ehh. wrong. hydro lock can only happen when one thing happens. Your intake sux up ALOT of water, as it is completely submerged in it. Think of it this way, what are your pistons doing, compressing air and gas. Well, if you fill up that entire space with water, well, guess what, BOOM. Water is extremelly hard to compress, and our simple metals cant handle the stress of trying to compress water, so pistons snap, spin around, poking holes in the engine block.

A bypass valve is exactly what it says it is, its a valve, or a series of them. The foam on the valve acts as a filter, not to absorb water and allow it to evaporate. Underneath the foam there are rubber valves that open when there is a certain amount of pressure, such as water being sucked up through the air filter and into the intake. Water is more dense than air, its harder for the intake to suck the water up, so boom, the valves open, let non saturated air in, and the water falls out the bottom. Wow rocket science is amazing.

Its worth getting a bypass valve, screw the few horsepower you loose from it, you wont feel a difference anyway. Yes, the chances of you running into a big puddle are small, but there still there. I used to say the same thing. "It never rains that hard here in GA. Theres never any big puddles." Well 3 months of lots of hard work in my girlfriends basement (mostly waiting for parts), a new motor, and almost 2 grand later, i've changed my thinking. But hey, at least it got my girlfriend into cars more, since she watched me do all the work. Now shes got plenty of aftermarket parts on her integra and now shes given me a budget to build her a turbo kit. So for me, besides the frustration and long hours, it was kinda worth it. But I don't think many others have been so lucky.

In short, get a bypass valve, its kinda like a condom and most of the people on this board: The oppurtunity to use one does not arise much, but when it does and its not there, your screwed, or lack there of in this puns case.