Cold air intakes or short ram?

I have a 97 prelude, and i want to upgrade my intake and eventually my exhaust. But i was wondering what the difference between cold air and short ram. Obviously short ram is right near the engine, and cold air is further away which sucks in colder air. But one of my friends who has a 95 eclipse had his car lock up from water getting sucked up by his aem cold air. Any comments, suggestions, anything? Thanks

the aem bypass valve ($39.99) can be installed to prevent water from being sucked into the engine. Personally, I would go with a short ram intake.

well, i am gonna go with short ram becuase cold air suck up water and the bypass valve elminates any extra gains the cold air give you. Plus the short ram sounds wayyyyy better, and are about 1/20 the price.

well, i am gonna go with short ram becuase cold air suck up water and the bypass valve elminates any extra gains the cold air give you. Plus the short ram sounds wayyyyy better, and are about 1/20 the price. But hot air is NOT good for the engine performance......please use the search function because this has already been discused a hundred times! :wink:

"the bypass valve elminates any extra gains the cold air gives you"

i thought i made it clear that the cold air did give better hp gains. sorry

i am just saying that 97lude is looking at the bypass valve which will makes the hp gains almost the same has a short ram.

i have a cold air intake on mine, and ive drivin it through rain and snow....since heres a rock plate thingy in the way ive never had any trouble with water gettin sucked into my engine

I just did a cold air intake. Major difference! Plus mine is garded in the fender, plus spalsh gaurds. It has a colt of cold air to pull from.

I think intercollers are going to take over though!

9 times out of 10 you'll have to have the filter completely submerged under water to suck up enough water to cause any damage. and honestly, under what circumstances would you drive your prelude into standing water that deep??? i'm not saying to go test this out, but don't be mistaken into thinking that it's that easy to suck up water through a CAI. just don't be driving your car into a lake. :rolleyes: you know what i mean.

you're not driving a jeep so if you don't know how deep the water is, stay out of it. avoid standing water as much as you can. if you live in an area where it rains a lot and/or water collects in deep puddles all the time, then go for the bypass valve or an SRI. ever consider an SRI and making some form of a heat shield to surround it?

9 times out of 10 you'll have to have the filter completely submerged under water to suck up enough water to cause any damage. and honestly, under what circumstances would you drive your prelude into standing water that deep??? i'm not saying to go test this out, but don't be mistaken into thinking that it's that easy to suck up water through a CAI. just don't be driving your car into a lake. :rolleyes: you know what i mean.

you're not driving a jeep so if you don't know how deep the water is, stay out of it. avoid standing water as much as you can. if you live in an area where it rains a lot and/or water collects in deep puddles all the time, then go for the bypass valve or an SRI. ever consider an SRI and making some form of a heat shield to surround it? Very true! A friend of mine uses an AEM CAI on his Civic sedan and he never had any problems with hydro lock or anything like that. And believe me, it is raining a lot and very hard while there are many bad roads with a lot of "deep" puddles over here in germany!!

The differences between a SRI and a CAI are hardly noticeable, a SRI still improves the flow of your engine even if it's sucking in more hot air, if u go from a SRI to CAI, you won't feel anything by the seat of your pants, it'll just be a little quieter

The differences between a SRI and a CAI are hardly noticeable, a SRI still improves the flow of your engine even if it's sucking in more hot air, if u go from a SRI to CAI, you won't feel anything by the seat of your pants, it'll just be a little quieterBut then I have to say I doubt that you can really feel the gains of a new intake (and other mods like that) at all! I mean, let´s say that you will gain like 6hp with a new intake on a car with 200hp stock....how much do you think these 6hp will improve your 0-60mph time and topspeed?? I don´t know how much but it will be hardly noticable except on a dyno sheet maybe! It is all in your head... :wink:

But then I have to say I doubt that you can really feel the gains of a new intake (and other mods like that) at all! I mean, let´s say that you will gain like 6hp with a new intake on a car with 200hp stock....how much do you think these 6hp will improve your 0-60mph time and topspeed?? I don´t know how much but it will be hardly noticable except on a dyno sheet maybe! It is all in your head... :wink:


I have a AEM CAI on my prelude V-TEC and I was just wondering how much horse it actually gives you. Could someone please tell me!? While you're at it ...might as well tell me how much my 2'1/4 maybe 2'1/2 straight pipe exhaust would roughly give me....THANK YOU

Never underestimate the power of people, I am currently having a hard time finding a replacement H22a4 block because my brother in law hydrolocked mine while i was on a 6 month deployment (Navy) - yes - fully submerged the filter in a puddle.