Chances of getting water in engine from CAI w/o BPV?
I live in Atlanta, ga and im buying a AEM CAI this week. Ive heard stories and all the usuals about how water can get sucked into your engine if you aren't careful. I also heard hp cuts down 3-4 from having it. And its an extra $50 i did'nt really wanna spend. Is it worth getting, and also if i dont get it are the chances good that i could f up my engine? Its not like im driving in 2 foot puddles....
Personally i would get it just for a peace of mind. U r lucky to even get 4 hp from that and u certainly won't loose that much w/ the by pass if any at all. No one has proof (i am still awaiting)
You guys are weirdos. The AEM ByPass valve doesn't do anything, except lose you about 1hp over the regular AEM CAI. Think about it - even if you have the bypass your filter will still get wet from puddles and other things, but that won't do anything to your car. The only way that you can get water to go up into the throttle body is if you drive into or through water that comes up to roughly half the size of your wheel, which means that water would already be pouring into your car from the sides. Now would a reasonable person drive through water more than 4 inches high - I doubt it. So in my personal opinion I say don't get anything, I've had my CAI forever with no problems at all. Rain, hail, puddles, no problems. Pretty much unless your car is submerged under water, you should be fine without a bypass. Save your money and time and HP.
Originally posted by BlackLude98 You guys are weirdos. The AEM ByPass valve doesn't do anything, except lose you about 1hp over the regular AEM CAI. Think about it - even if you have the bypass your filter will still get wet from puddles and other things, but that won't do anything to your car. The only way that you can get water to go up into the throttle body is if you drive into or through water that comes up to roughly half the size of your wheel, which means that water would already be pouring into your car from the sides. Now would a reasonable person drive through water more than 4 inches high - I doubt it. So in my personal opinion I say don't get anything, I've had my CAI forever with no problems at all. Rain, hail, puddles, no problems. Pretty much unless your car is submerged under water, you should be fine without a bypass. Save your money and time and HP.
~Alex
Pouring out the sides before it goes in the filter Did u look at the link i showed u And go on www.aempower.com and read about the bypass valve before u talk. Yea u 'might' not run into a problem but people have and it is a precaution that i would take. Better to be on the safe side
Famous line: I would rather spend $32 on a bypass valve then spend $4000 on a new motor What is a 1hp anyways unless u r drag racing anyways.
Originally posted by BlackLude98 You guys are weirdos. The AEM ByPass valve doesn't do anything, except lose you about 1hp over the regular AEM CAI. Think about it - even if you have the bypass your filter will still get wet from puddles and other things, but that won't do anything to your car. The only way that you can get water to go up into the throttle body is if you drive into or through water that comes up to roughly half the size of your wheel, which means that water would already be pouring into your car from the sides. Now would a reasonable person drive through water more than 4 inches high - I doubt it. So in my personal opinion I say don't get anything, I've had my CAI forever with no problems at all. Rain, hail, puddles, no problems. Pretty much unless your car is submerged under water, you should be fine without a bypass. Save your money and time and HP.
~Alex
The point of the bypass valve is not to keep the filter from getting wet...its to BYPASS the filter when it gets submerged so as not to allow any water to flow through the tube and into the engine.
How would water pour in through the side of your car when its only half-way up the wheel-well?
I'm a very reasonable person and have driven through puddles on the road that were greater than or equal too 4 inches. Most of the accidents caused by hydro-planing are from deep puddles. I've also had to drive through many apartment complexes that had massive puddles in them...like 6-8 inches or more. Starting to make sense yet???
I don't dispute the fact that you haven't had any problems or anything...most people don't. However, those handful of people who used to share your mentality and have hydro-locked their engine would probably tell you to get the bypass valve now.
Your car doesn't have to be completely submerged in water but rather the filter. If your filter is submerged underwater for more than a couple of seconds you run a pretty big risk of having a bad day.
But that's what I'm saying - 99% of people won't drive through any water to the point where the WHOLE filter will be submerged. I can't speak for everybody, but most people won't drive through water that high and if you're in a situation where you're forced to do that, then by all means get the bypass valve.
Originally posted by BlackLude98 But that's what I'm saying - 99% of people won't drive through any water to the point where the WHOLE filter will be submerged. I can't speak for everybody, but most people won't drive through water that high and if you're in a situation where you're forced to do that, then by all means get the bypass valve.
