cold air intake question

2002 honda civic ex 5 speed....not a mod kinda guy but heard that a
cold air intake will improve my mileage as well as give me a modest
boost in hp. i bought a V2 cold air induction systems from AEM and
and did a little research and now am a little worried that after me a
buddy put it on i will be running the risk of the car hydro seizing.
is this a real threat? PS AEM doesnt make a blow out valve for the V2
system. any advice or tips are greatly appreciated..... just dont
tell me to avoid large puddles. thanx

 

1. most of these things suck air from behind the radiator, so they're
not "cold air" at all.

2. they're made of nice heat retaining aluminum too. again, not much
"cold air" associated with a nice hot engine-warmed metal pipe.

3. on a modern fuel injected car, fuel mix is determined by the oxygen
sensor. "adding more air" isn't going to change that.

4. inferior air filtration decreases engine life.

5. unless the 02 civic is like a 5.7l durango trying to suck air through
an inlet smaller than a golf ball, you're really not going to notice
much difference in any thing other than the noise it lets you hear - and
that will be considerable.

bottom line, if you want to increase power, worry about the cam and the
header. and spend your money on iridium plugs and coiled core plug
leads before the intake too.

 

You would need to put your car on a dyno in order to sense any power
increase above the psychosomatic.

Your worry of hydrolock is a real one. Hydrolocks DO happen all the time
with CAI's. Hydrolock destroys engines.

 

Hydrolock? As in "rain ingested"? Flood water ingested?

Help me out here, how does a cold air induction lead to a hydrolock?

Al G

 

Depends on where the air pickup is.

Ordinary rain is unlikely to enter a CAI at sufficient volume as to lock
the engine.

But when you drive through large puddles, an amazing amount of water can
splash at high pressure into the engine compartment. It is possible for
water get past a foam air filter and travel through the intake. If
sufficient water is ingested as to exceed combustion chamber volume at
full compression, the connecting rod will bend.

CAI makers sometimes supply "bypasses" to help keep water out if the
intake even if it gets through the filter, but how effective those are I
cannot say.

Honda goes to great lengths to make certain this never happens with the
factory setup, even if you drive through giant puddles.

 

Thanks. Excellent FAQ by the way.

Al G