CAI Vs. SRI

You ask anyone who pays for their own car/insurance/gas/mods and they'll tell you hydrolock is no joke. There are products like by-pass valves that eliminate hydrolock. (Think AEM) If you HAVE to go cold-air (meaning you wanna spend more cash for the CAI) then i'd say your best bet is to ensure there is a bypass unit for the cold-air so that you never have to worry about hydrolock. I've heard of cars hydrolocking with CAI but never from an intake that had a bypass valve.

This is taken from an AEM description of a bypass valve:

**Keep your engine breathing freely even when your intake is submerged in water with AEM’s Air Bypass Valve
Exclusively designed to work with your AEM Cold Air Intake System - V1 systems only, does not work with the V2
**When your intake’s main filter becomes submerged, your Air Bypass Valve automatically takes over, shutting off induction from the wet filter and drawing air in through its external diaphragm
**The Air Bypass Valve’s foam filter shields against dust, rocks and other harmful material
**For maximum durability, the Air Bypass Valve features a sonically welded, nylon-reinforced cage
**Nasty chemicals and the elements are no match for the Air Bypass Valve’s urethane flapper valves


I think a cold-air is always worth it in the end. sure you're sacrificing some response in the low-end but that's why people get exhausts. To free up those ponies lost when you're trying to get the car moving from a stop

 

I have ran with a Injen CAI in my Galant for over five years now. The filter is located here:



Bottom right where there is an opening there. Mine is the Pearl Beige Galant. I have driven thru rain and everything and as you can see that is wide open for water to get in. Nothing has happened. Not saying it won't but I have had no problems....

 

AEM actually submerged there cai filter in a glass container and nothing was sucked up into the engine bcuz of the by pass valve. The car they used was a mid engine honduh. I was hoping it would bcuz it was a H but it did not. As for the Injen "hydrashield" not sure about.

 

I wouldn't worry about it, even if you don't have the bypass valve, as long as your not revving your engine while going through a very deep puddle you should be fine. I never ran one in my civic and the only time the engine died was when I went through a puddle that completely submerged the filter. The engine didn't suck in any water and only died because it was cutoff from air. 2 minutes later I started it right up and drove off.

 

Our engines don't have enough "suction" to suck up enough water to hydrolock it. Now that doesn't mean go driving through DEEP puddles or anything, but you should be ok.

Also, with the AEM bypass, the intake still draws in air from it regardless if the other filter is submerged. Meaning its pulling in hot air from under the hood just like a SRI. So if you are going to buy an AEM bypass and have it sitting under the hood with the hot air, you may as well save your money and buy the SRI.

 

^^ that is a good point but just put a bypass on there will eliminate ur risk factors

 

well, the bypass system is more restrictive than the filter, and like electricity and water, air chooses the path of least resistance and that would be the actual filter, not the foam in the bypass... when a lil bit of water gets in the intake, it travels through the walls of the intake, and when it gets to the bypass it stays in the foam... when your filter is COMPLETELY sumerged (barely happenes) then the air is sucked in from the bypass, cause technically the filter is "locked"

hope this helps..

i had the CAI and the bypass on my first eclipse.. i am talking experience not theory