I got my Injen CAI the other day, and I was taken by surprise by the strange mounting of the filter - right up in the grill of the bumper.
Has anyone had trouble with water? Whether it be highway driving when its raining hard, or washing the car?
I'm still gonna install it either way. I just want to confirm whether or not I have to take it easy in those kinds of situations.

Peace

 

Just don't submerge the filter in water and you will be fine. If you'd like to know what to do if you somehow manage to submerge your filter, give me a pm and I'll link you to the write up I did on clubrsx.com.

 

yeh thats what ive heard.
its honestly hard to believe tho from the setup. i mean, the filter is completely exposed to any water that will get kicked up on the highway. it looks almost as if it should have some kind of guard in front of it or something.
But if no one's had problems besides when its submerged, I guess thats proof enough for me.

Peace

 

I'm no expert, but my guess is that the oiled paper repels the water, so that's why it's not a big deal.

More educated opinions out there anywhere?

 

I think that the water will get sucked right into the filter, but the small amount seen from the rain will not hydrolock your motor.

The one fear I would have is that it will scum up everything inside the intake track. Also having the filter sitting exposed in the front like that, looks like the filter will get completely crapped up.

I had the AEM CAI on my GSR for over 30K miles with no problems, just being carefull not to go through any water that was too deep. The filter was tucked inside the fender well (front bottom) and was fairly protected, but still got crapped up fairly quickly. I can only image how bad the filter on the injen will get.

I really prefer the filter position of the AEM CAI on the 350z over the Injen, and if I decide to get a CAI for my Z, I will go with AEM.

 

yeh the CAIs on hondas are positioned nicely. I was thinking about perhaps making a plastic shield to go directly in front of the filter, simply to block rain and dirt. I think the performance won't suffer at all from this. I'll just take a saturday afternoon and mess around with it I guess.

Anyone w/ input that actually has this intake installed on their Z?

 

I have the AEM, but it's only been on a few weeks.

Zrated, I'm curious how often you changed the filter on your AEM.

 

All CAI will route the tubing and filter down towards the ground since that's where the cooler air is located at. On my Type R my intake had ran down and the filter sat inside the wheel well on the right side in front of the tire. I also had put on a water bypass valve, although I've never really need to use it. Unless you're a real deep amount water (and this begs the question, why would you be in a real deep amount of water? And if you are, you car is going to have other problems), then where the CAI filter sits is the most optimal place, at least on this car.

 

The Filter was a K&N so it was a cleanable filter. You can pick up a filter cleaning kit for about $10. It comes with cleaner and filter oil. I cleaned mine every 15K miles, but K&N says you can triple that before cleaning. NOT on a CAI. You will be suprised how crudded up it is after 15K miles.

 

I just want to alert you all that the filter doesn't have to be submerged to cause problems. The following was a post on a problem with the AEM or Injen CAI on a S2000, it seems that constant water falling on the filter can cause big problems.

 

lol, oh jeez i kinda wish i never asked.

"bad start" is simply just that, right?... a bad start - no permanent or serious engine damage from the "constant water", right?
Oh yeah, I'm definately making a water guard for it when i put it on.

Peace

 

Just put in a bypass, it will suck in air from the point of the bypass' insertion, you basically put this at the point where a short ram intake's filter would be. If there is enough water to cause a problem at the filter at the bottom, it will suck air through the bypass, instead of the filter.

The basics of fixing it if your car if you happen to hydrolock it is as follows:

Remove all spark plugs, disconnect the air intake tube from the throttle body(as to not suck anymore water in from the intake, also move the car to a "dry" spot where it will not suck in anymore water when the intake tube is to be reconnected). Next, leave your hood open, attempt to crank the car, if there is any water in the engine it will "spit" it out. Now of course the car will not start with the spark plugs removed, DO NOT keep attempting to crank the car after the water is spit out. After the water is removed, put the spark plugs back in, and drive to a safe place nearby(very nearby, you don't want to drive far at all with nothing filtering the air coming into your engine). Take and dry your filter, reconnect the filter to the intake tube and recconect the tube to the throttle body. You will want to do this process ASAP as you do not want to let the water sit in your engine as it can and will cause oxidation. Do not be alarmed if there is white smoke coming out of the exhaust for a few minutes after starting the car after putting the spark plugs back on, that is water burning off that got into the exhaust.

Either way, it can easily be avoided by avoiding deep water. I have a CAI on my rsx, and have been through some hellacious rain storms(the filter sits right behind my fog light on the driver's side, it does get damp after driving through heavy rain, but nothing serious).

 

what do you mean by "crank" the car? rev it? i've never heard that term.

second, will an AEM bypass work with an injen cai? and doesn't the air bypass valve pretty much cancel out having a cai?

peace

 

crank = try to start, ie turn the key.

 

People that have installed a bypass on the rsx have lost 1 whp at the most, most have lost none(although it isn't a popular mod with the rsx, as there is barely any space to put the bypass because of the intake manifold being at the front of the engine bay, and such a short tube for the cai).


It would still suck in air from the filter at the end of the tube, the bypass doesn't open up unless air can't be brought in from the filter at the end of the tube, I believe.

 

You want the low down on these CAIs?

I ran one on my GSR for YEARS... LONG BEFORE bypass valves or non-sense was available.

You DO NOT have to submerge the filter for it to injest water. The oils in this filter WILL repel quite a bit of water. Two things can then occurs... in a heavy downpour if enough water slams that filter it WILL PENETRATE the filter. Secondly if you run the element long enough the oils will wear right out, then you're open to ANY water that can soak through the filter.

Am I telling people NOT to run CAIs??? No. If I had my GSR again it would be my first mod. Though with the 350Z having a near ramair system... I don't see a point in the CAI. Of course the CAIs are showing better gains on a dyno as the intake track is more efficient at a stand still.

Though at speed the "ramair" effect of the stock airbox shine... and proves the other intakes "useless".

 

The big problem with hydrolocking the motor is that water does not compress like air does in the cylinder. More then not, if you have actually hydrolocked the engine you will have bent a rod.

A small amount of water that may cause the engine to stall because it may have diluted the gas can be dried out like Droppin_Gears explained. I would run the engine as little as possible after, and change the oil right away.

The bypass valve is designed to prevent hydrolock, but I don't believe it will be effective for smaller amounts of water. It is designed to open (bypass the filter) only when there is a certain amount of change in the resistance of air flow before the bypass valve, like when the filter becomes submerged.

 

I have a nice sized sheet of stainless steel in the garage that I'm gonna have cut when I get around to installing this intake. I'm thinking completely covering the filter from the front, and partially on 2 sides (bend the sides of the sheet at a 45 degree angle or so), then bolt it up to something under the bumper (dunno what yet, cuz I havent seen what it looks like under there). If that doesn't work out, I might consider just doing a short-ram intake instead of a cold air.
Haha, i really wish i never asked. I'm seriously scared to **** about installing this cold air intake now.

Peace

 

Guys, the post I made about the S2000's CAI had some people using the bypass valve too. I had the AEM CAI on my S2000 and never had a problem, but the car was kept in the garage overnight, and sometimes during the day it rained hard, but not for long.

I think the point is, make sure where the filter is located, that rain water can't get to the filter when parked. Run a hose over the hood for a few minutes and see if any water gets to the filter. If it does, protect your car from long exposures to rain while parked or find a way to divert the water flow that comes from above.

 

I've had mine on for 5 months now. It's been used in heavy rain and driven through deep puddles with no problems. It sounds great and gives a little extra punch up top. PUT IT ON...NOW!