Engine CAI - Dont Worry about Water

CAI - Don't Worry about Water

I was reading some discussions about the different kinds of intakes, and kept seeing people saying they chose the ram air because they were afraid of water getting into their engines. Well, I have an AEM CAI with no bypass valve, so I'm sucking in air way down behind the fog light. Many months ago, I was driving late at night and ran over two rabbits, who completely screwed over the plastic underneath my engine compartment. So now my filter is completely exposed to my left front tire. I can see it when I turn the wheel. Anyway, I've had to drive through horrible horrible rain, many many times. Just a few days ago it was raining so hard that I couldn't go faster than 15, on a road with lots of standing water and potholes. What I'm trying to say is, I've gone through really bad water many many times with a CAI and without a bypass valve. There's nothing to worry about.

So beacuse you haven't sucked any water in yet you think that you never will and no one else ever will? Interesting logic. I hope you don't design airplanes for a living...

don't worry about it. you'd have to sub merge the filter in water to worry about sucking in anything. even in the rain the filter is pretty well protected.

yeah, I've driven in very heavy rain before too with a CAI. My filter was drenched in water from the road but never submerged fully. I stepped out of my covered parking and felt the filter, it was dripping water sure enough. You can see the water just dripping off the edge of the filter. The whole filter was drenched completely no doubt. Had no problems at all. Engine started right up with no abnormalities.

Actually you can gain something out of that. When the filter is wet, it will suck in colder air now because of the water cooling the air down.

...but I still like the short ram because it is convienent for me to see, and works well with my car as far as performance goes.

tom

did you have both? did you notice a difference? Notice I'm following you around the forum....

I'm in class bored...

yes, I had both kind of intake installed. I notice the short ram works better for me. It pulls more during the takeoff and loud as hell.

Even with the S/C? I figured the hot air would down the performance since the S/C's force of the air heats it up...I'll have to think about it...

well, I don't have the short ram on now ever since TRD said that it will void the warranty. I use to have the K&N Tyhpoon short ram intake on before the s/c install. Now, I'm running on just the K&N drop filter. Intake is still noticeably louder than stock, especially in the mornings. I do tease the engine a bit once in awhile by adding the short ram back on with the s/c this time. Then I would take it off again for service. After that, I would feel too lazy to put it back on and leave the short ram off for awhile.

I didn't notice any dropoff in performance with the short ram on though. It was loud. You can just imagine the supercharger and the intake combined noise. Sounds like a vacuum cleaer or something. It works just as good as the CAI.

I'll have to think about it more. Right now I'm just plain lazy to do anything. work, school, and family. I'll see what the header and midpipe do before I go for the intake again.

I didn't say that. What I am saying is that I've driven, without a bypass valve and with a totally exposed intake, through some very risky situations. I'm not saying it will never happen. I am saying that, given my experience, the fear expressed in this forum of sucking water into the engine is overblown. I'm sure it can happen, but in normal driving situations (and especially with the plastic splashguard still in place) there is little to fear.

I feel intake is a hassle if you have the supercharger simply because of the warranty and SMOG issue. Maybe for now, just put a K&N or TRD filter. That helps a lot, right there. CAI is really good if you live in really cool climates, like up north. The road surface temp is cool enough to take that cool air in. But, the heat the engine produce can heat up the intake pipe pretty fast. SO it's heating up the air on the inside. On those hot days, you can feel the CAI intake pipe and it is hot to the tough because of the hot pavement temp. Ouch!! Put some insulation material on it.

I figure either way, you get some amounts of hot air regardless. SO I just got a short ram. Easier to install, cleaner because it's in the bay, produce good low end power.

K&N makes those protective covering for their filters. I'm sure they'll fit on any cone filter. It's designed to repell water.

agreed.

Tell you what - I'll install one and if I have a hydrolock problem, you can pay to fix it. You shouldn't have a problem agreeing to that, because hydrolock is not going to happen, right?

The odds are in my favor. I still agree that it is very, very unlikely. When you prove me wrong and get hydrolock, I guess you were right. I'll drive by and wave.

Hey Tom and Rolla_Dink just so you guys know I was using a k&n drop in filter and then put the trd cai on and gained over 10 hp. I would say that is well worth it. YOu dont need to go in for service that much do you? I have only been in once when my whole engine blew lol not blew but yea anyways. As long as you have good gas dont worry about it or the unichip or some form of air fuel controllers.

