CAI question

[mikeyp5284]

I'm thinking of going the CAI route with my G, but it rains a fair amount up here in CT. what other parts do i need in order to keep the water out of my car?

I've heard that a bypass valve would do the trick, but those are kinda pricey... could i just buy a shield to go over the cone, or am i better off with just a short ram?

MikeyP

[shiznit013]

A heat shield/splash guard will not protect your engine from a complete submerssion. If you run your car over a puddle that is deep enough (the height of the bottom of you front bumber), you will most likely kill the engine through hydrolock. If you're lucky, you can blow the water out by backing out a spark plug, but that is rarely possible.

Last I checked, the AEM bypass valve was only around $50, and a heat shield was about the same. On AEM's site they have pictures of the bypass valve creator's NSX with the filter completely submerged in a tank of water. You can see that the water only makes it up the tube a foot or so. $50 or a new engine... your choice.

I've had my Injen RS1869 for a couple of months with no problems. I don't have a heat shield or a bypass valve (although I've been looking into fitting one on). I did cut a piece of aluminum out and put it below the filter like a rock shield.... good enough so far (obviously I'm not taking my own advice).

[mikeyp5284]

ha... apparently not....

thank you for the reply though.

[pinoyesv6]

the cheap way to do things is just to get a short ram.

keyword cheap.

the bypass valve will only work if you dunk the filter all the way. but it won't work if you're driving for a while in the rain and water slowly trickles up.

k&n makes a precharger which is like a lil sock that goes over the filter. it won't protect you if you dunk the filter but the socks won't let water go through if water is just splashed on the filter.

[mikeyp5284]

but by going with a short ram, isn't that just sucking in hot air and not really doing anything different for my g, or are the engine compartments for a g well ventilated enough?

[shiznit013]

The theory with short ram is short path/high volume. You could still use the heat shield and hopefully block off some of the hot air in the engine compartment. I really can't tell you what kind of performance increase, if any, this will give you.

If you want to go real cheap, I have seen a guy remove the airbox and leave just the tubing from the throttle body to the filter. I believe he put a K&N box filter in there and drilled it into the top of the air box. You might need to come up with some way to support the tubing. I haven't been able to find the link for it yet.

[theblackpearl]

i had a CAI on my car durring about half of the winter last year..everything was fine, i had a few scares with deep puddles but i got lucky..i normally just switch it to a short ram when winter comes now, and put the cai extension on when its summer or there is no rain for awhile..