oooommmmggg went offroadin today and kept up with a lifted silverado..went through verrrryyy hardcore stuff in my stock 97obw. these mud trenches full of water that came up over my hood!!!! and it freakin made it through with little momentum~ then i looked over at the rednecks and all of their jaws were on the ground! i HIGHLY under estimated this car! tons of uphill mud climbs, and down hill flexing was done with ease! everyone with autos just manually put it into 1 and punch it going into a mud pit with tons of water. would have done muuuch better if i didnt have worn street tires( after thick mud filled them they lost a ton of traction) ok all of this said i had to go get a 8 buck car wash so my parents wouldent find out.. it cleaned most of it real good, but the engine compartment is covered red mud( from that awsome mud puddle that came over my hood)~ any tips on cleaning this.. also did my air filter and intake take in all of this water when it came up over my hood??~PS this black plastic thing also fell off the underbody of my car looked like a skidplate or sumtin.... was this thing important?

Only way to tell if the intake sucked in water is if the air filter is wet, or discolored, a quick test after the mud puddle is if it bogs down a fair amount, i got through a hole and got my filter wet, by the end i could only turn 1000 rpm.

 

As for the black skid plate, its important if you plan on offroading again, maybe its time to upgrade to a aluminum one, it'll be hard to hide the offroad action from your parents if there's a rock through the oil pan.

I clean my engine compartment with the high pressure wand at the car wash. That should take the mud off. You do run the risk that it won't start till it dries out, from blasting water into electronics, but I've done this with two different EA82 subarus, and they both start right back up with no trouble. So does my truck, but it's an old mechanical diesel, so it doesn't have any electronics.:-p

 

If it still runs, I'd say you didn't get any into the air cleaner. You could check just to be sure.

I clean my engine compartment with the high pressure wand at the car wash. That should take the mud off. You do run the risk that it won't start till it dries out, from blasting water into electronics, but I've done this with two different EA82 subarus, and they both start right back up with no trouble. So does my truck, but it's an old mechanical diesel, so it doesn't have any electronics.:-p

 

If it still runs, I'd say you didn't get any into the air cleaner. You could check just to be sure.

 

feels normal.. what about grease lightning on the engine?? or would that eat into the hoses and things.. again what a freakin car!= red necks after i went through that mud puddle(wasent luck either, i went through it 4 times:banana:)