If anyone has any concerns about driving through heavy rain with a Vararam installed, don't!

We had the most hellacious rain storm here in Miami yesterday and I was caught in the middle of it. Drove for about 30 miles in rain so hard you could hardly see. Was literally pushing water with the spoiler(car lowered 1-inch). Never skipped a beat. Whew!!!!

Scott

 

Glad to hear Scott. I just changed out my Vortex for the new Vararam. I watched that storm from the comfort of my garage, swapping tires on my son's EVO. Don't forget if your into Drag Racing Sept. 4th is the Corvette Challenge at Moroso.
Bob

 

I would not drive my Corvette in heavy rain if I had a Vararam. Common sense after looking at the design would tell you that driving the car in heavy rain is a no no

 

Sometimes, you don't have a choice. The rain around my area comes up really quick and pops up out of nowhere! You can leave your house with clear skies and the next thing you know, its storming like nobody's business BTW, I have the Vararam as well and have had no issues with torrential downpours. I had the Vortex before that. Believe me, I watched this forum for quite a while before buying a bottom breather to make sure there weren't any issues anyone was having with water ingestion. The only common sense you need is to not drive into a puddle that comes up to your centercaps of your wheels.

 

Glenn not to go against you on this but, after looking at the design and then installing it on my car common sense says "rain will not be an issue".
Bob

 

My son in law has a Vararam on his 98 conv. He has driven is some very hard rain, with no problems.

 

Good to hear!

 

Good to hear this. Been thinking about getting a Vararam one of these days.

 

Well Glenn, tell you what, you stay parked in the garage. Myself and the rest will be out driving


Scott

 

I wouldn't worry about rain. Drove a car the Halltech bottom-breather in all sorts of heavy rain without any problems. I would, however, be very careful about standing water - the hydrolock issues I have heard about (one by a personal friend) have happened while driving s-l-o-w-l-y through standing water deep enough to be ingested.

 

I guess what I was really saying is that MY choice would be NOT to install a Vararam on a car that gets driven in rain. My car never does so it's ok.

NOW, if I did have Vararam and got caught in rain, I would park the car oppossed to testing my luck with hydrolocking the LS1.

 

That's fine with me. I have other vehicles for those rainy days, no need to stay parked.

Sometimes I wonder why I answer these post when all you seem to get anymore are wise azz answers. Sorry I chimed in guys!

Ask REDGAR in the Northeast section about VaraRam and water.

By the way, if you were pushing water away with the front of your car, you were inches from hydrolocking the engine.

Do as you please, I would stay parked rather than test my luck!

Fortuantely the Corvette is just oine of 4 vehicles in the garage here.

 

My Corvette is my daily driver. Not all of us have 4 cars sitting in the garage. If you never drove in the rain in Miami, you would never drive.
And you got a wise azz answer because of the tone of your post.

Scott

 

Well, the thing (VaraRam) IS designed to suck in cold air right out front form those low openings, so if you're pushing water with the nose of the car, well, there's the common sense part.

The thing is a great design for air intake, BUT when the air is replaced by water, it can and WILL get costly.

All I was and am saying.

 

I too have the Vararam and also drove in the same ultra heavy downpour as Rattler71 and had no problem at all.I have driven in many heavy downpours and have never had a problem.I also keep my car in a garage and have NO problem opening it and going for a drive.....yes in the rain.....Vararam rocks

 

Glenn my hydrolock was not with the Vararam. It was with the open k&n type setup. It was also not really a driving situation as much as a dropping the car into a huge hole and splashing the water up over the fenders exiting someplace where I was unfamiliar with where this type of dip was.

 

Not to go against you again but, Edgar was NOT using a Vararam when he hydrolocked. By the way I asked him.
Bob

 

I have driven my Z06 4 different times now in pouring down rain for 2 hours at a time and have not had one problem. I'm not talking your typical rain shower. I mean severe storms where I had to have to wipers on full blast just to see.

 

The Vararam intake is a proven system in which potential water ingestion has been taken into consideration during the design. The drain holes in the bottom of the ducting has been strategically located to ensure water drainage and with the up ramp duct design, it would take a pretty good volume of water to make it all the way up through the filter and into the intake. What little water does make it through the filter, is dispersed into smaller droplets of water that won't harm the engine if ingested. Shoot, motors in the old fighter planes used to incorporate water injection and as a matter of fact, I used water injection in an old Firebird I had once. Its the large volume of water situation that hydrolocks motors and you're just not going to get it simply driving through the rain, not even during a heavy downpour. Its not that it takes a large volume going into the cylinders to hydrolock, as you can hydrolock a motor on just a tablespoon of water but what I meant is that to get that tablespoon, a much larger volume would have to be present at the air intake. The volume of water that it takes to hydrolock a motor you're only going to get if you bury the nose into a deep puddle. And if you do that, you're going to have other problems to worry about, like the PCM! Granted, the PCM is quite a bit less than a motor, but my point is, people driving a stock C5 should be avoiding those situations anyway.

 

Me Too