Was browsing around at rotaryextreme.com and they now have some photos of the CAI they are working on. Interesting fitment:

 

SWEET--I wonder when and how much

 

but in fl weather i dont think i can use that intake. it will suck up water big time.

 

Dude, I was thinking the SAME EXACT THING! It rains so much here, and it wouldn't be too much of a problem if it weren't for the base I work at. Some of the roads there get flooded out by a foot or so in moderately heavy rain in a very short amount of time. You can go into the dental clinic for a cleaning, and come out to find your car sitting in 2-3 feet of standing water if you've parked on the far end of the lot. A co-worker has a Stratus R/T (I drive a Dodge Stratus !) with a CAI, and he did just that. Swallowed up a whole bunch of water and hydro-locked his engine. It still runs, but he had to replace the AFM for the tune of 300 or so...

Here, I think we'd need some kind of a tract-switcher, or the capability of swiveling that filter arm upwards...

 

There looks like there is a joint right where the tubing exits the main engine compartment. My guess is that you would be able to swivel the tubing up at that point.

-Mr. Wigggles

 

AEM makes a bypass filter to take care of what you guys are referring to. It is a filter that inserts inline somewhere in the engine compartment that opens when there is a pressure drop due to main filter clogging or inhaling water. The bypass has a foam filter which admitedly isn't the best type in the world but only really is working for a few seconds at a time anyways.

 

I just saw the CAI on rotary extreme. They say that it will be released September 15. They don't have any pricing on it yet though.

 

I just sent an email to rotaryextreme requesting them to have a dyno test for the new CAI. I didn't get any reply yet. I hope we can get more info when the CAI is released.

 

I dont see why people are so scared of getting the CAI... I had one on my 2001 Celica since 3 years ago and havent had one problem. Even with the NorCal rain and weather! Anyways unless you drive into lakes on a regular basis, CAI is fine. The air filter must be completely submerged in order for hydrolock to occur. I know FEED (Fujita) has an carbon fiber intake developed that extends to the front frame area but doesnt go below the horizon where the battery and stock air box are. They also have a CF heat shield to reduce heat soak which is very common in engines and especially rotary engines because they make so much heat.

 

Isn't the hole where the CAI protrudes forward where the stock box takes its air? Aside from some flow improvement it does not appear to be any colder than stock especially with the 3ft of heat conducting tubing.

 

dang, stupid thread, you post a pic that's too big, and you get an error and your message gets deleted.

anyway, the cold air intake looks like a good design, although they should have been able to rotate the intake pipe up more to get the filter off the ground. better than pulling in hot engine bay air.

looks like they got the idea from me, though

 

man, talk about long arm intake...

the intake arm is what? 3 feet long? i am interested in seeing the dyno data

 

you'd think they could just get a different shaped filter instead of cone and make the pipe shorter.

 

Guys, correct me if i am wrong but we seem to be missing the air flow sensor from the picture!!

 

Good call! Where is it???????????????

 

If it's still in its prototype stages it probably hasn't been drilled in yet. If I'm not mistaken it doesn't take much to add it in---placement might be key, though.

 

BTW, if I remember correctly, the RX-8 supposively have two intake tracks, one for low RPM, and the second one opens for higher RPM. So I guess with this CAI design would lose that right ?? I wonder what would we lose if we do go with a CAI ??

 

The stock intake pipe is only one pipe, it splits after the throttle body.

 

He's talking about the pipe before the air filter. On the 6 speeds there are 2 of them. Actually there is one that has a branch off of it. The long one is used until 7250 rpm when an actuator opens the shorter pipe. The autos don't have the shorter pipe.

 

i was looking at the flexi pipe that extend the orginal air box to give a kind of CAI but it seems that it is dirrected back to the engine bay, was toying with the idea of redirecting the pipe opening to the front grill to get ram cold air effect.

 

I can't say too much right now but I want to clear up a few things:

1. The air mass sensor adaptor is being CNC-machined right now. The final product will have it. Right now we are just routing the pipes to make sure everything fits.

2. The overall length of the piping isn't longer than stock. The stock one has another inlet funnel that's located near the passenger headlight. Take off the top plastic panel right in front of the hood latch catch and you will see it.

3. The source of air matters a lot more than the length of pipe. The air travels inside the intake pipe so fast under full throttle, it can't be heated up that fast. There isn't enough contact area inside the pipe to heat up the air that fast. If you are still worried, you can wrap the pipe with Thermal Tech wrap. On the other hand, if your intake is sucking hot air, it does not matter how long of the pipe is.

4. The filter sits right behind the mesh on the bumper.



You can't really see the filter. It blends in with the mesh. I have to highlight that area with photoshop to show the filter.

5. After the prototype is done, we will put the car on the dyno and get some numbers.

Chuck Huang

 

Rotary Extreme.....

Thanks for the explaination. I won't make a single comment until you have done the time and dyno'd it.

Patiently waiting. Maybe a simple mod under $500 will get the car to it's 247hp and I will feel like Mazda paid for it. AND it won't void the warranty.

 

What happened to the dyno number?

http://www.rotaryextreme.com/rx8intake.html

 

..donald, chuck has not finished the protype yet.

 

considering the texas downpours and the suseptibility of streets to flooding with over 6" of depth, i would seriously worry about sucking in water with that filter here in texas, or in any state with heavy, random downpours.

more hp is not worth ruining an engine.