Intakes, The Answers to the Questions
12-30-2004, 10:17 AM
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Intakes, The Answers to the Questions
I've noticed lately that there has been a lot of posts about intakes and which ones are better etc.... I just wanted to go ahead an post my opinions on intake etc...
First off, there are three different styles of intakes for our cars, the pop charger or short ram (JWT), Cold air (nismo/aem), and ram-air/cold air (Grupped M/KN typhoon). Dyno charts do help show what power a part makes, but for anything ram air, a dyno doesn't do justice, because the car must be moving in order for the overall benefits of that style of intake to be noticed. So dyno charts aside for this topic......
Also, our stock intake is actually pretty effecient for a stock car. The Z-tube or main intake pipe on the car is actually effidient as well, and doesn't need to be changed to notice decent gains in power either. As most of you know, the stock Z tube is an upgrade for most of the other VQ35 motors in various cars due to the resonators on their pipes unlike ours.
1)Short ram intakes. These inlude intakes similar to the JWT pop charger, where the filter is in the engine bay, and replaces the stock airbox. These may or may not include the upper Z-tube or pipe in metal or CF etc.... These are beneficial to our cars as is any intake setup basically, and are usually the cheapest ones on the market. The net gains are usually pretty good, fitment is usually great, and you don't have to worry about water getting to the filter. However even with a heat shield, the filter is sucking in hot air from the engine bay, (although the heat shields are very effective). This may be a deciding factor for some people.
2)Cold air intakes. These intakes are similar to the nismo, AEM and Injen intakes. We'll get to the Injen in a second. Normal cold air intakes will have a much longer pipe extend down into the fender well where the filter will be located. This allows the intakes to suck up cooler air than what is in the engine bay. Also, the air in the fender is not very turbulent, and due to that the intake is very efficient and responsive. Nice looks and good fitment are usually the case with these intakes. However the downside of course is the fact that everyone is scared of sucking up water. The nismo intake comes with a bypass valve that is attached inline in the piping and acts as a one-way check valve for the intake, incase the main filter becomes submerged. In all my years involved with cars, I have only come accross one instance where a customer actually killed his motor by submerging the filter. This was also in semi-flood conditions. For the normal person out there, you really don't need to worry much about this, because water will not get to the filter if you retain your factory fender liner/splash guard. If that is not there, then the tires will kick water up to the filter little by little (not enough to ruin the filter usually) while driving. Of course, there are bypass filters that yo ucan purchase from AEM in various sizes that can help you out for peace of mind if your's doesn't have one standard.
Power wise, these intakes generally perform similar to the pop-charger or short ram style intakes. Unfortunately on our cars, any intake you do isn't going to make a HUGE difference, but they will add decent power. Some people prefer the cold air for looks, or for the fact that it's colder air etc.. It doesn tend to free up some space in the engine bay which may be something that the person needs, who knows. It's all a matter of preference really.
2b)Injen intake. This is in a class by itself IMO, because it's partially a cold air and partially a ram air intake. THe Injen situates the filter in the front of the car, in the mouth opening of the bumper. This obviously allows great intake suction, and the mouth of the bumper is a high pressure area for air flow. However, it doesn't really function as well as a ram air style intake because the way the air will hit the filter, it will more than likely at speed glide around the filter rather than into it, because of the shape of the filter being circular. The intake is also capable of being transformed into a short ram intake in bad weather, but for a person who doesn't have basic mechanical knowlege, doing the conversion may be overwhelming and tedious. IMO a customer is probably going to leave it one way or the other, and just not bother with changing it at the first sign of rain etc.. This intake however is more in danger of water ingestion than any other intake because of it's location in the open mouth of the bumper. Even when washing your car, if you are not careful you can soak the filter. The power gains on this intake generally tend to be slightly more than some others out there, but there are a lot of trade offs.
First off, there are three different styles of intakes for our cars, the pop charger or short ram (JWT), Cold air (nismo/aem), and ram-air/cold air (Grupped M/KN typhoon). Dyno charts do help show what power a part makes, but for anything ram air, a dyno doesn't do justice, because the car must be moving in order for the overall benefits of that style of intake to be noticed. So dyno charts aside for this topic......
Also, our stock intake is actually pretty effecient for a stock car. The Z-tube or main intake pipe on the car is actually effidient as well, and doesn't need to be changed to notice decent gains in power either. As most of you know, the stock Z tube is an upgrade for most of the other VQ35 motors in various cars due to the resonators on their pipes unlike ours.
