Celica Forums General Discussion Engine and Performance AEM cai-hydrolocking

Is there anything i can get to go along with my CAI to prevent water from getting into it?

AEM bypass valve

There is the AEM bypass valve, but it is reported to not work well with our cars becasuse the cai tube is not long enough.

You can read the sport compact car review of it here:
http://www.sportcompactcarweb.com/tech/0104scc_tested/index.html

So would it be a good idea to go with the bypass valve or not, cause ohio can get some pretty hvy rain storms.

Storms won't cause your car to hydrolock. If you were flooded then get worried. But a little splash here and there won't hydrolock your car. Your filter has to be submerged into water with enough pressure to make it go through the filter. So a little splash or you hit a puddle thats 6" deep won't hyrdolock your car.

How many stories of people with CAI hydrolocking their car have you heard, unless they submerged there filter? I have a CAI myself and and in Minnesota its snowy and ALOT of rain durring the srping time right now. No problems at all.

IMO it won't offer you much protection from hydrolocking.

These are several of the options availible to you:


1. If it's that big of a concern to you then go with a short ram intake and heat shield.

2. Or go with the cai, with a heat shield\splash guard and be careful where you drive when it rains.

3. Get on the waiting list for the TPR intake which can be converted between cai and sri mode.

4. Buy a cai cut it in two and then join it back together with a coupling hose and some hose clamps, so you can convert between CAI and SRI mode. That's basically the secret behind the TPR intakes ability to convert between the two modes. When the weather is crappy undue the coupler and stick the filter back on the short piece. The guy in this thread went halfway there when he converted his e-bay CAI to an SRI:

https://celicahobby.com/ubbthrea...&PHPSESSID=

Not according to this thread:

https://celicahobby.com/ubbthrea...#Post1953417994

If you don't use a splash gaurd and or cover up your wheel well plastics holes and water repeatedly splashes on the filter, small amounts of water can be sucked through the filter and accumulate in the bend at the bottom of the cai tube and get sucked up into the engine.

^^ You are right. While it's nothing compared to sucking in a liter of water into your engine, enough splashes can make the filter wet, and once it's wet you can get water coming up the intake tube. These intakes are designed to let air flow easily, and they can suck water up pretty easily.

Another thing I've heard is that the filter doesn't need to be completely submerged, due to the vacuum nature of the intake. If it gets close enough to the filter you can suck it right in.