Engine cold air intake question

cold air intake question

I bought cold air intake for my rolla 05 le. Ive heard of it flooding your engine, is that true, if so how could you prevent it?

try not to drive through puddles large enough to cover the entire filter... I've had mine on for 2 years and have never had a problem with it... driving in the colorado snow and everything... BTW welsome to the site... goahead and introduce your self we're always up for meeting new rolla guys

or girls lol

basically do what denver said, don't drive through big puddles or anything

and if your really worried then get an aem cold air intake bypass valve, which will allow air to suck in from a different spot if the filter were to ever become submerged, but again like they said, as long as you dont drive through a water puddle deep enough to cover the filter you should be ok, and driving a rolla you should be driving in water that deep anyway.

bypass valve is kinda pointless imo. Usually you'll end up losing ~3hp due to air turbulance, might as well go with a SRI.

Basically, the condition with a CAI would be to hydro-lock your engine. That means that enough water was sucked into your engine and into your cylinders to basically restrict the piston movement in the cylinder (because water cannot compress like air can). The only way for that to really happen with a CAI is if the entire filter is completely sugmerged in water...

The bypass valve basically bypasses the main filter and still allows air to be sucked into the engine instead of water (good thing). But, like Jspex said, if you get that, it will restrict airflow a bit and minimize the effect that the CAI will have on your engine. Just be smart about it when you have your CAI and don't drive thru large puddles and you should be fine...

Was just going to say that.

thanks guys

nope with the 2-3hp loss across the band, might as well get a SRI and save the money. And I'm pretty sure AEM is the only company that make that thing... Japanese tuning companies don't even mess with CAIs.

Wouldn't the stock corolla intake be sucking in colder air than an SRI (or CAI for that matter) anyway?

its all warm air under there and when you are moving its all moving around so it doesnt make a difference, short or cold air IMO.

My SRI came with a dynosheet showing 6.11 hp gains...



You can see it especially towards the top end, and it is very fealable too. Before, you could feel the engine plateau around 6000rpm (the speed it would build revs would die down), first few times winding it out with the SRI, I hit the rev limiter because it continued building revs at a quicker speed past 6000rpm... 6.11hp at the wheels and witht he drivetrain loss it works out to like 7.2hp at the flywheel...

I was wondering about that. I mean they call it cold air, but its not like its a Charge Air Cooler or anything(Intercooler). So its really mostly for show? I mean 1-2 hp in my mind is really like NO hp. If I'm that performance minded I would do something else to milk hp. I guess the SRI does make a nice Engine Dressing look though.

And SRI also sounds pretty nice (at least it does on Honda engines, never had one on my Corolla, heh...)

That warm air vs. cold air thing is yet another thing invented by AEM. It really all comes down to volumetric efficiency, the difference in IAT are negligible. The advantage of the CAI lies in fluid dynamics. The best intake maximize both air flow velocity (under engine vacumm) and volumetric efficiency (cylinder filling).. that is done using the correct lenghts and cross sectional diameter of piping for a particular engine. For example a tube with a smaller cross sectional area would maximize air flow and volumetric efficency at lower RPMs but would cut out and starve the engine of air at higher RPMs. A larger tube would sacrafice air flow velocity at lower RPMs but maximize volumetric efficency at high RPMs. A longer tube would create a pressure differential meaning faster intake air velocity but you would always run the risk of maxing out the volumetric efficency at higher RPMs.
Companies like AEM understand this and employ different piping diameters in their CAIs, for example the Intergra LS run 2.5", GSR run 2.75" and Type-R runs 3" due to their difference in redline and volumetric efficiency ranges compared to the rev band. Also if you notice their dyno graphs most of their gain lie in the mid RPM range, otherwise the dyno graphs would look like carbon copies of running a much cheaper SRI.

i don't think the difference in IAT is neglibible. i guess you could say that is my opinion on the matter. the bottom line is under the hood engine bay temps rise too much for my liking. i wouldn't want my engine sucking in that whack air.

i have been running a cold air intake for many years, with no problems in the rain. even going through large puddles. of course, i avoid them when possible and i am smart about driving in the rain.

^^ Thats what I thought before but many tests and studies have shown that while the vehicle is in motion IAT from a SRI are not much different from that of a CAI, it is true that the engine bay get heatsoaked at idle (as does the cooling system, and intercoolers on turbocharged cars) but that won't make much of a difference in performance unless you like 'driving' while parked with the tranny in Neutral.

I found this and many more discussions just like it with a 5sec search on google to proove my point.
http://www.scionlife.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=66999&highlight=airtemperature tests
I believe there were a tech article about this subject on SCC a few months back as well.

^^ exactly my point... when you are moving all the air under the hood is the same, with the exception of a few degrees but not enough to make a difference.

Also, for the record it is proven that for every 10 degrees colder your IAT is, you will increase horsepower by 1%.

Polo, you read that book too? lol
I have a Haynes Sport Compact Performance thingy. Its kind of like an introduction to force induction, how inductions systems, engines and suspension works.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/15...=pd_bbs_11/102-2271674-2330544?_encoding=UTF8

Yeah it states right in there that 1% increase for every 10 degree drop in temperatre.
I trust the source.

I've never read that book... but I've read plenty of supercharger/turbo books and they all pretty much say that.

awesome

ram air is good, cai is ok. See I like to see some facts backing the opinions...these are good discussions.

I've never seen these studies on intake air temp but logically it is very reasonable.
I know that intake air temp on stock vehicles on a 78 degree day will be around 120-130 degrees F, 90-100 day, 140+

...I've seen the data myself on this...so I imagine a "cai" would be ok at best in lowering these temps at idle...but..not by much..and at idle, it doesn't matter really

So getting that temp down to actual outside air temp would give you a 4-5% gain...MAXIMUM...and that's really at idle...once you start moving the difference in intak air and outside air decreases, as does the % of gain...is that really worth it? ESPECIALLY considering that you get no additional benefits? I say cai then is NOT worth it. With ram air you get lower intake air (though once moving this is negligable) but you also get the ram air effect.


The ONLY benefit of cai is the intake tubing...since it's usually larger in diameter than stock, a little more straightforward setup (less bends). BUT...you can get these same benefits and then some with ram air


The issue is really air flow AND volume as stated by JspeXAE102,
BASICALLY you want a straight flowing intake design with as few bends as possible an also giving you large volume? Correct?

So with ram air you get the benefits of cai...BUT you ALSO get the ram effect...and less tubing?

Question...with air flowing around the front...is it possible that a "bubble" will be created not allowing air to be forced in (no ram effect) but rather, that it will still have to be sucked in? At higher speeds that is...just a thought.

ALso that is if the intake is set up on the bumper or around headlights or even grill...not a scoop, just a hole with a funnel shaped opening I mean...in the grill, around bumper, and/or around headlights... This theory prolly wouldn't apply to scoops that stick out

I've been driving around using a CAI and now I just installed my old short ram and I really can't tell the difference in perfomance difference. Mayb a mental difference cause the short ram is considerable louder then the cai. I'll do some more testing next week on which is better, but now I'm liking the mean sound from the short ram. I do like the look of the cai better though.

nah stock setup would actually make it lose power just a bit because of the restrictive bends and filter setup.