1)Short ram intakes. These inlude intakes similar to the JWT pop charger, where the filter is in the engine bay, and replaces the stock airbox. These may or may not include the upper Z-tube or pipe in metal or CF etc.... These are beneficial to our cars as is any intake setup basically, and are usually the cheapest ones on the market. The net gains are usually pretty good, fitment is usually great, and you don't have to worry about water getting to the filter. However even with a heat shield, the filter is sucking in hot air from the engine bay, (although the heat shields are very effective). This may be a deciding factor for some people.
2)Cold air intakes. These intakes are similar to the nismo, AEM and Injen intakes. We'll get to the Injen in a second. Normal cold air intakes will have a much longer pipe extend down into the fender well where the filter will be located. This allows the intakes to suck up cooler air than what is in the engine bay. Also, the air in the fender is not very turbulent, and due to that the intake is very efficient and responsive. Nice looks and good fitment are usually the case with these intakes. However the downside of course is the fact that everyone is scared of sucking up water. The nismo intake comes with a bypass valve that is attached inline in the piping and acts as a one-way check valve for the intake, incase the main filter becomes submerged. In all my years involved with cars, I have only come accross one instance where a customer actually killed his motor by submerging the filter. This was also in semi-flood conditions. For the normal person out there, you really don't need to worry much about this, because water will not get to the filter if you retain your factory fender liner/splash guard. If that is not there, then the tires will kick water up to the filter little by little (not enough to ruin the filter usually) while driving. Of course, there are bypass filters that yo ucan purchase from AEM in various sizes that can help you out for peace of mind if your's doesn't have one standard.
Power wise, these intakes generally perform similar to the pop-charger or short ram style intakes. Unfortunately on our cars, any intake you do isn't going to make a HUGE difference, but they will add decent power. Some people prefer the cold air for looks, or for the fact that it's colder air etc.. It doesn tend to free up some space in the engine bay which may be something that the person needs, who knows. It's all a matter of preference really.
2b)Injen intake. This is in a class by itself IMO, because it's partially a cold air and partially a ram air intake. THe Injen situates the filter in the front of the car, in the mouth opening of the bumper. This obviously allows great intake suction, and the mouth of the bumper is a high pressure area for air flow. However, it doesn't really function as well as a ram air style intake because the way the air will hit the filter, it will more than likely at speed glide around the filter rather than into it, because of the shape of the filter being circular. The intake is also capable of being transformed into a short ram intake in bad weather, but for a person who doesn't have basic mechanical knowlege, doing the conversion may be overwhelming and tedious. IMO a customer is probably going to leave it one way or the other, and just not bother with changing it at the first sign of rain etc.. This intake however is more in danger of water ingestion than any other intake because of it's location in the open mouth of the bumper. Even when washing your car, if you are not careful you can soak the filter. The power gains on this intake generally tend to be slightly more than some others out there, but there are a lot of trade offs.
12-30-2004, 10:17 AM
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3)Ram air intakes. These include the K&N typhoon and the Gruppe M, but there are other custom setups that people are doing including various air ducts in the front bumper etc... to force air into the filter location, and i'll get to those in a little as well. Ram air intakes are called such because they scoop air and direct it towards the filter. The KN typhoon for example uses full metal piping, a filter box that the cone filter sits in, a heat shield for the top of the box, and a scoop and pipe for the front bumper that scoops air towards the filter. Now with this intake, the air box is not a sealed airbox. Even though the filte is in a box, the box's openings and shield do not seal the box, they jsut surround it. So where the holes are, or where the shield sits on top, it doesn't creat a complete seal, so air in the box will circulate in and out of the airbox as any air current would. The box does help make the area surrounding the filter less turbulent, which helps efficiency. The scoop is not too big, and will not affect the radiator cooling in any way. however because the scoop isn't that large, the amount of air being forced up to the filter is pretty minimal. Also, because the air being forced into the air box can easily escape the airbox and creat a current, it doesn't create the ram air effect that many would think of. It does help at higher speeds, but not a whole lot over a regular cold air or short ram. Again, dyno charts will not factor in the ram air effect even with a huge fan blowing on the motor during the run. you really need to be at higher freeway speeds to notice the difference although minimal. It's a great design and looks good, and for all the pieces in the kit, it isn't a bad price same as the nismo roughly. This scoop will help get colder air to the filter location, and even if it doesn't ram the air into the filter it will help cool the surrounding air, so intake temps will be reduced slightly which is a benefit.
