Engine is dead. Hydrolocked with water in 2 cylinders and no chance of turning over. Until it's fully dismantled I won't know if a rod is bent. I'm going to need a new engine or a new car. Thank god my parents are helping me with this or I'd be screwed.

Just thought I'd give everyone a heads up... kind of a rough time with this and my personal life right now... really a bummer.

Hope all is well for the best outcome to get you back on the road!

Thanks Henry

Ouch! Sorry to hear Lyssa. Hope you get back on the road soon. Are you looking at rebuilding, getting into another mazda, or something else?

That sucks, hopefully the motor survived. Made sure the oil is drained and replaced before it completelly rusts out.

It all depends on what SCR says... My parents have agreed to help me get a new motor from Mazda, I'd just have to pay them back when I could. That will probably be the best option for me right now. I love this car... Blood, sweat and tears have been put into this car. It's gotten me through a hell of a lot more than the 26k I put on the odometer.

Does anyone have a stock MZ3 intake I could borrow? I might be able to get insurance to cover this.

No bueno!!!! Where did it happen? And I'm sure the guys at SCR will get you back on your feet (tires).

Here's the sordid story:

I'm heading to my buddy's place to go hang out. I notice that the engine isn't working quite right (tach is bouncing the car is lurching a bit). I try and keep it under a certain RPM range to see if that helps and it does for a bit but then it doesn't. I call my friend and pull over to the side of the road. He comes, tows me to his shop and pulls the CAI filter off the car to let it dry out. He said that water just got into the filter and it needed to dry.

We let it dry for a few hours and we go and take it out to see what it will do. By this time, rain had begun to puddle and we drove through a puddle... my car stopped working. We got towed back to his shop and we pulled the plugs... water in two cylinders and only 120 degrees of rotation out of the engine. I promptly lose it.

Now, my car is at his shop. I'm trying to see if SCR can get someone up there to take it to their shop so we can pull the head and see what's going on. They're busy today though... so we will see if they can pull it off for me.

Yikes, that's horrible. Did you somehow get your intake too deep into some standing water, or...?

Either way, I hope it works out in the end for you!

EDIT: Nevermind... you just answered.

Much sympathy, bellalyssa. Here's hoping you're back up and running soon.

I guess the bright side is that I'll be getting a shiny new engine from Mazda with 0 miles on it... yay for contingencies

Wow, I'm very sorry to hear it. I've been in your situation a few times back in the day, popped a couple motors, busted a couple transmissions ect, it's a rough time for sure. Hope you can get it sorted out.

While this is a bad situation, at the same time, if you so desired, this would be a good time to throw in a set of forged internals into the new motor.... high compression if you want to stay N/A, or low compression if you want to boost it later. I'm sure that's not the first thing on your mind, but figured I would mention it in order to possibly get something positive out of a negative situation.

With that said, good luck getting it put back together and let us know if you need a hand with anything.

Depending on who does the work, I know people that can source a performance Mazda3 engine for the price of a refurb. That's the road I will probably take but I won't know for sure for a few days. I called my insurance and made a comprehensive claim so I have to wait for it to be looked at. A friend who used to build engines thinks I may not even need a new one since the cylinder wasn't completely filled with water, but we will only be able to tell after pulling the engine apart.

Wish me luck guys!!! Here's hoping that I only spend my deductible for a new engine!

Good luck! I hope this works out for you.

What is your opinion of CAI's now after this event? It might be too early to ask, but do you think this is like a 1 in a million chance of happening?