I'm putting an Injen CAI on my car in the next couple of weeks, and I was wondering if anyone has experience with these valves that detect water coming in through the cone and block it off. I know AEM makes them, probably some others. Do they work well? Which ones are the safest/best/best priced on the market? I live in Michigan and my car is a daily, so I want to have some protection against sucking in water.

 

The "valve" you are talking about is just a section of foam with a coupler on each end that bolts into an existing CAI. When the filter becomes submerged it creates pressure which will allow the engine to suck through the foam coupler instead of the filter.

These type of things will not work on a boosted car. Whenever you hit boost it will be much like having your filter submerged... you get pressure in the intake as the engine tries to suck in enough air. You'd be sucking through the foam part under the hood which negates any performance advantage of having a CAI in the first place.

You could get a "hydro shield" that goes over the filter and provides some additional protection if you are that worried about it. However that restricts airflow too.

If you haven't done so... take a look at the "airbox modification" thread. It's a lot cheaper than buying a $300 CAI and still retains the factory airbox which provides a degree of protection from the elements.

I've been running the airbox mod with a $25 pep-boys filter for 10,000 miles now... daily driven... with no problems. As it is you'd have to hit a puddle like 6" deep to even get close to where the filter is sitting.

 

They are actually called bypass valves and honestly you really wont need it unless you are planning on running your car through a lake, if you are going with a CAI it sits in the wheel well and is pretty well protected from water. To blow the enigne due to hydro lock you would need to sit at WOT with the cone submerged. but AEM is the way to go if you dont believe me and last time i checked than ran for about 40 bucks

 

You can go 1 of 2 ways and here they are.

I say just go with the Hydroshield. That's all you really need.
Just don't sit idling in a foot of water and you're good to go.
The hydroshield will take care of any splashes of water.

P.S. I don't run either of them and I have been fine for well over a year.

1. AEM Bypass Valve

http://www.aempower.com/Faqs.aspx?CategoryID=20



2. Injen Hydroshield

http://injenonline.com/cgi-bin/Merch...tegory_Code=PF

 

thank you all

 

Anytime mang. Good luck.

 

Last year here in IL we had a pretty nasty storm... 2 of my buddies hydrolocked their motors the same night, and I can assure you that neither of them tried to "drive through a lake" or "sat at WOT with the cone submerged." One of them was a built mustang, almost made me cry when he told me. In both cases, they drove through what looked like a shallow puddle. I'm not trying to sound like a dick, just saying don't get too comfortable because it doesn't take a lot of water to ruin a motor. Think of how small the combustion chamber is with the piston at top dead center... thats all it takes.

 

do you have a CAI, and if you do, do you use any of these products?

 

I just put on an AEM intake a week ago. The AEM bypass is not meant for forced induction applications, it says that right on their site and RaineMan already explained why. I'm still considering getting the hydroshield. I wasn't trying to get you paranoid about running a cold air intake, sorry if I did, I just wanted to point out that you must be careful with it because it doesn't take much water to fill a combustion chamber.

 

Yea living in this hellish state I was paranoid anyways. I'll probably get the hydroshield.

 

We had a flippin torrential downpour here in texas a few weeks back, and I drove through one deep ass puddle. Scared the **** out of me. Without hesitation, right after this I stopped trying to get home. I found some high ground and waited. I thought I had sucked water up into the engine, but I lucked out big time.

Be very careful with the CAI. I dont think I will be driving my car at all if it rains like that again. However, with normal rain, not big puddles or small rivers, you most likely wont have a problem. Hydroshield will help with that, but still be very careful.

 

Well avoiding puddles and not being dumb will solve this problem no need on spending 40 bucks on something you wont need....I ran an AEM CAI on my cavy for over two years without a bypass valve or hydrosheild through hurricanes ands tropical storms(not overexagerating) and never once had any problems with hydro lock. And if you look at the placement of our intakes (which is in the fender well) it is well covered and protected from mass amounts of rain water, most other CAI's such as the ones on Hondas sit right behind the bumper with no protection like ours has. Im not sure about your mustang buddy so i cant comment on his. But either way it personal choice but honestly there are thousands of people running CAI's with no bypass valve and have not blown their motor and until i blow a motor I will stand by my word but if I do you are the first person i will tell