I know … another CAI post … but I thought some other Alty owners might be interested in my intake winterization.
I figured since it’s supposed to rain a lot, and get below 0 C this week, it was a good time to test this out. I went to Rona and picked up a couple of different sections of PVC pipe. Less than $3 each.
Both are 2" pipe segments to roughly match the existing AEM CAI. Longer one is 60 degree bend, shorter piece is 22 1/2 degrees.
I tried both, and ended up using the shorter piece, which tucks the CAI up under the hood.
For comparison, here’s a pic of what the full AEM installation looks like, with the filter way down low near the front tire.
Here’s a closer view of the PVC pipe … it does bottleneck slightly, but not significantly.
It’s tucked right under the hood so I know it’ll stay nice and dry. My main concern right now is that the pipe is durable enough to withstand any heat build-up. I’m driving to Banff this weekend, so that will be a good test. The other concern is that it won’t be getting air that’s as cold as the original location, but for most of the winter, cold air shouldn’t be an issue.
I just put my Injen CAI Ram Super-Soaker 2000 intake last night and it just sucked up a puddle of water on the way to work …anyone know why my car wont start ?
So this morning I drove through some significant rain on my way to work … probably a 45 minute drive of stop-and-go … everything stayed dry, the drive seemed fine. Except that my idle seemed to be slightly rougher than normal.
I’m not sure if it was in my head because I was paying more attention to it than usual, but at a few lights the rpms seemed to fluctuate a little more than usual on a 6-month old car. I’m thinking that perhaps the hotter air had an effect, or perhaps the fact that the filter is way closer to the MAF sensor might be throwing things off a bit.
haha u got a CAI for 5$ LOL, your engine could be FCKED ive seen videos of ppl trying to get the water out of the engine, and UNhydrolock it. seem to work for them. i have no idea how to fix that. but im sure thats what it is.
Well, the great filter experiment can be officially wrapped up after tonight. I wouldn’t say that it was a failure, but it definitely wasn’t a success.
As of tonight, I’m back to the stock intake - every single bolt.
I think the new placement of the filter would’ve worked fine for the winter, if you could live with a slightly rougher idle. I don’t know what a long-term trip would do - the longest I drove it for was about an hour - but everything seemed fine except for the idle. Especially after going back to stock tonight, I noticed that the idle had definitely been messed up. There must be something with the MAF sensor and the shorter distance to the filter.
But after talking to my mechanic friend (who basically said I worry too much and it would be fine), and talking to the dealership (who reiterated that if anything DOES happen, it’s my problem), I decided to return to stock. This was for a couple reasons:
A) I can’t afford to lose sleep all winter every time it snows wondering whether my car is going to get screwed, and
B) - I can’t afford to replace the car/motor if something DOES happen. Half the reason I paid the extra $$ for a brand-new car was so that I don’t have to worry about it.
So the whole thing has been shelved until spring, when I’ll probably go back to the same predicament I’m in right now.
I did a ghetto pvc intake on my talon and it worked fairly well over the stock intake which was just plain lame … it always looks good on paper until you put it together and then you step back and think …what the hell did I just put together
I think if my car was a little older I’d leave the AEM on all winter, and it would probably be totally fine. But with a few more years of payments left, I just can’t take the risk, no matter how small.
