RAI question, New guy

[zedfree03]

I searched but couldn’t find anything directly related to my question…I have a 03 Vibe Gt, just bought it. I want a Ram Air Intake but I noticed that when driving through carwashes and getting that special under carage feature, a lot of water came into the engine bay. Enough came in that my engine looked as though it was smoking from the evaporation. It was around 30 degrees outside at the time. Is this normal for the Vibes? If so would a CAI be better or worse? I also live in UT where we get a large amount of snow. I don’t want to seize the engine.

[Mavrik]

Well I drove through the alaska winter with a cold air intake. both run the risk of hydro locking the engine should you get the filter wet and it soaks through into the intake. I'd try and shield the underside of the filter from water if your really getting a lot sprayed up there. A cold air intake will relocate the filter to in front of the left wheel and shielded by the under carriage shield. Air gets in through the lower grill at that side. Unless your nose deep in water, its hard to get any into there.

[vibe04]

check out afefilters.com, they have some good intakes. my short ram is damn good, better than injen in my opinion.

[Petrucci914]

You can't get hydrolock unless your filter is COMPLETELY SUBMERGED in water. Therefore, getting an underflush at a carwash may make you **** your pants a little bit, it won't cause any harm whatsoever. This is a common misconception with people.

[vibe04]

afefilters.com is the way to go

[coldmm803]

try searching for short ram or cold air intake (aka CAI)i'm gona ruin the fun and bust on nascarxprt*cough* http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=22731he didnt learn his lesson the first time, *cough* http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=27536you could get an AEM intake and bypass valve if you wanted

[Lancer]

I've had my cai installed for almost 4 years now. Never had a problem with any puddles (avoid the deep ones!! ) or any toughless automatic carwashes. The fileter is sheilded by the 'splash shield' under the tranny. And a short ram intake is totally shielded by that and the engine. No worries, dude!

[NascarXprt]

haha thanks

[Whelan]

Quote, originally posted by Petrucci914 »You can't get hydrolock unless your filter is COMPLETELY SUBMERGED in water. Therefore, getting an underflush at a carwash may make you **** your pants a little bit, it won't cause any harm whatsoever. This is a common misconception with people.Sorry to disagree boss. My buddy and me were cruisin in his 99 Integra GSR. Had his AEM on it and just cruisin in rain, nothing crazy the car started bucking, then gurlged bad. Then it died, car would not start. Turns out he hydrolocked sufficiently bending his crank, breaking two piston rods and had to get a new engine. When I had my Civic coupe I had the AEM cai as well. I could not even drive in any kind of rain. I would suddenly feel the car buck and have to push the clutch in, and let the car coast until the water cleared out of the pipe (i.e. no vaccum) Then try and keep going. More than one occassion it happened on the highway and I ended up slowing to almost 25 before it was ok to keep going again.Maybe the bucking is not going to cause hydrolock immediately, but over time I conclude this cannot be healthy. So for me, I shortened up the pipe and will never use a cai again especially living in the Northeast, maybe in cali, but def. not over here. I know I could have gotten a flap valve but I would rather not even come close to that situation again. So technically you do not need to fully submerge the filter, just get a sufficient amount of water sprayed onto or covering the filter where it sucks it in, does not evaporate it in time with the heat of the chamber and combustion, causing a misfire on an already winding engine which can cause those issues with piston rods and cranks f'in up! Seen it one to many times.

[northvibe]

I have a cai installed on my car (TRD one) and have had it on for about a year now with my car lowered and Im in MN with out and issues yet. There are 2 products you can use to try to stop hydrolock, theres a net thing that can cover your filter that injen makes found at injen.com. dont know how much that helps but I think AEM makes a air bypass valve found here that looks to helphttp://www.aempower.com/ViewCa...ID=20 so theres 2 things to try to prevent hydolocking.

[kevera]

It all comes down to location of your filter.The Vibe,Matrix filter location on a CAI is behind the fog lights and shielded from most of the elements.So,most of us will never have any problems except for nascar who went fishing with his Vibe.

[Whelan]

Yes on a lot of Hondas the wheel well has a huge opening right around the shock/spring. So water literally is shot into the area that the filter was in. Not to mention where it was. The filter sat right next to the tranny.It's a pretty straight shot down from where you see it disappear here. So it is not protected from anything. I eventually removed the second pipe and just connected the filter to the first one, helped a bit, but still did not solve the issue for this car. So far with the Trix and the wai, not one issue!

[zedfree03]

Those intakes look sweet. I think that’s what I will go with. Thanks for everyone’s help. I've had intakes on all my other cars with no issues. I just wanted to make sure with this car. I've never had so much water in the engine compartment after a car wash. Thanks again.