~Alex
U don't have to drive in a puddle that big but it could splash up too and the filter is really low anyways
chances of soaking up water aren't too high. just don't drive through any really BIG puddles. I've been caught in one HUGE terrential down-pour, scared me, plus i can't stand driving in that kind of weather anyways, so i just pulled over to the side of the road and waited for it to die down..car's fine..
It'll take an ungodly amount of water to hydrolock your engine. Don't worry about it unless you plan on driving in the ocean.
The little bits of water that MIGHT get through the filter by splashing onto it will not make it far enough into the engine to do any damage what so ever. It'll dicipate from the heat first.
AEM designed the bypass valve in case some idiot decided to drive through a large enough amount of water to hydrolock their engine so they wouldn't be liable.
Also unless your AEM intake is old and dirty, old mostly, you won't have to worry about the "splashes of water" because of the type of oil the filter is covered with; it'll just beed the water and drip off of it.
There have been many discussions on this.
Also there is an article (I forget which issue) in Super Street (not my favorite) about an NSX with an AEM CAI. They submerged the intake in a container filled with water. The water was sucked into the CAI but didn't even reach the bypass valve.
I've had my AEM CAI for damn near 4 years, and have driven through some serious bad weather.
One day I parked my Lude on the 4th floor of a parking garage while I was at work. It poured down rain for 9 hours, and flooded the 1st floor of the garage. On my way down the ramp, I find out that the 1st floor was now a 6-8 inch deep wading pool, which I now had to drive through since traffic was building up behind me. As soon as I hit the water, you'll never guess what happened....ABSOFU@KINLUTLY NOTHING!!!! And my Lude is lowered over 2 inches. Moral or the story is, as long as you're not a complete and utter retard and rev the piss out of your engine as soon as you hit a puddle, nothing is going to happen. If by some miracle you do happen to drive into a huge puddle, and your engine cuts off, don't be stupid and try to restart it while you're still in the puddle...push it out first, and then start it. Just because it shut off, does not mean you hydrolocked it. Most likely the only thing that happened is that water blocked the filter, and no air can get in, therefore the engine stalled.
If you want the BPV, that's your call, but if you're so scared of sucking water up into the engine, why bother getting a CAI in the first place?
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1998 Prelude
93 Octane
10w30
China Berry Lil Tree
Right on. That's what I've been saying all along in this post. I totally agree. The ByPass valve is only a legal thing at most. AEM made it so that they wouldn't get sued - kinda like - well we DID have this product available - so you possibly COULD have avoided it, etc.
hydrolocking is not a big deal as long as you don't keep trying to start it. All you have to do is take out the spark plugs, turn the engine over, put the plugs back in, cchange all the fluids and your done. Also I have the AEM CAI and I also have neuspeed race springs so it is pretty damn low and I have never had a problem. I have driven through some deep water too. The bypass valve would only work if your filter completely submerged, which is prob never gonna happen. I have hit deep puddles before and I have the plastic under the filter to the fender cut out for more airflow and nothing has ever happened.
Well I have a buddy that works at a Honda Dealership that told me the only reason that AEM made the bypass filter was because Honda wants to sell Aftermarked parts in there parts section in the dealership(Well in Canada its like that I don't know about US).. and the only way Honda would carry the AEM is if they had somthing to give HONDA a peace of mind that water wouldn't get into the engine.. and somthing they could both make more money on.....
Same thing here, I agree fully with D.K. I have had the CAI on my old 99 Eclipse for a year+ and there is no plastic under the filter sealing it off from the ground.I drove through lots of rain storms and puddles and nothing has happened
Instead of spending $45 on a bypass valve and giving up that huge 3-5hp for it as a "piece of mind" don't spend any extra money and use common sence and avoid big puddles with some serious depth.
You don't want to invite water on your filter especially if your rpm's are up top and/or your driving fast.Just be careful when your driving even though you would really need to drive through a flood and be up high to hydrolock your engine.
I think we get 8-10 crank hp from the AEM CAI and a much happier engine
Hey I just remembered somthing.. I remember reading a post back in time that someone said that insted of buying the BPV they took a Javex bottle and cut the ends off if it and when they had the bumper off they some way put it in the bumper so that way when they did go over puddles the water didn't splash on the filer??? Has any one heard of this??? and if you did how does it work and stay in there....
