water in the air intake MCS supercharger

[aid]

Did anybody else read the sunday mail last weekend i was shocked by the article with reguards to a women who is in a fight with douglas parks mini and elephant insurance

apparently there is a problem with the mini cooper s when water gets into the air intake and flood the engine blowing the valves

aparenltly the problem occurs when driving through a large puddle or when driving behind another car in the rain and the spray gets into your air intake and runs into the super charger in take

mini are refusing to fix it under warranty as they say its not mechanical

anybody had this problem or know of a way to prevent it???????

[Paul]

This is not an MCS thread, but here's something similar: Water damage to engine - air intake susceptible to sucking in water

[aid]

cheers for the link

the links answers most of the questions but in the case in the paper the insurance firm are refusing to pay up and are saying its not covered by the policy so it sounds like they have wised up to this problem and are doing there usal and making sure we are covered for nothing

[TimCrighton]

Seen it on the MC rather than the MCS. The distance between the filter and the T/B on the MC is very short, and straight, and particularly when running an induction kit this is not an uncommon problem (We've had a couple of cars suffer it, and it was 'known' to the dealers we work closely with. Your MINI is not under warranty if you drive it through water more than 3 inches deep anyway IRC whether an MC or MCS (R50 and 53). What happens is water is inducted and can't be compressed and damage occurs to the valves on compression.

[PmP]

My next door neighbour, had a similar problem. She flooded her Cooper engine going through a large puddle and had to fork out £4k for a new engine.

I agree with Mini on that, not a faulty part or anything. Havent read the article tho.

[TimCrighton]

The engines can be rebuilt as whilst it bends the valves it generally doesn't damage the guides. the problem with most dealers is that rather than replace the component parts they simply change the lump as they 1. haven't got the ability to rebuild it 2. the labour cost in doing so makes it uneconomic. Shame as other than this problem the engines are very strong.

[Goonery]

The MCS intercooler scoop likes water in moderation, spray from vehicles improves the air temperature and make is denser, which in turn makes the blower work more efficiently. Alta make a system that puts water mist into your intercooler. I would not advise driving through deep water in a Cooper unless you stuff a plastic bag in the intake first so it does not gulp it up.
If you insist on fording every stream make sure the intake lower pipe is disconneted so the hoovering effect comes from in the engine bay rather than the front of the grille.

[rec]

one of our guys killed his Cooper with hydrostatic lock. it can happen on pretty much any car, not just a MINI !

[TimCrighton]

It can indeed although its a more common problem on the MC due to the design of in the inlet. Any car can theortically run water injection as mentioned above but its a very different system to inducting water by driving through a puddle!!! Water injection (which commonly uses methanol as well) is injected into the inlet tract as a very very fine mist which cools the IAT but also effectly increases compression ratio without risk of damage due to the reduced temps. Its most commonly used on big power forced induction cars, indeed we've run on a WRC car before in combination with Anti-Lag.

[Silent1]

It seems to be following the idea of being able to draw cold engine from the bottom of the engine bay rather that the hot air under the bonnet the only downside is that it can cause a lot of problems with puddles/floods, IIRC the peugot 206 is worst for it as it seems to be mounted at the lowest point on the bumper