I know this is a noobie question, but I just wanted to get some things clear before doing a cai.
Is anyone here running the one that requires a hole to be cut out of the wheel well? I'm not sure but the more I think about it, the more impractical it seems. Won't the filter get very dirty, very often? I wouldn't like the idea of staying home anytime some significant rain comes along. What are the actual benefits? Anyone time 0-60 or 1/4 mile times before and after? It doesn't seem like it would make a huge difference, considering the stock ram air setup looks relatively efficent. Should I just get a k&n panel and do some cheap mods like taking out the intake resonator and cutting the airbox, and then concentrate more on exhaust mods? By the way, does anyone have any pictures or specs of the stock exhaust system?

Thanks

 

just run the pipe half way and make it a short ram basically from the tb to the intake have a short midpipe in between instead of that snorkel and resonator. intake doesnt do much it just sounds sick on a max

 

i went for a short ram intake instead of a cai. The gains are very minimal.. like 2 hp at most if you're lucky from just putting an aftermarket intake on. It does make the maxima sound a lot meaner though!

 

just chop up your stock airbox man it gives it a decent sound i mean if you are looking to get more hp put in an aftermarket y-pipe sure a cai looks mean but you pay $$$ for it save it and just hack up the stock airbox, can find the instuctions in the stickies

 

sound is about it, full CAI is way too much work for what you get, go short ram or hacked airbox.

 

yeh i have a bomz cai but to maximize the benefits, a K&N filter and a y-pipe is a must.

also, the weather is crucial as well. i live down in the south, and it gets hot as heall in the summer, so cai won't be that great then.

 

I'm not into noise, so I went with a K&N panel air filter and Budget y-pipe (stainless steel) and am quite pleased.

 

I bought the- i guess its place racing style (cut a hole)- anyway i wussed out on cuttin. it seemed like a lot of work and we get a lot of wet weather in SLC, so i bagged the idea. i just kept my short ram, and i got no complaints- just kinda bummed i bought a ghetto ebay CAI and am not even using the long pipe. kinda a waste. im sure you can buy just a short ram- wish i would've done that

 

i bought the pr style cai off ebay and i havent had any complaints. i bought a 3" k&n filter for it, and she works just fine. It wasnt that big of a hassle to install, cutting the hole wasnt that big of a deal, but thats me

 

Yeah I really don't see what the big deal bout cutting the hole there is? It take like 10 minutes. Plus for all those weather freaks out there, if you actually looked at where the hole is, there is almost no way anything weather related could happen to damage your CAI.

 

exactly, i live in wisconsin with like 2 feet of snow, and have had no problems whatsoever. if you put that thing inside the wheel well back in like you should, and install the cai properly, its not going to be a problem.

 

Umm...buddy, if the weather is HOT where you live, then a CAI will definetly show much better gains over a short ram. With the short ram it suks air in thats relatively close to the engine, directly under the hood, which is really hot as it is, adding in your hot weather that creates extremely hot air. While with the CAI, you take your actual intake pipe away from the hot air directly next to the engine and under the hood, and move it foward of the engine, and down low to be able to suck in the coldest possible air that it can get.

 

I am about to install my CAI this weekend. I am not worried about hydrolocking at all. My older brother has a 2000 Prelude with an AEM for years and doesn't have the bypass valve. He has never hydrolocked yet and it sometimes gets a little wet in GA. Anyway I guess if you just keep it in low RPM you should have a problem.

 

no intakes have been proven to increase hp, theyre all just noise makers. if you want it for noise purposes, hack your airbox. (in the faq's) if you want some extra power, do a oscai (also in the faq's) and get a k&n drop panel air filter

 

i have a short ram on mines. you can do the long ram intake on yours i never saw anyone with it yet but you an be the first one to get a longer short ram pipe and just cut a hole out of the fender and stick the filter there.

 

The only bad weather problem is heavy rain, which builds up water, its not fun hitting a high puddle of water with the CAI and hearing that water get sucked in, but I would rather keep my CAI than push it back, I can always get a ride to work if it rains too bad. Also, the filter I have has a cover over it to help deflect any water, the day I got hydrolocked, I went through several puddles fine, it was just an area that had a dip in the road and the water had built up much more.

 

ouch.. how much that end up costing you to fix?

 

darnit..hack the stock airbox...sounds nice and mean, and gives you the same gains with a panel filter as any CAI.

 

Luckily it shut off on my right as I hit it, went rolling into an intersection when the light was turning red, alot of other people were there and helped me push my car out of the water, started her back up and she was fine, I cleaned her out right afterwards so no damage was done thankfully and I learned not to drive through puddles with a CAI , but with the filter cover I had it really didnt suck up too much water prior to it shutting down.

 

cai is overrated lol, hey bignutts i love that sig, only if you got a vid of when that booty actually hits the floor

 

Great! Now you tell me. I read several pages of the faq's a month and a half ago, and didnt notice that anyway. Guess I'll just go back and read again.