Yet another CAI Question....
 

Before I go and spend any $$ on a CAI for my 02 protege5, I am need to know - how cold is to cold? I have seen all tons of CAI units and thermal sleeves for the pipes to keep the air as cold aspossible.

Last week, we hit single digit temps. I know no one here would be stupid enough to spray cold water on a hot engine block. How is inducing extremely cold air any different? If I am not to crazy with that thought, let's go back to my opening question...how cold is to cold? I definitly do not want to change from a CAI to a short ram every winter, and back again in the spring.

On an semi-related topic...for those of you who love their eBay CAI, could you post links to the listing you bought from. I searched for 'protege intakes' and got several hundred variations of no-name intakes. I know I am only looking at $30 or less, but if I'm going to waste money I want to make sure its on something at least 1 other person likes!

well unless you bypassed it, the throttle body has coolant running through it to keep it warm, so you should be fine....too cold would be so cold the throttlebody freezes shut

Extremely low ambient intake air temperatures will not harm your engine but, in fact, will increase the engines power output. Considering only the relationship of intake air temperature to HP output, the power varies essentially as the square root of the change in absolute temperature. For example, the 2.0L engine is rated at 130 HP SAE net. At an intake air temperature of 0 deg F (-17.78 deg C), the HP will increase to 143 SAE net, a 9.7% increase.

For a more complete explanation of the process, go to:
www.clubprotege.com/forum/showthread.php?t=995

i had this same concern, here in Indy it gets CCCOOOOOOLLD