Running The Mafci Customizer With The Stock Airbox?

[Kami]

Let's say that I became concerned about sucking moisture into the engine using the CPE intake over the winter and wanted to put the stock airbox back in (minus the lower section). Would this cause problems with the customizer still installed? Would I be better off trying to find a short ram intake for the winter months? How much protection does the pre-filter actually provide from water? I am new to the world of CAIs and obviously don't want to damage my engine.

Thanks!

[technoholic_79]

i did this before and my car has never been same...I had to put the stock airbox w/o taking out the MafCi because I got pulled over and had to show the state referee that my car is stock. Unfortunately, once I returned the CAI back, every cold start, theres a rattle in the engine and it seems like the car picks up slower than it use to be...So, my suggestion is to wait for CP-E reps response...

[VirtualMirage]

My suggestion would be to either buy the bypass module from The RPM Store and use that when swapping out to the stock airbox or purchase the filter cover/sock from CP-E that's suppose to reduce the chance of water entering the intake. Either one should be around $30 or less and would save you the hassle.

Paul

[www.cp-e.com]

The pre-filters are designed to keep splashing water from contacting the filter. If you hold the pre-filter in your hand and spray water on it the water will just bead up on the surface. But if you put the pre-filter over your mouth and blow through it, it breathes very easily. So they provide protection against splashing water, but that's not typically what hydrolocks an engine. It actually takes a fair amount of water to cause any damage, so much that you'd literally have to submerge your air filter in standing water in order hydrolock your motor. Since the pre-filters "breathes," if you were to submerge it in water with the engine running, then it'll pick up water. So even though the pre-filter is marketed as a kind of hydrolock protection, I'd argue that its better suited to keeping the filter clean in very wet/dirty environments.

Now, let's say that you live in a pretty nasty envirnment, and you have to deal with daily rain, snow, or what have you. What's going to happen eventually is that the crap that the tires kick up will get deposited on your filter, and you'll eventually lose performance as the filter becomes clogged with debris. That means you'll need to clean the filter more often, but it won't damage your engine in any way. However, if you have the pre-filter on the car, the vast majority of that dirty water will be blocked by the pre-filter so you won't have to clean your air filter it as often. But driving through relatively clean water (i.e. water that isn't muddy or salty) isn't going to appreciably affect the filter's performance as most of the water that does get sucked into the engine will evaporate, and the deposits on the filter media will be small since the water is relatively clean (say, during a rain storm).

So what does all of this mean? If you think you might get caught in several feet of standing water, then a cold air kit isn't right for you, and you might consider throwing on the stock airbox. But if you're just worried about splashing water on the filter, then a pre-filter would be a smart purchase as it will ultimately safe how often you have to clean the filter. But nothing, and I mean nothing will protect your engine from hydrolocking if you submerge the filter in standing water.

As far as your MAFci system is concerned, you must use the MAFci controller with our intake or the car may not run correctly. Although the car may run with the stock airbox and the MAFci installed, I think the mixture is going to be overly rich, and driveability will surely suffer. So if you do put the stock airbox back in you'll need to remove the MAFci system and revert the wiring back to stock unfortunately. Since that's no walk in the park, my suggestion to you is to use the pre-filter and keep an eye out for standing water, or if you're really worried about engine damage then just remove the entire MAFci kit. Of course if you have anymore questions about this feel free to give us a call, 301-576-6142. I'd be happy to speak with you on the phone about this if you'd prefer.

[Kami]

Awesome! Thanks for the excellent reply, that was exactly what I needed to know.

[Kami]

Actually, can we take this one step further? I'm curious to know why the customizer and the stock intake can't be used together (or the intake without the customizer for that matter). Is it just that the stock intake is not able to suck in air fast enough for the new A/F mixture? I'm obviously not a mechanic, but I am trying to learn as much as I can so that I can make better decision on performance vs. reliability.

[www.cp-e.com]

Actually, can we take this one step further? I'm curious to know why the customizer and the stock intake can't be used together (or the intake without the customizer for that matter). Is it just that the stock intake is not able to suck in air fast enough for the new A/F mixture? I'm obviously not a mechanic, but I am trying to learn as much as I can so that I can make better decision on performance vs. reliability. [/b]

Sure!

The cp-e MAFci intake has a larger than stock mass air housing. Without going into too much detail, the larger then stock housing on our intake will make your car run lean if you relied on the stock engine management. This is because the diameter of the housing changes what the mass air sensor reads, and the mass air sensor is basically what indicates to the engine how much fuel it should inject.

We use the MAF customizer to scale the signal coming out of the mass air sensor to correct the maf housing diameter difference. So in other words, we're adding fuel to the mixture using the MAF customizer to negate the effect of the larger then stock mass air housing. So if you were to re-install the stock airbox, the MAF customizer would still scale the outgoing mass air sensor signal, which would be adding fuel when it isn't necessary anymore. So for the vehicle to run properly again with the stock mass air housing you must rely on the stock engine management, or use the tunable MAFci.

So really, it's just a matter of addressing the difference in the two mass air sensor housing diameters. The MAFci system is the correction tool, so it must be removed when the stock airbox is installed. Let me know if you'd like a little more detail. I'd be happy to explain more!

[VirtualMirage]

Awesome explanation Jordan!

Paul

[www.cp-e.com]

Awesome explanation Jordan!

Paul[/b]

Thanks Paul!!

[Kami]

Thanks again!