cold air intake

should u have to worry about water adn dust getting into the fillter with it being so close to the ground. i live in oregon where it rains all the time adn i would like to be able to drive in the rain. thanx

you shouldn't be worried about that but if you are, you can just build a sheild around it out of metal from home depot or wherever.

would a heat shield do the same or somthing like it?

or should i just go with a ram air

well you just wan't to stop water from splashing up on the filter so it doesnt matter what you use. Ram air will give you a little more horse at high speed than just a cold air intake due the ram air giving your intake a slightly higher pressure and also colder air.

You'll have to be moving at a very high rate of speed, however to see any gains what-so-ever from RAM air. The increase in intake charge pressure is rather minute. For most applications CAI is better than RAM air, since it's useful at all engine RPMs. The most important improvement however, is a less restrictive intake tract, the potentially colder, denser air is simply an additional benefit that you can reap depending on the placement of the filter and the surrounding conditions (i.e. ambient temp).

If you do a cold air intake, I suggest that you place it somewhere where it will not receive air directly, as in, don't put it behind the front grill. A decent place to put it is in the fenderwell behind the headlamp. To avoid washing it out when going through puddles, you can place a "heat shield" or any other shield below the filter. Other than that, just be sure not to submerge the front of your vehicle.

Since good mounting locations vary from vehicle to vehicle, I'll have to be kind of generic. But there are some universal truths.

The further away from the exhaust manifold, the better. That's where your charge picks up most of its heat. If your charge has to pass through the radiator, you'll get heat there as well. Low-mounted CAIs are quite popular, but water can definitely be a problem. A deflector will cut it most of the time, but you'll need to do better if there is a chance the filter element will actually be submerged. The AEM bypass valve (which, of course, fits their CAIs) comes in handy in this case. It works so well as to be overkill, from what I understand. Certainly something to consider if you're getting an AEM intake anyway.

If you're looking into a homemade or custom intake, your options open up a bit more. I am a big fan of cowl induction, because you are drawing air from a high pressure area, far from heat sources and dirt. Keeping your element away from dirt will marginally improve its efficiency, and noticably increase its useful life. If you spend a lot of time in traffic, a low-mounted intake might soak up a lot of other people's exhaust. There's been a lot of construction around here, and I've noticed what I believe to be tar residue on my undercarriage. Unless you enjoy washing your filter, you'll want it in a clean place.

These are just some considerations. In general, you just want to improve on the stock filtration by drawing in cooler air and bypassing needless resonators, etc. There are plenty of decent CAIs available off the shelf that will meet these requirements.

One other thing... if you have one that is low mounted in the front bumper then you run some risk if the area you live in is prone to flooding. I know of one instance where this has ended up with 6 banana-like connecting rods...

the bypass valve does exactly wut with the AEM cai?