cai vs. short ram intake?

[tyr]

i just tried searching but didn't come up with much... what is the difference between a cold air intake and short ram intake... what are the pro's and con's of each and can a car have both of these mods at the same time?

thanks,
tyr

 

[blynzoo]

i just tried searching but didn't come up with much... what is the difference between a cold air intake and short ram intake... what are the pro's and con's of each and can a car have both of these mods at the same time?

thanks,
tyr

Hey tyr. Look in your engine bay, and we'll figure this out.
Both increase airflow to the throttle body (the brass colored metal part at the back of the engine on the right side as you lift the hood).

a short ram replaces everything after the Mass Air Flow Meter (the small black box with the grey connector plugged into it on your stock intake) with a short piece of piping, or no piping. it jsut goes filter, MAF sensor, little bit of pipe, throttle body.

A Cold Air Intake (CAI) carries it a step further. Instead of pulling air from the engine compartment, which can be warm, it extends a pipe down towards the ground (In our case in the empty well infront of the drivers-side front tire) to grab cooler air not in the compartment. Cooler air is denser air, and better to burn fuel.

So both increase airflow (and GREATLY improve sound), and one also pulls colder air.

The con of the ram is the warmer engine compartment air
the con of the CAI is that your intake is now less than 6 inches from the ground, which means any water over that height is going straight into your motor (instant death).

 

[blynzoo]

Also, look in Photo/Video for "pics of my intake" and stuff like that. There's tons of pics in there to give you an idea of appearance.

 

[Gyre]

CAI vs. short ram you also have the trade-off of cold air vs. more velocity. I'm not saying all short ram intakes have more velocity than all CAIs but the idea of a short ram intake (besides being cheaper and easier to install) is that the shorter pipe and less bends gives you less restriction.

 

[BK's black P5]

I have the AEM short ram, and it does bend downward toward the wheel well area. I'm not sure how much further the CAI extends, but based on the location of the air filter on my AEM, I don't know if the CAI can be located much further away.

And no, you cannot have both. It's either/or.

 

[Gyre]

The CAI usually requires relocating the whiper fluid reservouir and the pipe goes out through the whole under there in to the area above the wheel well. It's actually outside the engine compartment.

 

[pr5owner]

I have the AEM short ram, and it does bend downward toward the wheel well area. I'm not sure how much further the CAI extends, but based on the location of the air filter on my AEM, I don't know if the CAI can be located much further away.

And no, you cannot have both. It's either/or.

oh you can have both!!! anything is possible! just requires some custom pipeing and a y joint... but why?

 

[Toru]

oh you can have both!!! anything is possible! just requires some custom pipeing and a y joint... but why?

Well it should be obvious! Throw a moisture sensor and an electric gate valve into it and you have a CAI that automatically switches to shortram when too much moisture is present. Or you could just have a switch on the dash. "Hmmm, it's raining pretty hard out, better hit the Shorty Switch!"

 

[purewhitep5]

or you could easily do this....

get the AEM CAI w/Moisture Valve, which prevents water from entering the engine, and will save you in case you run into a puddle, it works quite well, although it will take too much time for me to explain (im truly sorry), Super Street tested it with Adam Sarutawari (spelling) NSX and it worked fine, not a drip of moisture got past the valve.....

so i am SURE it will keep you alive, i could almost guarantee it, but im not AEM am i?

-l8rz
hovito