The gruppe m intake IMO is the best designed intake out there. However, the best design still doesn't mean best power. This intake will make, again, roughly the same as most other intakes out there. The gruppe m uses a fully enclosed CF air box, stock Z intake tube, a racing flex hose that connects the CF scoop to the box. The scoop on this intake is larger than the KN typhoon, and sits in the middle of the front bumper mouth, rather than up in the corner like the KN typhoon. This allows more air to be scooped up. Also, since the intake is a enclosed airbox, there are no ways for the air to escape once it's force into the box (excepet maybe one). Thus the ram air effect is noticeable more on this intake than any other at higher freeway speeds. Again, however this noticeable increase in power at high speeds isn't HUGE, and is hardly worth the extra money spent. The airbox does have a secondary intake port in it that points down into the fender, so that at idle and at low speed, the filter can suck air from the fender, which is colder than the engine bay air, but also so that the intake isn't relying on just the front scoop for air. At low speeds if it were just relying on the one scoop for air, it may or may not result in driveability issues. I don't know, but I may experiment to find out. This intake is the most thuroughly thought out intake on the market, but it comes at a price. The intake is triple many other intakes in price, and for the power difference which is minimal at best, is not worth the price IMO. I just happen to love CF so that's why I use the intake, plus it's rare. This may be the reason why some people go with this intake over others, but doller for HP, it is not worth it. It's effecient, great fitting, great looking and sounding, but the gains just don't justifiy the price. The CF does
Air scoops: There are lots of people that prefer to go with a scoop that is installed into the bumper itself, such as the varis CF air duct, to help force air into the filter of the intake. I'll use the varis as an example for this. The way the varis intake duct is installed, it is inserted into the bumper at the top front of the bumper. This part of the car if you put it in a wind tunnel is not as effective to allow air to get "rammed" into the scoop as say having the scoop located in the mouth of the bumper. The air hits the front of the car, and then goes up and over the top of the bumper so the effects of any scoop similar to the varis won't be too great or noticeable. Also, without having a fully enclosed airbox for the filter, any air that gets shoved into this duct, will create a current, and much of the air will bypass the filter alltogether. Something like this however WILL help lower intake temps slightly. So there are some benefits of course. and IMO it looks cool
Filters: Drop in replacement filters like Kand N are good for those on a budget, but don't create much power. It is more efficient slightly, and there are power gains to be had with this, but not too much. As for cone style filters, which is best? Reliability wise, K and N or similar re-washable re-useable filters, including pop charger filter by JWT etc... other companies include volant, KN, JWT, S&B, Tech5, etc... All of these are similar in construction and are re-washable and re-useable. Filters like the foam filters such as HKS, Greddy, and Matrix or R1 are decent. These do flow better than the K&N type of filter, but they also trap less dirt, and filter less. These were initially intended to be used as a race filter. They can be hard to find replacement foam filter elements as well at times as many companies are backorder with them. These are harder to clean as well, depending on the company they may have different ways of cleaning. It's again a personal preference when it comes to these filters etc....
Stopping water on cold air intakes:
Bypass valves work great, proven to work, and pretty cheaply priced. There is also a filter cover that you can put on the filter, K&N offers these now, as does AEM etc.. This is an innovation originally intended for sand buggy style cars so that sand etc.. doesn't get to the fitler. These will help with the water etc.. but if you submerge the filter in water, this won't help.
The only times you need to worry about water and your intake is if there is a deep puddle that you drive through. other than that you should be A-ok.
This is a long read I know, but I hope it answers a lot of questions about the intakes that are available. I have lots of customers asking me and I see lots of posts that ask similar questions, so I thought I'd just post this all at once....
