I parked my car in the pouring rain for a night and got my intake filter wet with water becuase I had open 22B vents and no "box" to cover this filter. When I started the car the next morning, the car stalled itself after about a second or so. It refused to start the second time. The third time I started it again and gassed it, and then I heard a loud "BANG" and the car refused to start. I thought this may of been piston slap. After about the sixth time, the car finally started, but the idle noise was not normal... like as if it was knocking, and my friend said it might be due to the water blocking the air and losing compression. After I drove the car for a while, the car seemed fine. But I now notice that my idle noise is making a slightly louder noise of a tapping sound. I checked all my spark plugs and they look perfect. Now I am worried this loud "BANG" that I made could of been the bending of valves.

My question is, it I really did bend a valve or two, would my engine shake horribly? All I do really notice is a louder tapping sound, or is this relevant. Could this loud "bang" cause an intake manifold leak? Can the engine even start in some cases? I have heard that an intake manifold leak would cause smoke to rise which I do not have, and also, I don't notice any air leak noise... I still need to drive back from San Francisco back to San Diego....

What are the symptoms of bent valves?

I will try to see if fuel injector cleaner will do anything in the mean time...

-Vic

Did you pull out the air filter? I bet its still soaked and not letting much air through. You are better without, in this case.

If you hydrolocked the engine it won't bend valves, it'll bend rods. It's possible to have some damage and the engine still runs. Only a teardown can reveal for certain what is going on inside there.

Oh, ok, thanks all for your input so far on this, the filter as of today is dry alread, its going to rain tonight again, so I sealed up my 22B vents. I was also planning to go bring the car to the dealer for a diagnostic (probably a computer dynamic test of sort which in this case won't do much good since as Mulder stated, a teardown is needed). Keeping my fingers crossed that I can make it back. Will keep you all posted to see what happens.

I don't want to be the voice of doom here, and I hope I'm wrong, but-
The tapping could very well be from a slightly bent rod, or damaged piston and/or ring. It may run ok now but if there is underlying damage the engine could let go at any time. If I were you, I would put that thing on a flatbed and find another way home. This may suck but having a rod come through the block on your way back would suck worse.

Hey Vic! Was there any white smoke out of the tail pipe? If so that usually is a sign of hydrolock.

I-speed was wondering who's white subaru was in their lot. You should of called them first.

it was a saturday night when i made it back there, got there at 11 at night, some random fools were in the back lot inside a old beater up to no good... :D but I called the shop the next morning and they helped me out....

there was no white smoke, only while it was cold, the car ran 290 miles down @22mpg passed Bakersfield right before grapevine when it went. The only malnormality is the louder ticking noise from the inside of the motor compared to before the hydrolock incident. I blew the engine when I was cruising and went from "-200mm/HG" backpressure into "-50mm/HG" backpressure. The engine choked, grey smoke came from the exhaust pipe, then smoke from the hood, and oil pierced through the seals on my hood scoop. The rod broke in half and shot up towards the head and of course the piston flopped. I-speed tore the head open and saw that luckily it had only knicked one valve, they could buff it back to normal. I was lucky, that's all I can say, it could of been way worse and total SOL. They said it might of been because I shut off the car ASAP.

I would of really tried to get a way to autocarrier it, but i just didn't have the time to arrange, and the money niether. Either way, its alot of money now. I-speed is selling me their 2003 ej20 shortblock for a good deal though.

120,096mi R.I.P. ej18...

i had allstate premium towing service, so it was worth my gamble since, the towing will give me, room, food, and rental car. Except I did not know they won't cover for that $125 CALL BOX charge... I didn't even know too