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I've been trying to make a decision here, and I'd like some help. I was all ready to get a CAI for my car, but then I start hearing these horror stories about how you run the risk of hydrolocking with a CAI. And people say "oh well, just dont drive through any lakes" but there was someone on this very board who hydrolocked driving through a puddle.

Obviously I don't want to hydrolock my car, but I was pretty psyched about the benefits of the CAI, primarily the great sound I hear people talk about, and the smoother idling. That and I think they look good. I'm not a fan of the colored cone filter look.

Is there a way to prevent a CAI from sucking up water? Like a shield or a guard or something? Or a CAI that has that incorporated? Perhaps a different way to angle the CAI?

What do you feel the real chances are of sucking up water with a CAI? Is it a freak occurance?

-Tim

Originally posted by Absath:
...Is there a way to prevent a CAI from sucking up water?

Fit a snorkel?

I live in Denmark where it rains 95 percent of the time, the hydrolock has a high priority in my mind.
Steps taken to minimize hydrolocking was to bolt on a 10"x10" diamond shaped mesh in extension of my splashguard.
It is doing a great job deflecting water while allowing air to the filter.
Just my .2 cents

On our cars, we've got the luxury of that little protected cubby under the radiator overfill. I ziptied mine up to just below the lip there, which has got to be at least 2 feet off the ground. I wouldn't even TRY to drive in 2 feet of water if I had the OEM intake. Should have my pictures back today. I'll try to post pics of how I did mine tonight.

Yeah, that would be cool Lakersfan, because I wanted to try and do this myself, but my main concern was where/how to relocate the coolant overflow resevoir.

Also, what kind of CAI did you buy?

-Tim

AEM makes a devices that allows air to bypass the filter just for this reason. It's $$$. Just like CAIs, they are meant for looks mainly.

Personally, I would just go with a stock filter & airbox with 1/2" holes opened all around the bottom for extra flow. Cotten guaze cones dont really filter: hold them up to the light and see what I mean. Paper filters are not the restriction they are made out to be. Why spend all the money for syn oil and the best internals just to send dirty air into the intake?

www.bobistheoilguy.com for more details

I partially hydrolocked my maximas engine. I had a cai and drove over 2 feet of water..it ran fine just alot of vapor coming out, i got off and diconnedted the cai hose and drove home. after that my engine just kep messing up till i messed it up by dropping a small washer in the spark plug hole :p anywho... why dont you just make a hood scoop where the stock filter is at or place a cone filter there...ando well dont drive tru deep water and if it rains..simply remove the cai and add a cone intake? cai o the k8 does almost nothing..so why bother o.0

-hec

I have retained the stock airbox and stock CAI (yes, it is a CAI) and fitted a K&N filter element in the box. It's a good solution.

<img src="http://members.cox.net/jasonplastow/IMG006-1.jpg" alt=" - " />

<img src="http://members.cox.net/jasonplastow/IMG004-1.jpg" alt=" - " />

In the second picture, you can see the bottom of the filter is close to the blue lip of metal. I basically used a zip tie through the filter's clamp and zip tied it to a hole overlooking that hole. You can kinda see the hole I'm talking about just to the side of that big 0 guage wire. I used a Prelude intake, but obviously I ditched the K8 intake manifold. If you use an Integra intake, you should be able to get the filter in the same area. Try to get one with the same filter I did. I got a musroom filter. They're very shallow so it won't go far into the hole.

Oh. And as for the fluid resivoir, you can kind of see it in the second pic under the power distribution block. The white and red. I picked up a generic resivoir from AutoZone for $6 that had a bracket so you could relocate it anywhere. I made it pretty much invisible.

Originally posted by hgallegos915:
cai o the k8 does almost nothing..so why bother o.0

-hec

Because I have a KLZE. Unfortunately this thread hasn't cleared anything up for me, hehe. Everyone is still saying different things. I guess I'll have to keep thinking on it.

-Tim

A better shot of my coolant resivoir:

<img src="http://members.cox.net/jasonplastow/car/resivoir.JPG" alt=" - " />