The gruppe m intake IMO is the best designed intake out there. However, the best design still doesn't mean best power. This intake will make, again, roughly the same as most other intakes out there. The gruppe m uses a fully enclosed CF air box, stock Z intake tube, a racing flex hose that connects the CF scoop to the box. The scoop on this intake is larger than the KN typhoon, and sits in the middle of the front bumper mouth, rather than up in the corner like the KN typhoon. This allows more air to be scooped up. Also, since the intake is a enclosed airbox, there are no ways for the air to escape once it's force into the box (excepet maybe one). Thus the ram air effect is noticeable more on this intake than any other at higher freeway speeds. Again, however this noticeable increase in power at high speeds isn't HUGE, and is hardly worth the extra money spent. The airbox does have a secondary intake port in it that points down into the fender, so that at idle and at low speed, the filter can suck air from the fender, which is colder than the engine bay air, but also so that the intake isn't relying on just the front scoop for air. At low speeds if it were just relying on the one scoop for air, it may or may not result in driveability issues. I don't know, but I may experiment to find out. This intake is the most thuroughly thought out intake on the market, but it comes at a price. The intake is triple many other intakes in price, and for the power difference which is minimal at best, is not worth the price IMO. I just happen to love CF so that's why I use the intake, plus it's rare. This may be the reason why some people go with this intake over others, but doller for HP, it is not worth it. It's effecient, great fitting, great looking and sounding, but the gains just don't justifiy the price. The CF does
Air scoops: There are lots of people that prefer to go with a scoop that is installed into the bumper itself, such as the varis CF air duct, to help force air into the filter of the intake. I'll use the varis as an example for this. The way the varis intake duct is installed, it is inserted into the bumper at the top front of the bumper. This part of the car if you put it in a wind tunnel is not as effective to allow air to get "rammed" into the scoop as say having the scoop located in the mouth of the bumper. The air hits the front of the car, and then goes up and over the top of the bumper so the effects of any scoop similar to the varis won't be too great or noticeable. Also, without having a fully enclosed airbox for the filter, any air that gets shoved into this duct, will create a current, and much of the air will bypass the filter alltogether. Something like this however WILL help lower intake temps slightly. So there are some benefits of course. and IMO it looks cool
Filters: Drop in replacement filters like Kand N are good for those on a budget, but don't create much power. It is more efficient slightly, and there are power gains to be had with this, but not too much. As for cone style filters, which is best? Reliability wise, K and N or similar re-washable re-useable filters, including pop charger filter by JWT etc... other companies include volant, KN, JWT, S&B, Tech5, etc... All of these are similar in construction and are re-washable and re-useable. Filters like the foam filters such as HKS, Greddy, and Matrix or R1 are decent. These do flow better than the K&N type of filter, but they also trap less dirt, and filter less. These were initially intended to be used as a race filter. They can be hard to find replacement foam filter elements as well at times as many companies are backorder with them. These are harder to clean as well, depending on the company they may have different ways of cleaning. It's again a personal preference when it comes to these filters etc....
Stopping water on cold air intakes:
Bypass valves work great, proven to work, and pretty cheaply priced. There is also a filter cover that you can put on the filter, K&N offers these now, as does AEM etc.. This is an innovation originally intended for sand buggy style cars so that sand etc.. doesn't get to the fitler. These will help with the water etc.. but if you submerge the filter in water, this won't help.
The only times you need to worry about water and your intake is if there is a deep puddle that you drive through. other than that you should be A-ok.
This is a long read I know, but I hope it answers a lot of questions about the intakes that are available. I have lots of customers asking me and I see lots of posts that ask similar questions, so I thought I'd just post this all at once....
01-05-2005, 10:59 AM
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Thanks for the informative post. I'd heard that the pop charger was "the only" way to go so it's nice to know the details of the other options out there.
01-05-2005, 02:46 PM
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Great post Tony.
This is why I felt the need as a product designer to try and design my own CAI. Every intake you've listed above has a positive and negative side. Can't there be a solution that finds the middle ground and is cost efffective? That's the question I asked myself.
So after a week or so I sat down and started to crunch on different ideas with off the shelf parts from PepBoys and the Hardware stores.
Well, I just finished the overall design last night and am trying to wrap up the actual fabrication this weekend. All my parts are simple, sealed, and the filter is a dead match to JWT’s. So far the total cost of parts and pieces has come out to around $50. I've spent a full weekend fabricating different part configuration and finally came up with a simple solution that’s air tight. Hopefully it works! I've included a little pic of most of the parts involved, let your imagination fill in the blanks.
Why did I do this? Because discovering better solutions is my passion.
Zquicksilver
This is why I felt the need as a product designer to try and design my own CAI. Every intake you've listed above has a positive and negative side. Can't there be a solution that finds the middle ground and is cost efffective? That's the question I asked myself.
So after a week or so I sat down and started to crunch on different ideas with off the shelf parts from PepBoys and the Hardware stores.
Well, I just finished the overall design last night and am trying to wrap up the actual fabrication this weekend. All my parts are simple, sealed, and the filter is a dead match to JWT’s. So far the total cost of parts and pieces has come out to around $50. I've spent a full weekend fabricating different part configuration and finally came up with a simple solution that’s air tight. Hopefully it works! I've included a little pic of most of the parts involved, let your imagination fill in the blanks.
