Hey guys, I was thinking about getting a cold air intake for my '94 civic ex. Then it started raining out here in California and it made me think; if the intake pipe is under the car close to the ground, isnt there a danger of it sucking water into my engine and killing it, or are intakes designed to eliminate that threat? It may seem like a dumb question but I didnt want to be driving along only to kill my engine 'cause i hit a puddle.

Hey guys, I was thinking about getting a cold air intake for my '94 civic ex. Then it started raining out here in California and it made me think; if the intake pipe is under the car close to the ground, isnt there a danger of it sucking water into my engine and killing it, or are intakes designed to eliminate that threat? It may seem like a dumb question but I didnt want to be driving along only to kill my engine 'cause i hit a puddle.
Yes AEM makes a bypass valve for just such thing if your worried about it. You can also run a short ram intake and not have this problem.

oh good. Thanks man!

Doesn't a bypass valve mess up the airflow on an intake since it provides an extra inlet for air to come in?

No, it doesn't mess it up because of that, it messes it up because it has a tendancy to break and pieces get sucked into the manifold. Avoid puddles, you have to submerge the whole filter in order to hydrolock the engine, either that or go for the short ram intake.

is short ram as good though?

Technically no, but the gains you'll see from any intake are very small, like 1-3 hp. I like the CAI better, but that's me.

there is and will always be a debate as to which type of intake is better. CAI's pull colder air but a short ram gets a lot more air. Both have their strong points....but honestly just get one or the other because it really doesn't matter a damn bit which one you get.