sufficient to allow water ingestion to any appreciable degree. You have to eliminate the capacity to ingest air before the engine will ingest water (i.e. submerged) otherwise the air will offer less resistance and be preferentially drawn in (snorkel effect). Now if water is pouring in via gravity, that could be an issue that you might want to address (angle the filter and piping down).

 

Here is a pic of my Z when it was procharged you can see the air intake in the pic. And If you have ever owned a procharger you know the suck a lot of air even at idle. If you are running the bypass back into the intake, you can not adjust it. Because of the bypass valve is a straight shot to the Air filter.
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i highly suggest you drive with your under panel and fender liners if your Z is a daily.

 

Thanks for the info!

I don't DD my car anymore. I'm still asking around about your suggestion on a head gasket issue. I'm planning on putting the fender liners back and custom make an under panel. Hopefully the same water issue won't happen again.

 

Sorry for going OT, but what front bumper is that? It looks like the C-West kit for many others cars like the S2K, etc, but C-West doesn't make that kit for the Z.

 

That is the Sarona front bumper.

Hmmm... I guess I'm going OT myself. But I got the bumper repaired and shaved the nostril looking vents recently and here're the before and after pictures.

Before


After


One more pic..

 

I personally like the 'after' pics. Looks cleaner IMO. I think it may look even better with a 07+ hood so it wouldn't have the lines on the hood leading up to...nothing on the bumper. Know what I mean?

In any event, very nice Z man. Hopefully everything checks out fine with your motor.

 

Thanks man.

Yea I definitely like after a lot more. It costs me quite a bit to get it shaved and all that but it's worth it in the end. Plus I can now proudly say no one else has the same bumper as me I'm planning on purchasing a carbon fiber hood. But I'm still debating what style I want to go with in order to keep the clean look on the front end.

 

What happened to your black-housing headlights? Just wanted to change it up?

 

Yup just wanted to change things up a bit. I swapped them with another Z owner in my area + a little cash. I'm still thinking about what to do with the current set of headlights. Might have CINcity do some custom work? Or maybe just have them tinted black.

 

Tinted black would look great IMO

 

I read your other thread .. IMHO with the amount of water in the car, there is no way driving in the rain would have done that. The only thing that I can think of is that someone either hooked up a hose to the intake or you submerged the car in a pond