question about ram air

I know it isnt a turbo or supercharger question, sorry, but I thought you guys might know.

When using a ram air, how is water intake controlled? When it rains, it seems like there would be a ton of water shooting into the air intake and f ing things up. If one was to build a custom ram air (me), how would I prevent that?

I don't think water will be a problem with ram air. First of all, most of the water won't even get in, because of the way the air flows over the car. For the most part, the air, and rain, will follow the contour of the body and not enter the intake. Any water that gets in will be stopped by the air filter. I shouldn't even be an issue.

My CAI sticks out the bottom of my car and people always ask me if I have a Bypass Valve. I just say "No." Then they ask about sucking water into the engine, I simply reply with "Water Injection!" It's just that there is so little water that would get in, if any, that you really wouldn't even notice. So, don't worry about it.

Some of the CAIs that we Impala SS guys use have a snorkel that comes from under the bumper. I've heard horror stories about sucking in water from a big puddle, but its usually on lowered cars and I say, "don't drive through puddles" :)

Any water that is taken in would soak into the filter. Any that makes it through the filter would be minimal and very controlled release. For the most part it would just evaporate out of the filter as air is sucked through it.

Even if you had no filter, the amount of water you would get from rain wouldn't hurt... in fact it might do some good. Its an old car-guy trick to squirt some water from a spray bottle in a running engine to remove carbon buildup on the pistons and chamber.

If you took a drinking cup of water and threw it in the ram inlet, it might get enough past the filter to hydrolock the engine and I can safely say that would be a bad thing :)

On a fairly related note, I remember reading somewhere sometime that rainy days cause your engine to produce slightly (1-3hp) more horsepower. Not really anything to do with the rain, but something about the car's emissions controls. Like, on a rainy day, the emissions controls are less intrusive (O2 sensor? cat?) and allows the engine to run a little more freely than normal. Forget where I saw that...

You gain HP on a rainy day because you take in humidty and small ammounts of water into the engnine. This is benificial in many ways. it raises compression because water doesnt like to be comressed past a certian point (especailly when it is in liquid form). it also lowers intake tempatures and keeps them lower. WI (water injection) is often used with FI (forced induction) to lower intake temp and make the power stroke more powerful. the steam also cleans the carbon build up and any grease or gasoline lurking around.
It only takes about 2 TBS of liquid water to hydrolock some (smaller NA engines) but 2 TBS being taken in all in one stroke is VERY unlikely. your filter would have to be almost completely submerged. Just dont drive through puddles and you will be fine.
PS
Some bypasss valves ae nothing but small POS.

My CAI sticks out the bottom of my car and people always ask me if I have a Bypass Valve. I just say "No." Then they ask about sucking water into the engine, I simply reply with "Water Injection!"

LMAO! :lol: :biggrin:

There's been lots of good stuff said about water injection on here for boosted applications. What about for NA though? Anybody ever heard of really light water injection for NA engines? I got a 3.4 L 2001 Grand Am GT and I was thinkin, it would kick ass if I could rig something up that would mist in water into the intake very slowly when I push a button.

There are also a lot of downsides with water injection, usually it's not to recommend for a normal car.

The quantity of water going into the intake is usually small. Even when engines have been completely submerged they usually take it fine, clean out the water and it will probably run.

A typical NA engine will need more than 50cc water into one cylinder during one intake phase to hydrolock. The engine would probably stall before that much water can enter the engine.