Hey Everybody, I'm sure a lot of you have put a CAI on your cars and I'd like some advice on one. My first question is what are my chanced of sucking up water into it and wrecking my engine? and will I need to take it off every winter? Should I get a short ram instead? I'm looking to give my car a little boost and better performance without spending a ton of money. Is this one of my best options to do that. Finally what are some good but less expensive brands, and where's the best place to shop around for them. Thanks again everyone.

 

Contrary to most advertisements, you are unlikely to get any boost in performance at anything short of wide-open-throttle, and even then only a very little bump at or very near red-line. Said another way, it is highly unlikely that any boost in performance will be noticeable or even measurable in the real world. That said, if you want to hear more engine growl, then knock yourself out.

For a more detailed discussion on CAIs, take a look at this thread: https://www.mazdaforum.com/forum/general-tech-6/cais-fuel-economy%3B-whats-real-truth-20812/

 

and if u cant understand that, then this may help

The chances of water getting in is always, the chance of it wrecking ur engine is small but your maf/iat will suffer (the black sensor thats on the intake), in terms of preformance, basically LITTLE is felt, on the dyno 2hp, 3tq at most and most likely at the bottom of the powerband @ WOT.

 

So i do understand that its not gonna give me a huge boost in horsepower, I was just hoping for a little more get up and go. The big thing for me was the slight increase in gas mileage....which i read the above post stating that it may or may not actually give me. Any other suggestions then on a cheap performance booster. and what are everyone's thoughts on a ram air intake, or are they just even lamer then a CAI?

 

It all just depends. Some people like myself claim that there it gives a little boost in fuel economy, and performance, but others don't. Don't expect a big boost however. Some Dynos show that there is a 3-5 hp/trq increase. The CAI will give your car a bad *** sound, and make it feel alot cooler and sound more powerful.

I have a AEM cold air intake and I love it. It was my first mod and was pretty simple. If your worried about getting water into your engine, AEM actually has a bypass valvue which is claimed to prevent the intake from sucking water into your engine so you won't have to worry as much. Without the bypass valve, youd have to have your intake pretty much submurged into water in order to have damaging amounts of water go into your engine. Stay out of big puddles. Intake or not, they are bad for the car.

Heres a link that explains bypass valves
http://www.modified.com/tech/0104scc...lve/index.html

I would say get a CAI. I'm not a big fan of the SRI. But either way, they will be cool in your mazda!

 

What is your definition of cheap or less expensive?

 

Around 200. I don't want to drop a bunch of money on my car. I basically just want to do something to say I did it, but at the same time I don't want that to be something like adding a chrome license plate cover.

 

nothing is really cheap for our car but 200 is more than enough to get a cai, btw i recommend a short ram if you live in a area when it rains....it rains check protegegarage.com for parts

 

$256 for my AEM CAI!

 

yea well, a intake is an intake, even a ebay knock off would work...just not look as cool or w/e