Why did I do this? Because discovering better solutions is my passion.
Zquicksilver
01-05-2005, 06:21 PM
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Originally posted by Zquicksilver
Great post Tony.
This is why I felt the need as a product designer to try and design my own CAI. Every intake you've listed above has a positive and negative side. Can't there be a solution that finds the middle ground and is cost efffective? That's the question I asked myself.
So after a week or so I sat down and started to crunch on different ideas with off the shelf parts from PepBoys and the Hardware stores.
Well, I just finished the overall design last night and am trying to wrap up the actual fabrication this weekend. All my parts are simple, sealed, and the filter is a dead match to JWT’s. So far the total cost of parts and pieces has come out to around $50. I've spent a full weekend fabricating different part configuration and finally came up with a simple solution that’s air tight. Hopefully it works! I've included a little pic of most of the parts involved, let your imagination fill in the blanks.
Why did I do this? Because discovering better solutions is my passion.
Zquicksilver
Great post Tony.
This is why I felt the need as a product designer to try and design my own CAI. Every intake you've listed above has a positive and negative side. Can't there be a solution that finds the middle ground and is cost efffective? That's the question I asked myself.
So after a week or so I sat down and started to crunch on different ideas with off the shelf parts from PepBoys and the Hardware stores.
Well, I just finished the overall design last night and am trying to wrap up the actual fabrication this weekend. All my parts are simple, sealed, and the filter is a dead match to JWT’s. So far the total cost of parts and pieces has come out to around $50. I've spent a full weekend fabricating different part configuration and finally came up with a simple solution that’s air tight. Hopefully it works! I've included a little pic of most of the parts involved, let your imagination fill in the blanks.
Why did I do this? Because discovering better solutions is my passion.
Zquicksilver
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01-06-2005, 01:54 AM
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Great information post regarding the different types of intakes. There are a couple of real world observations I'd like to toss in, though, just for completeness.
1) Even with a bypass valve on a CAI, you can suck up a little water. Like you said, you won't damage your engine, but it can still cause temporary problems. My Nismo intake with bypass valve got soaked during some heavy rains. This by itself didn't cause any problems, but there was one point I suddenly gave the car a large amount of throttle. This allowed the soaked filter to suck in just enough water (albeit a very small amount) to soak my MAF. This promptly caused the car to run extremely rough, and I barely made it home. This was solved by simply taking the MAF out and letting it dry out, but a pain nonetheless. I would guess that *any* filter that gets soaked could potentially suck in just enough water to get the MAF wet.
2) Someone here on these forums did an intake temperature test a while back which was very informative. It was a hot summer day, if I recall, and he tested the stock intake, a CAI of some sort, and a JWT Popcharger. The stock and CAI intake both had relatively ambient intake temps regardless of the car's speed. The JWT, though, had significantly higher intake temps when the speed was below about 30 mph, but ambient temps when the car was above 30 mph. Also, when he turned on the A/C, the JWT was affected greatly and had much higher temps. (Due to the heat from the condenser pushing into the engine bay.) The stock and CAIs were unaffected, of course.
3) How can we forget the sounds?! Half the fun of an open-element intake, in my mind, is the great sound! One of the functions of the stock intake box is to act as a sort of muffler for the intake and quiet it down. This makes it significantly quieter (virtually silent) than all the aftermarket intakes. I had a Nismo, but decided to remove it after my water ingestion bummer and went back to stock. The stock intake was so much less aggressive sounding, though, I went to a JWT. It's hard to describe how cool intakes sound until you've installed one in your car. It's tough to go back.
1) Even with a bypass valve on a CAI, you can suck up a little water. Like you said, you won't damage your engine, but it can still cause temporary problems. My Nismo intake with bypass valve got soaked during some heavy rains. This by itself didn't cause any problems, but there was one point I suddenly gave the car a large amount of throttle. This allowed the soaked filter to suck in just enough water (albeit a very small amount) to soak my MAF. This promptly caused the car to run extremely rough, and I barely made it home. This was solved by simply taking the MAF out and letting it dry out, but a pain nonetheless.