Originally posted by menace
[B]The water was sucked into the CAI but didn't even reach the bypass valve.
I don't think the water is supposed to reach the bypass valve.. from what I know, as soon as the filter element becomes submerged, the intake starts sucking in air from where the bypass valve instead, stopping the flow of water in order to prevent it from getting anywhere near the engine..
I don't think the water is supposed to reach the bypass valve.. from what I know, as soon as the filter element becomes submerged, the intake starts sucking in air from where the bypass valve instead, stopping the flow of water in order to prevent it from getting anywhere near the engine..
ya......that guy doesn't know how the bypass valve works.....
no.......water is NOT supposed to leak out of the bypass valve......when the filter is submerged the valves within the bypass valve open which allows the intake to suck in air from the bypass valve and not the filter........kinda like when your sucking from a straw........if u puncture a hole in the straw while ur sucking.......water no longer comes up but u end up sucking air from the hole u made
get the bypass valve. i used to think it wouldn't happen to me, but it did, sucked too. i got lucky and i didn't do any big damage. and it doesn't have to be a big puddle it just has to be driving constantly in alot of puddles (if that makes since).
hey frank did you get the m/o yet, let me know if you haven't. i mailed it out thursday you should be getting it pretty soon.
ya......that guy doesn't know how the bypass valve works.....
no.......water is NOT supposed to leak out of the bypass valve......when the filter is submerged the valves within the bypass valve open which allows the intake to suck in air from the bypass valve and not the filter........kinda like when your sucking from a straw........if u puncture a hole in the straw while ur sucking.......water no longer comes up but u end up sucking air from the hole u made
I do know how they work. I wasn't implying the water is meant to reach the bypass valve, I just simply quoted Super Street... Just something I remembered reading in a caption under one of the pictures.
A bypass valve is only used when the filter is incapable of inducing air therefore receiving air from a different source (the bypass valve).
Don't be such a dick. Also don't do what axngen did and assume that you knew what I meant. I worded the sentence wrong, that's all.
To whoever said that hydrolocking your engine isn't a big deal, it is a very very big deal if your car is still in gear and the engine hydrolocks. Wheels turn transmission, transmission turns engine, engine tries to compress water: one messed up engine. You're rings/cylinder walls will either be shot, or you'll break a piston rod.
For everyone that thinks that they'll never run into a deep puddle of standing water:
I have a friend with a civic and a AEMCAI. He is a SUPER careful driver. He was driving home from work one night after it had rained. It wasn't raining but the streets were still pretty wet. You guys ever driven on roads right after it rains? There is a "sheet" of water still on the road, and it looks like you're driving on a lake, even though it's like 1mm thick. You guys know what I mean? A nice even layer of water on the road. So my friend is driving along, and all the sudden, he hears WHOOOSH. The sound of his tires going thru lots of water. Engine dies. Tries to start the car, but it wont crank (he doesn't fully understand waht hydrolock is, at least at the time ). I go over there expecting water in the engine, and sure enuf, its in there. It took 2 weeks to get all the water out of the engine. Water in the cylinders, water in the intake manifold, and the worst part was water in the internals (where all the oil goes). It only took about 4-5 days to dry out the intake manifold and the cylinders, but the internals were a different story. Had to do change the oil ten times to get all the water out. Like I said b4, he is a really really good driver, no better of worse than any of us, so it wasn't carelessness that caused it, but just bad luck. In those kinda situations where the road has a film of water left on it at night, its almost impossible to tell whether its 1mm deep or 1 foot deep. His car was not dropped, and the water was about 8 inches deep, but it was enuf to get enuf water into the intake (I figured his forward momentum splashed huge amounts of water forward right into the intake.
We were very lucky, in that he immediately clutched in his tranny as soon as he heard the water. If he had done it any later, his engine would;ve gone to Honda heaven. We never thought it would happen to any of us. We thought "if we just drive very carefully, then itll be all good." Unless you never ever drive your car in the rain or when the road is wet, 40 bux is very cheap insurance against a huge headache like this. Even though the engine wasn't damaged, he didnt have his car for 2 weeks, and that alone is worth 40 bux.
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Pouring out the sides before it goes in the filter
Did u look at the link i showed u
The point of the bypass valve is not to keep the filter from getting wet...its to BYPASS the filter when it gets submerged so as not to allow any water to flow through the tube and into the engine. 
and a much happier engine
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