I'll probably go the CAI route again. I'm at the point that if I screw my warranty, I have cheap labor connections to fix it, thank god. Do you or have you thought about a LSD? I'm thinking about it since I'm now always tearing it up on corners. Could be these damn "H" rate tires.

thanks

Looks like the value of your advice is zero.

If life was based upon 100% figures, no what if's, and what's the chance ofs, we'd all be doing the same thing, talk about nothing, and basicly be droids.

Don't knock people because they make a general statement that may or may not be completely 100% true. Advice is only worth what the receiver thinks.

I'm not in the business of always right, and airplanes do crash, you should watch the news. Nobodys perfect.

well he's actually quite right...........the odds are in his favor. You have to submerge the entire filter to create a large enough vacuum to suck water into the engine. Basically you'd have to go drive through water that is about a foot deep to do any damage. It's not impossible but you're making it out to be a much bigger deal than it actually is, like many others do on the board.

um.. my friend's integra had a cold air intake.. and he hydro locked his engine.. and the Acura warranteed couldn't even fix it.. so yeah.. i'm still kinda scared.. cuz common sense .. if ur intake sucks in water or dirt.. it's gotta be bad for ur engine...

i say just be smart when decidng to get a short ram or cold air intake. if you dont live in someplace rainy like seattle and just have rain from time to time, cold air SHOULD be ok. with a CAI, you also gotta use some common sense from time to time. if you see a large puddle, dont just gas it over..avoid it or get enough speed so you wont need give gas while going over the puddle.. and if its flooding, just dont drive. if you are still scared, get your short ram instead of a CAI. I wonder what the story was behind those people who hydrolocked, what kind of weather was it, how were they driving? i have a CAI and am happy with it, and am also driving without the plastic splashguard on the driver's front currently.

Re: CAI - Don't Worry about Water

poor bunnies :cry:

heh, funny story, i was in highschool and was going off campus for lunch. There was a busted water hydrant and it was flooding the street, it was about 10 inches. I didnt have a cai but i did have an alarm. The siren was attached to the fire wall about as high as where a sway bar would be. I wasnt thinkig so naturally i punched it, somehow i drenched the siren, luckly it was replaced for free heh, good stuff.
I am thinking about cutting my cai tho alteast around late fall to winter and im from houston. My question is, i thought the warranty was still good if u had a cai like aem or injen. Am i wrong?

dang oxy ... you're kinda harsh on the guy.

I think that if you want to have him pay for the hydrolock .. how about every time it rains and doesn't hydro .. you pay him .. and if it does hydro ... he'll pay you .. haha

anyhow ... car is about 6.5? inches from the ground ... the filter sits about another 2-3 inches above that, right? If you have to completely submerge the filter in water ... maybe another 1/2 inch ... that's about 10 inches ...

I wouldn't drive my car in 6 inches of water. I'd walk instead ... haha ... anyhow ...
He's saying the chance of you running into a situation in which your engine will hydrolock would be very slim ... not impossible...

in SoCal ... i think it's almost impossible... haha ... only rains like ... what ... 10 days out of the 365 (that's counting ... sprinkles too) haha

anyhow... i think it would be less of a hassle if i got the sri .... easier to reach the filter to clean .... does anyone know if there is a significant performance gain with the cai vs the sri??

i think there was someone who dyno'd it on matrixowners.com..i think it was a sticky topic in 2wd forum..too lazy to check right now.

I just have a low tolerance for worthless advice. There's too much of it on this board. Some guy who doesn't know very much might read a post like this, assume it's gospel, install a CAI and end up paying for some expensive repairs all because some guy who isn't willing to back up his advise says it's OK.

You don't need to submerge the filter to have problems - if the entire filter surface is covered you can injest enough water to damage the engine. This is a small high compression engine. When the pistons are up, the combustion chamber volume is about 3 tablespoons. One table spoon of water injested will increase the compression ratio from 10:1 to 15:1. That's enough to cause damage.

I personally know two people that suffered water damage from CAIs (both Integras) from driving through large bodies of standing water. By the time they realized they were in it, it was too late.

HAHAH LOL

yeah... i think as long as he didn't say it's impossible...

i hope that everyone knows ... it's not 100% ...

anyhow ... a bypass for 50$ is a low cost for safety ... even if it is a low chance ...

but anyhow i think you are right oxy ... some people take the words seriously ... like that one time someone sanded their paint to get rid of bird crap ... cuz someone was joking around ...