On my drive into work, at 5:30 a.m. while listening to the Q and trying not to yell at the slow pokes ahead of me, I began to think about this. If I put in a new air intake, like the K&N Typhoon, and found someone to make a hood scoop, ( if price and labour wasn't an issue ), would this be as good as or better than buying a CAI. I'm thinking that it might be a way to avoid the possibilty of water getting into the engine.
I myself don't like CAI's. They are prone to breaking, the filters get dirty too fast. Especially in this rainy/muddy season.
You'll get allot of benefits just from a short ram intake, if you can make add a hood scoop that allowed cool air to get to the filter and ensure water didn't I think it would be real good.
May want to look into a Volant intake w/ the ram-air scoop. There is one for sale over on FF or FJ for like $175.
I have the K&N Typhoon and I couldn't be happier with it. It sounds great and I don't have to worry about water. I would go for it. Mine Has been on well over a year and it works fine in all weather conditions. I will look for some pic's for you.
The power increase you'll see from cutting a hole in your hood is maybe half a horse, rock a short ram and keep it away from water..
I was thinking for the past few days about going and getting a CAI, till last night I got stuck in a puddle for 20 minutes.. Would've destroyed my engine if I had a CAI mounted low.
Another thing is, with a hood scoop .. You'll be looking at a lot of crap getting into your engine bay, dust water leaves bugs.. Not worth it, and IMO, they don't usually look that good..
WOW all of you are so paranoid about hydro locking your motors... why not by a bypass valve?
lol on a side not I blew up a zetec with an AEM CAI.. lol water literally poured from the vacume lines hahahahahaha... but i got lucky and found a motor for like $500... and poped it in without much hassel.. and considering when i bout the CAI it was like$700 (they had been availble for a week tops) puting in a new motor was actually cheaper....