I would guess that *any* filter that gets soaked could potentially suck in just enough water to get the MAF wet.2) Someone here on these forums did an intake temperature test a while back which was very informative. It was a hot summer day, if I recall, and he tested the stock intake, a CAI of some sort, and a JWT Popcharger. The stock and CAI intake both had relatively ambient intake temps regardless of the car's speed. The JWT, though, had significantly higher intake temps when the speed was below about 30 mph, but ambient temps when the car was above 30 mph. Also, when he turned on the A/C, the JWT was affected greatly and had much higher temps. (Due to the heat from the condenser pushing into the engine bay.) The stock and CAIs were unaffected, of course.
3) How can we forget the sounds?!
Half the fun of an open-element intake, in my mind, is the great sound! One of the functions of the stock intake box is to act as a sort of muffler for the intake and quiet it down. This makes it significantly quieter (virtually silent) than all the aftermarket intakes. I had a Nismo, but decided to remove it after my water ingestion bummer and went back to stock. The stock intake was so much less aggressive sounding, though, I went to a JWT. It's hard to describe how cool intakes sound until you've installed one in your car. It's tough to go back.
01-06-2005, 03:32 AM
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I think it is important to note that increased airflow tends to lean out the fuel to air ratio. So some tuning may be required to get the expected hp gain, especially when adding additional mods such as the plenium.
However, I am no expert on this topic but I think it is worth further discussion if anyone has something more to add I think it would be appreciated.
Check out this thread (tuning using ecu piggyback system Greddy emanage):
https://my350z.com/forum/showthread....threadid=83232
However, I am no expert on this topic but I think it is worth further discussion if anyone has something more to add I think it would be appreciated.
Check out this thread (tuning using ecu piggyback system Greddy emanage):
https://my350z.com/forum/showthread....threadid=83232
01-06-2005, 07:18 AM
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Also, I would like to mention something to address all your guys' concerns about air-fuel mixures:
With basics, intake, exhaust, simple bolt ons, you do not have to worry about running TOO lean or TOO rich etc...
Our ECUs in the Z, make it hard to pull full power gains from anything we do really. However this doesn't mean that putting an intake or exhaust on is damaging at all.
So just to put all your fears to rest, yes, you probably will run lean, and no it isn't by much of a margin at all, especially to damage a motor etc...
With basics, intake, exhaust, simple bolt ons, you do not have to worry about running TOO lean or TOO rich etc...
Our ECUs in the Z, make it hard to pull full power gains from anything we do really. However this doesn't mean that putting an intake or exhaust on is damaging at all.
So just to put all your fears to rest, yes, you probably will run lean, and no it isn't by much of a margin at all, especially to damage a motor etc...
01-06-2005, 12:38 PM
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1) Even with a bypass valve on a CAI, you can suck up a little water. Like you said, you won't damage your engine, but it can still cause temporary problems. My Nismo intake with bypass valve got soaked during some heavy rains. This by itself didn't cause any problems, but there was one point I suddenly gave the car a large amount of throttle. This allowed the soaked filter to suck in just enough water (albeit a very small amount) to soak my MAF. This promptly caused the car to run extremely rough, and I barely made it home. This was solved by simply taking the MAF out and letting it dry out, but a pain nonetheless. I would guess that *any* filter that gets soaked could potentially suck in just enough water to get the MAF wet.
01-06-2005, 04:35 PM
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Originally posted by Z BOY
my popcharger never did produce any hp gains on my car, and although it sounds cool, i prefer a stealthy sound so as not to attract the popo, so i put the stock intake back on with a kn filter, and i have no complaints.
my popcharger never did produce any hp gains on my car, and although it sounds cool, i prefer a stealthy sound so as not to attract the popo, so i put the stock intake back on with a kn filter, and i have no complaints.
As far as the police, I have no fear. 
Stay legal, and it won't be a problem.
01-07-2005, 01:27 AM
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I am guessing that getting a "underbody flush" at a car wash is not a good for a open air filter??? The reason I ask this is because it is nice to wash off the salt (in the colder months) and road grime from the underside of the car. I have done this in the past and before reading this I never gave it a second thought, but now... Should I be passing on the "underbody flush" option??
01-07-2005, 09:17 AM
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its fine...just drive gently afterwards and maybe try to park in a garage overnight so the excess water can evaporate or drip - or you could always fit a baggy or seran wrap over your filter before you went if you wanted to be "that guy at the carwash "
01-13-2005, 08:22 AM
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I've always wondered about CARB certification of intakes. Can an intake actually negatively affect your car's emissions? Sure, California law might require them to be certified, but that doesn't mean it makes sense. (California has lots of stupid rules like that.) Things like cats I can understand... but intakes?
Things like cats I can understand... but intakes?