I installed an AEM CAI (v1) on my 03 s2k last night. I was just wondering if it is at all worth it to cut out that duct in the front bumper to make sort of a ram-air for the intake. Just to let everybody know, my car NEVER sees rain or snow. and i already plugged the hole in the fender rail to prevent water from dripping onto the filter element when im washing the car. Im sure i can do a nice clean job cutting out the duct in the bumper. I have seen mesh grilles that can be installed in place of the black solid plastic that is there right now. (Driver#8 has them, but he bought the car with them on already so he couldnt tell me where to get them) so basically, i dont want to cut into my cars bumper, but if it will make a significant difference with performance i will think about it.

 

^my friend did the same thing. if your not anywhere near lots of water or anything then i would say do it. but i always have that fear of driving over a puddle or something and getting water in teh intake.

or your best bet is to do it then buy the AEM by-pass valve

somebody correct me if im wrong but will it fit the AEM V1?

 

i have a bypass valve but im not running it because the car NEVER sees any form of precipitation.

 

It won't make much difference. You should have noticed when you were installing the thing, that there are holes and slits and air gaps everywhere in the filter compartment. You're not going to "ram" anything. You need an air tight compartment if you are going to achieve any ram effect.
But you can always fool your friends and tell them you got "ram air". A Hyabusa bike probably has the most effective ram-air system of any motor vehicle. It doesn't see any ram effect till it well exceeds 120 mph. Even if you made it perfectly air tight, you planning on driving that fast a lot?

 

i had the cutout on mine and it rained here..never had any problems though i didnt drive through deep deep puddles. as far as difference i agree with xviper, though i think the biggest difference was taking the bypass valve off, that seemed to help in the mid range.. and the sound at uper vtec also sounds really sweet!!

 

alright, not worth it after reading you guys' replies! thanks for the info!