Padger

Ok, this is driving me nucking futz! I ordered a 98 Accord V6 AEM CAI (part #21-416). Now a bunch of people told me that they have the 98 accord V6 intake, but theirs is a 2 piece setup. This is a 1 piece intake that also says it is for a 2001 Acura CL or 2001 Acura TL. What's the deal?

moforose3.0

it should be a 2 piece set up if its for the accord. does it look like it fits?

Padger

I haven't even taken it out of the box completely. The point is that I have a bypass valve I want to install for the CAI, but I can't cause it is all one piece! I mean I don't want to try and install it if it is the wrong piece.

joeshmoe

Send it back to where you got it and tell them you need the two piece set-up for the same engine. If they say they don't have one, ask THEM how to install the bypass on a one piece set-up.

If they give you a hard time, just return it and get it from a place that knows thier stuff.

Bamberg96

I also have a the same AEM intake that I plan to install soon. The directions include a template to cut the tube for the bypass valve. If anyone else done this how far down the tube was it cut?

Padger

I didn't even open the plastic instructions/parts bag. CUT IT?? I had heard something about that before, but something doesn't sound right. I mean some models you have to cut and others you don't? How do you cut it? Hacksaw or something?!?! I got it from CoxImport.com, wonder what is going on?

Adam3.0cl

If you want to use the bypass valve on that intake then you will have to cut it. I had to cut the AEM cai that I put on my wife's 97 accord 4cyl. It also came as a one-piece. It's not to hard using the template thingy. If you don't want to just send it back and get the right one. I'm sure cox would be willing to exchange it.

CLpower

you have the right one, if you want a bypass you will have to cut it, the older aem units were 2 pieces, the new ones are one.

Jamz

Sounds like it's time to bust out the hacksaw

Padger

Alright then, sure hope ya'll know what you're talking about! I trust ya, so I'm taking out the hacksaw this weekend. I may holler at ya Veilsidecl with the wheel guard part. Thanks guys.

VeilSideCL

Cool man let me know. I think that sucks that you have to cut that shit, I like the older CAI. I guess that was for the lazy people like me

Padger

Yeah, I'm lazy too... but oh well. Hey do you know how to install a Venom 400 as well? I got one in today and want to throw that in on saturday as well. Now I just need to find a price I like on those rims, install the shocks & springs, and get a tv installed and I will be doing alright! I'm almost there!!

jttoombs

There are some pics I came across last week of someone cutting and installing the ByPass valve

Padger

Really? Great... where are they?

jttoombs

With all the changes going on the pics have been deleted . However the pics had the guy cutting right between the AEM logo on the intake with a hacksaw and inserting the valve there so it looked like AE[]M with part of the M covered. Heres some text I found while trying to find the pics


I did my AEM 2 weekends ago. Most important part is to remove the drivers side front tire and remove the fenderwell splash guard. Splashgaurd removal is essential! Lift the car and place jack-stands under as high as you can, this will make it easier when working from the top and bottom. Remove the air box and resonater (sic?) and your just about home.

Regarding where to place the AEM bypass valve my recommendation would be to place it close to the last bend before it connects to the throttle body. In other words place it where there is still a slope to the intake before it levels out on the horizontal plane. A sawzall or chop box will cut through the tube like butter.

Padger

Wouldn't it be better to put the bypass on the level section of the intake to allow any water to drain out? If you had it on the incline slope, you wouldn't be able to let the water drain out by gravity. Am I making sense here?

jttoombs

Good point but the valve is designed to prevent water from being ingested or sucked up. When you drive through lets say two feet of water your engine would suck water into the enginewith out the valve,
Well with the valvle the water wouldnt be sucked up as easily because it takes more force to suck up water than to suck in the less dense air. Well youd rather have the siphoning pressure or force reduced as the water moves up hill, rather than on a flat surface were it takes less pressure to suck air into the engine

Lets think about a vacuum cleaner its easier to suck water when your put the hose flat with the water but its harder to suck the water up a slope. If you put a pressure break in the slope of the hose the water would leak down against incomming water.

Padger

That's a good point. I didn't think about it that way, but you makes sense. I was looking at it as a purge valve of sorts. (allowing water to drain out as it passed up the tube). Thanks for the perspective.

jttoombs

No problem three years of college and I better be able to expain something besides how not to pass out or throw up.

Sorry about the bad vacuum anaolgy.
A better explanation is think about when you try to drink through a cracked straw as opposed to a whole straw. Its a real pain in the ass and its all because of a a small hole that reduces the vacuum pressure. Thats the function of the bypass valve I wish I would have thought of it simple concept really.

Padger

Now using that same logic, I would think that the same "pressure" would apply with or without the bypass. Because you are sucking in air through both, the pressure should stay the same, but the volume of air coming through the filter will just be less. Does this make sense? Now some people say that there is a drop off with the bypass valve installed. Would this be due to the filtration materials of a bypass valve vs. the cone?

jttoombs

No its not the materials, its the mere presence of another hole. There would be much more sustained pressure from the cone up with no hole.

I think its not fair to call the bypass valve a valve it doesnt turn on and off its a filtered hole in the shape of a 360 degree ring where air is constantly being sucked in through.
Because the air is being sucked in from two places one cooler the other warmer that might account for some decrease.

As far as pressure relates to the water issue water has a unique trait it has the highest surface tension of anything meaning water molecues H20 stick together like crazy thats why water flows, thats how trees suck up water through their roots. This is the chemsitry of it

The physics is the energy though it takes more energy (vacuum force) to suck water vertically up a straw than horizontally across it. Insert the hole into the straw and it takes more energy to suck water vertically up the hose since its working against gravity as usual but a drop in pressur below the bypass. However if your bypass was inserted into a flat horizontal space the water would flow right over it because of surface tension and the fact that gravity wasnt being utilized because the surface is flat no and no energy is required rise vertically

jttoombs

Sorry bout the grammar errors my brains fried after that one