installing a cold air intake on my car

[icarus4586]

Since the cold air intake pulls air from lower, hopefully away from the engine heat, there's a possibility of it sucking in water, and then you're hosed. Does anybody know how likely this is? My car isn't lowered or anything, this is the first mod I've done on it.

 

[Electric Amish]

It depends on how low to the ground you run your intake and how wet it is where you live. Is there a chance of going through a puddle or gutter that is full of water to a level you can suck it up?

 

[loup garou]

Text

 

[fbrdphreak]

Will it be easier for your engine to hydrolock if you try to ford a river or drive in a flood? Yes. Under normal circumstances do you have to worry about? No.

 

[icarus4586]

Thanks for the info. I live in upstate New York, so it rains a sort of frequently some times in the year, but nothing huge. Basically the advice is to be careful going through big puddles?

 

[fbrdphreak]

Depending on what kind of car you have, if you splash a little air in your intake tube it won't hurt anything. It is when there is a sufficient amount of water (and force behind the water) to get up through your intake, throttle body, intake manifold, and into your combustion chambers. Then hydrolock can occur & your engine is fvcked. I highly doubt going through a puddle will cause that.

 

[mitaiwan82]

just get a bypass valve:

link

or you can get a short ram intake, which usually dont have the same problem since it doesn't run as low as a CAI

 

[fbrdphreak]

Originally posted by: mitaiwan82
just get a bypass valve:

link

or you can get a short ram intake, which usually dont have the same problem since it doesn't run as low as a CAI

Interesting, never heard of that.

But yeah a short ram is fine too. Cold air doesn't make a huge difference, esp if you have a small displacement normally aspirated engine.

 

[MBrown]

Originally posted by: mitaiwan82
just get a bypass valve:

link

or you can get a short ram intake, which usually dont have the same problem since it doesn't run as low as a CAI

Someone was talking to me about this.

 

[lokiju]

My friend had one on his Celica GTS and sucked up water and blew his engine, had to get it rebuilt! He got a bypass valve after that.

I got a cold air intake on my Tahoe but it doesn't direct it down towards the wheel well or anything like a lot of cars do, it just isolates it via a box towards the corner of the engine compartment.

FWIW I got a K&N and have tons of issue is the rubber fittings they provided with it, they've just started falling apart and have constant issues with the engine vibrations shaking it off of my throttle body.

 

[Zach]

Reminds me of one of those Spike shows. Horsepower TV I think, last weekend. They used one with a splash gard inside to deflect ware from coming up and a pull away bypass panel in case you had to really get wet.