[everyone-needs-a-clear-focus]

i know this has been asked before, but i couldnt find it. if i live in a place that has average rainfall and puddles, is it necessary to have the air-bypass valve? more than that, i am concerned with the fact of powere loss. will it happen if i use the valve. will warm air really come in, or only when filter is submerged?

if i sound like im rambling on about a stupid little thing, well, i dont care.

 

[djwirfel]

from what ive heard...it takes over a foot of standing water to submerge the filter in the focus with a AEM...so on that note...id say no....but for 40 bucks...why not save your a$$ if something happened. i wouldnt install one without it. ive seen what it can do without it (on a civic)

 

[Dev]

Just remember that you will need to cut your CAI in order to install this unit.

 

[cheezitterrorist]

you don't need it. it will always pull in warm air, even though its just a little bit. you need to cut into it just to the right of the maf. that gives you 4 inches or so to put it in and not **** it up. just don't drive through rivers or streams.

 

[zx3 focus racer]

doesn't the cai for the focus just replace the stock intake tubing? leaving the intake part of the intake above the bumper and grill, just like the factory?
if so why add extra parts?
if not then i would put one in and save your ass if you have to drive through a puddle some day. and the very little bit of warm air that you might pull in would not affect you performance too much!

 

[NewFocusNoMoney]

Wouldnt it only pick up warm air when it is submerged in water? I thought that it was a valve that when a drop in presure ocured such as when the filter is submerged in water that it would close the valve ao that water doesnt go up your system, thus only piking up warm air when u are in water. To me thats a good thing id rather have warm air for a minute than water for a minute. But if it picks up warm air constantly then i wouldnt buy it.

 

[RiceGrinder]

If you live in Atlantis or frequently black out and swerve into rivers then I'd say yes... or you could be a religious fanatic waiting for the 2nd flood then you could use it then.... Other than that.. save the 40 bucks... take your girl out to dinner

Nookie good... AEM Bypass bad

 

[Wedge1212]

there isnt much use for em here in the DFW area.....i've never driven through a lake

 

[jptech2004]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Wedge1212:
there isnt much use for em here in the DFW area.....i've never driven through a lake<hr></blockquote>

ditto...jono#5 had the bypass valve and got worse performance out of it. he's had it off for a while now and hasn't had any problems.

 

[everyone-needs-a-clear-focus]

ok, ill ponder it some more then, and if the place will take it back, than ill just not buy it, but since they had to order it, they may make me buy it anyway.

 

[S2r]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by zx3ford:
Just remember that you will need to cut your CAI in order to install this unit.

<hr></blockquote>

YEA

Thats why i had one for my civic but i never put the valve on the CAI because i couldnt bring myself to cut into that beautiful powdercoated or anodized *i dono what* Blue that was my CAI

its bad i know.. but .. i ran the civic from june to its demise in November with no problems w/o the valve.

ZX3Ford - why cant you just put the valve on the FOCUS AEM Where the 2 parts come together? its higher than the filter and if the car was in that much water, i dont think the intake of water is much of a concern anymore.. its more like.. time to get out of this (boat)

If you could be more SPacific about where the AEM VALVE goes.. it would me much apreciated

 

[2003ZTSFrenchBlue]

I just installed a CAI on my Focus and after much research have chosen NOT to install a Air Bypass. Unless you go river running it's just not worth cutting into a brand new AEM to install. The filter has to be completely submerged for the valve to even work. My vote is "Don't waste your time!"
The old filter box must be removed and the MAS has to be removed and installed on the new tubing. Save your old parts and becareful when removing the MAS.

2003 ZTS Zetec, Diablo chip, Floodlight mod, CAI, Dynomax Cat Back, XENON bulbs, and European tail lights

 

[Shiva Chaos]

I was thinking about this recently. Still haven't installed the bypass.

The day I installed mine (traded intakes from someone), I was bogging. Bad. all lights going off stall bad. and it was raining pretty hard.
It recovered, but I'm always a bit wary now.

The next time it bogged down as a week later when I took a trip up to Traverse City (4 hours). once it started raining, it would bog. No puddles or anything, when I stopped to let it rest, my filter was soaked. I couldn't feel any oil left.

So on my way back down, it was ok through the light rain, however once it hit the 2 hour mark in the rain, i was bogging again.

This past couple weeks, I cleaned and re-oiled my filter and I haven't experienced any bogging on my car since then, however for everyone who says that it won't suck water:

wet/dry vacs suck up water, right? Those are what, 1.5 - 5 hp right?

Well my car is one really powerful wet-dry vac.

I still reccommend the AEM though

[ 11-08-2002, 02:29 PM: Message edited by: Shiva Chaos ]

 

[iamgod]

your filter on a lowered car even 1.5in could still ingest water even if not submerged...as long as water surrounds the filter for about a second water will enter your tube (ie splash a big a$s puddle)...the bypass will open when an increase in preassure due to water ingestion occurs..it doesn't stay open pass the point that water drains...once normal pressure has resumed it closes...that second or two is the difference between a working engine and a non working engine...granted you have to hit the puddle but a daily driver is a daily driver, rain or shine. So Cal or Texas it may not be a prob but Minnesota or Seattle or New England...its something to think about.

 

[iamgod]

from SCC mag

"OK, so what's the big deal? Think about what happens next. Say you have a 2.0-liter engine, so each cylinder displaces 500cc. If just one of those cylinders sucked in just 100cc of water (100cc is only 5 percent of what's in a 2-liter bottle, if you are having problems thinking metrically) the end would be very, very near.If this engine has 10.0:1 compression, for example, the combustion chamber would be reduced to just 55.5cc when the piston is at top dead center. As the piston goes up the compression stroke with 100cc of water in the cylinder, impending doom is near. Air will happily compress as the piston moves up, but water will not. As soon as the combustion chamber is reduced to 100cc, the piston will stop. No matter what. And then the engine will stop... if you are lucky.
Sometimes, if the engine is simply idling, the flywheel is relatively light, and the connecting rods, pistons, block, head, and head gasket are very strong, the engine will simply stop dead and can be revived by removing all the spark plugs and pumping out the water. Usually, however, the rotating assembly will have too much inertia and when the water tries to stop the piston, all hell breaks loose. Either the connecting rod buckles, or the piston breaks, or the cylinder wall cracks, or the head gasket blows, or the cylinder head gets lifted off the block, or any combination of catastrophic failures will occur. The only thing guaranteed is that the water will not compress."

 

[ruggedman]

Originally posted by Shiva Chaos:
however for everyone who says that it won't suck water:

wet/dry vacs suck up water, right? Those are what, 1.5 - 5 hp right?

Well my car is one really powerful wet-dry vac.

I still reccommend the AEM though

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Poor logic.

A vacuum's job is to? SUCK...
A cars job is to? Go.
A car's intake doesnt even create a fraction of the vacuum a wet/dry does. Try putting something on the side of the filter and holding it there with the vac from the intake. Won't happen...even a leaf or piece of paper.

 

[jono#5]

aem's cai doesn't need to be cut...it replaces the entire intake, from tb down to the ground. you will not need the bypass valve, it will draw air from the valve adn that literally SUCKS!!!