The process of the install was the worst or the way it looked afterwards? I love mine. There was a little bit of a pain trying to get one of the bolts out of the engine block to mount the support rod (the captive washer on the bolt had to rake across the serp belt to get it out) but that was about it. In all, the install took me about half an hour and wasn't all that complex.

 

I'll have to look at what the trails do this summer. Just recently I pretty much buried my jeep so I'll have to look at what kind of trails I want to do and see if a CAI fits. As for the superchips I'll start looking into that too.

Thanks for all the input and more is always better. I've met a couple people that swear by K&N filters and just recently have met a couple more that said great things about having a CAI. What I was told about hydro-locking that unless you have water at your headlights that you should be fine, is there any truth in that?

 

In my limited experience below the headlights and keep moving slowly will keep the water below the CAI. However, you could run into issues if you hit water deeper than 6-12in if you hit it fast. The issue then is that the water gets splashed up inside the hood and some CAI "shields" don't quite seal with the hood and the water just comes over it and hits your CAI. In that case the oiled CAIs may actually do a better job of keeping you safe but the AEM dry one just sucks it right in. Of course, the amount of "danger" you run from splashes will decrease dramatically if your CAI shield does in fact seal with your hood. The stock box avoids the splashing danger by putting the intake way up high and pointing forward, good design, just very limited airflow...IMO. I have an AEM dry filter (which doesn't seal like the ones they sold for the TJ do) and almost -locked my engine once...I just kept my foot on the gas and kept it running until we got out of the trail. I would look at the TDI if I had to do it again...it does look like it would suck water like a straw but it would protect from the splashing much better than most others.

My two cents. Good luck

 

Nope.....no truth to that. There is another post right now where a guy hydro'd his JK after hitting a puddle that wasn't even deep enough to go over his shoe. He was also running the stock airbox. So you are going to hear all kinds of stuff regarding water, CAIs, and hydrolocking.....
That being said, I have hit a bit of water with my Airaid with no problems so far.