I've seen two CAIs out there, but no WAIs. Are there any offered?

 

You're technically correct to use the term WAI (warm air intake) but most people refer to them as SRI's (short ram intakes). Sorry, I don't know if SRI's are made for the 3 yet.

Welcome to the Forum.

 

just beat me to the technicallly correct thing

nope haven't heard much about a wai (sri)

 

haven't heard of one yet, though i am sure they are in the pipe line, i would check injen's website and contact them if they have one in the works or not, i noticed a lot of sri's for other makes so i would try that first....

 

http://www.prostreetonline.com/buy/a...takes/22-487c/

 

The intake on the 3 is pretty short if I remember correctly. Since it's already short, and on the front of the engine, a CAI probably would give you the best of both worlds...short path and colder intake air....

 

I just don't want to get water ingestion. I don't trust CAIs on daily driven cars anymore, as this might be the reason I lost my SR20VE...

 

I don't know exactly where the CAI would place the filter on the 3, but in general, it isn't easy to hydrolock an engine. The engine won't be damaged by wather spraying on the filter. When there is misty water traveling through the intake, it usually evaportates before it gets to the motor, or just burns off. The only time you realy hydrolock the engine is when there is a significant amount of water sucked up into the intake. This would mean that most of the filter would have to be submerged in water. Even if just the end of the filter is submerged, the mass of water is so much greater than air that the intake will suck the air through the remaining part of the filter that is still exposed to air instead of taking in water, unless you're ad WOT, you shouldn't suck up water unless the filter is almost completely submerged. So...I guess I would say you're safe with a CAI if you're not driving through really deep puddles at WOT...You'll also get better performance out of most CAI's over SRI's.

 

What you are asking about is known as a short ram intake.

But you are not going to hydro lock and engine with an intake system with normal daily driving. You would have to hit a pretty deep puddle for it to happen. There are also bypass devices that work quite well to prevent hydro lock if you were to hit a deep puddle.

AEM for example, tests their products to the vehicle to decide what style of system is most beneficial to power.

 

I found it!!! I found it!!! A WAI, SRI, whatever you want to call it. Here it is:

http://www.hopupracing.com/mazda3.html