Bypass Valve Necessity

[ibepuffin9]

hi,

i just bought an aem cold air intake system for my 95 es300. i havent installed it yet, so i was wondering if yall think the aem bypass valve is a necessity?

also, if it is a necessity, i read somewhere that to install the bypass valve you have to cut ur intake in two? and experiment with the right location of the bypass valve?

thanks for all your help!

[Toysrme]

Yes, if you're trying to ford a river. Otherwise no.

You're going to have other serious problems if you're driving through water deep enough to injest it to begin with.

[ibepuffin9]

thanks...i was also wondering though that if i do get one...does anyone kno the right size bypass valve is necessary? because on all the websites i've looked at...the bypass valve for this intake is either to be announced or simply not listed. from wut i know, the sizes go from 2.25 inches up to 3 inches. if anyone knows the right size, please let me know, thanks!

actually, i just called aem and for those of yall who want to know..the guy said the aem bypass valve of 3 inches will fit the aem cai for the 94-96 model.

aem called me again and another guy told me that the previous guy was actually wrong...he said they dont make any bypass valve for the cai for the 94-96 1mz-fe engine...so nm.

[kyle0k]

just measure ure intake pipe and buy one off ebay that fits it. its BS saying they dont make a bypass valve for a certain car,they are universal,its liek saying u cant put a cetrain turbo on a car.

[ibepuffin9]

haha thanks...i guess ill jss put one on w/o a bypass valve cuz everyone is telling me its not necessary at all unless i wanna cross a swamp or a river, so thanks for all ur help guys!!

[SKperformance]

The bypass is a nice idea, but it makes the CAI redundant as it loses vacum and sucks hot engine air as it is open all the time.

If you are worried about a major rainfall ,pop the pipe off at its joint.

If the AEM is made of 2 peices like most them it should be abel to take a bypass of 3inches, unless they never thought of the room needed to be taken up by the bypass. In that case just shave an inch or so off the end.

Remeber it is not really a valve as nothign open or closes.

It is a strip of foam filter which normally sucks air in as a secondary but when water begins to be injested the weight of the water causes the natural gravity to vacume the air form the engine side of things.Problem is it takes large amounts of water at low speen for this to work.If you are moving at a high rate of speed and plow through a deep puddle the water gets forced up the intake anyway , and .............................bye bye engine anyway as no bypass can do anything about that.

[ibepuffin9]

so....should i just try to not drive into huge puddles then? haha, wut size puddles are these...i mean realistically should i even worry about water getting into my engine? because on other forums they are saying like you that the bypass valve is not worth getting really and that also unless i try to drive through rivers it shouldnt be a problem.

thanks!

[SKperformance]

you are right unless you drive in 7 inch high water it would be no problem.

If you can open your door easily in the water it shouldn;t affect the engine unless it ridges up in a wave to get higher.

It also depends on the type of filter used.

I used quite a few to get to the one i like for performance and rain driving with no adverse effects

[ibepuffin9]

would u recommend any filter that u found to be better than the others?