Recently, I took my 00 OBW down an old logging road just to see whats down there. After passing through a 40 foot long puddle at 15-20 mph, I realized the road was blocked by rocks. So, within a minute or so I turned around and went back through the puddle and on my way out the engine stopped...to make a long story short the engine sucked up water. I pulled the plugs and cranked the engine and all is now fine. What happened is, Subaru made 3 water traps on the plastic intake tubing with small drain holes to let the water drain out once collected. Since I went through so much water in so little time the traps filled up the first time through the puddle, and then were overwhelmed by water the 2nd time through...MY QUESTION IS: Would it be wise to drill out the drainholes in the plastic intake tubing? I would probably double their size to prevent this from happening again. Either that or stay off the back roads??? (sniff).

 

http://www.smresto.com/carpuddle.jpg

i'd make the drain holes bigger,why deny your subie(an you) the joy of being offroad:banana:

build a snorkel.......or slow down ........I offroad my '03 outback alot .....

Get a lift that will help. I've been through some deep puddles and no problem ....I am lifted 2" plus have a custom CAI ("Ganzflow style 3" into the fender with no problems yet..

 

Well, it looks like I "lucked out" as far as engine damage...all looks to be in good shape. I noticed that the intake drain holes are progressively smaller as they near the filter. I doubled the size of each one and hope I get to find some big puddles again. Thanks for the posts.

i'll have to take that into consideration, there's some big 'puddles' around here i've played around in, but never had that problem. i guess it could happen though.