Whats hydro lock and do rotorys have to worry about it?

 

Never heard of Hydro Lock, have heard of Carbon Lock and its a big worry on old rotaries.

 

Hydro-lock is where water or vapor finds it's way into the combustion chamber. It's a priority on Honda's and cars like that because the CAI(cold air intake) whcih is popular, reaches down into the fender well and has the possibility of sucking up water if you went through a deep puddle.

As for a rotary, I would think the problem might be the same, but maybe not. Our engines run so hot it might evaporate the water before it can do damage, and anyways I don't think they make CAI's for us that stick in the fender well.

 

Pressurized-

I don't think they make CAI's for us that stick in the fender well.



oh yeah... hehe mines does, but i'm not too worried because my home made cia routes into the stock box si it would need to be sucking up a lot of water. as for my brother, he's got a lot to be worried about. let me see if i've got a picture...

 

Water does not compress. If you happen to somehow ingest a lot of water, like driving into a flooded street or something, you risk hydro-lock.
On a piston engine, it will bend or break the rod in extreme cases as the water in the cylinder essentially stops the movement of the piston.
One would assume that the same thing could happen to a rotary, with equally bad results......
I'd imagine broken apex seals and/or bent shafts would be the result.

 

You would have to suck in a ton of water to worry about it on a 3rd gen, most would get stuck in the intercooler and be turned into a mist long before it made it all the way to the rotory.

Dan