I'll just leave these here:

When you drive a ram-air equipped vehicle in the rain.... - LS1TECH
Ram air intake / heavy rain. Need help - Corvette Forum

since these engines have ran a lot more miles with ram air hooked up than our Dart have been around. Remember knowledge is power, but research is the key to unlocking that power...

 

And let's not forget that the giant ram air scoop is kind of a trademark of high-performance Subarus. And those are OEM from the factory.

 

Ram air isn't anything new, this is the least worrying thing I'm doing to the dart

 

I have not been on here in a wile....but I see some conflict here about "Ram Air" I'm just going to leave this here....Our intakes are already sucking air in thought right behind the grill right? Yes water/absolutely any moister will corrode any metal AND aluminum. That was one reason that the PCV recalculates to the intake manifolds. To help the ports and valves stems from corrosion. As well as any sensors.

But on the other hand......Cough Cough "water Methanol Injection" Cough.

And This

 

the biggest example would be the shaker intake for the challenger

 

this thread has been derailed and is no longer about purchasing from Benny, its become a technical discussion that should probably be moved/merged with the other threads about the benefits and concerns with a ram air

 

all please use this thread to discuss ram-air hood designs instead of the vendors thread... much obliged as always and keep the discussion going

 

I have seen VERY few ram air vehicles become hydro locked due to rainwater. The minimal amt of water that (typically) gets to the intake manifold will get steamed out in the combustion chamber. I have a buddy with a boosted viper truck.... His is one of the "few" I mentioned. It was a HARD rain, and he was driving it on the interstate like "whateva", so... yeah. It CAN happen, but (especially on our cars) it is pretty unlikely that rain will cause an issue on a ram air setup.

 

perhaps it should be noted that without a tune, the lovely dart ECU doesnt let you do anything with all this great extra air you are forcing into the cylinders :crazy:

 

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to pkgmsu2000 again.

 

Not dart specific but this is a video I saw a while back. This discussion reminded me of it (skip to 1:45)

 

Already posted on page one

 

Ram Air scoops have been around for decades. Many of them are much more direct into the air filters than this one. That combined with the fact that this is a fairly small opening, I highly doubt that rain will ever be an issue. Additionally, not that I know from personal experience of having one, but I hear that there are channels in this setup that direct the water away from the filter. As stated by a Customer Service Rep from Modern Performance:
"The ram air duct has channels that stop water from pouring in. The air intake also has channels that allow water to collect, and drain out, so even if you took a hose and shot water into the air duct, such a small amount of water would get to the filter, that it wont make a difference."
Also, in looking at the design of the Ram Air Intake and the Location of the air filter, it does not drop the air right on the filter, but rather right nearby.

I'm sure there are engineers spending lots of time and money developing these things, and they are not going to design something that will destroy our cars when it rains. Install it!

 

As I agree with the fact that there has been many Ram-air setups over the years and the engineers are paid a lot of money to do what they do so it SHOULD work the correct way, i do have to disagree to a certain extent as well. When you think about it and look back... majority of the ram-air systems that come stock or are OEM aftermarket (mopar aftermarket for example) are placed on N/A cars. (as was that miata video...) The Ram-air hood with the attachments for the aftermarket intake will work perfectly with the 2.0 and 2.4 engine! Now, when you get into the 1.4T is where there is discrepancy... The only stock car that comes turbo and has a FUNCTIONAL hood scoop is the imprezas, and they have a stock top-mount intercooler and the scoop DOES NOT flow directly into the intake. Subaru felt that the top-mount intercooler having a ram-air setup would help contradict the heat soaked intake within the engine bay by keeping the intercooler as cool as possible.

Now, as I have told people before... You will NOT instantly hydro-lock your car with this setup! BUT what will happen is your little turbo that spools at over 600,000RPM will cause an incredible suction force through that ram-air vent... (For number buffs, the direct formula from boost pressure to vacuum pressure is boost pressure x 2.5 = vacuum pressure or the suction force at the end of your intake) So, if you take your standard 5hp shop vacuum for example... they have a really great suction power! They can EASILY suck up water, metal, dust, dirt... etc. The suction pressure of a standard 5hp shop vac is around 46in-Hg or 18.4PSI... Our little turbos are set stock at around 22-24PSI (NOT INCLUDING TUNES!!!) So imagine that since that intake system is sealed (minus the channel at the bottom, which will also become a suction point due to the extreme suction power of the turbo) and that you are seeing 46in-Hg at the hood scoop... What do you think is going to happen? Any thing near that area is going to get sucked up!

Now, some people are going to say... "But Exitus04, what about the filter???" The filter WILL stop particles depending on your filter style... OEM or paper filters will stop the most particles, high-flow filters like K&N WILL NOT stop half as much due to the increased air-flow and performance ideals they have. That being said water IS NOT a solid. So a filter, no matter what kind you have, WILL NOT stop water!

The worst of the worst of this situation would be sucking up enough water to completely stop the turbo's turbine... (this can happen as the water is more dense than the exhaust gases powering it and would be an instant failure, some people may bring up the Ram-air headlight in the Hellcat Challenger because it has boost pressure, but as that is a supercharger and is run by the crank and not exhaust gases...) but we are not talking about this as it is a very slim to none chance you will accomplish this feat. What we are going to talk about is that over time, the constant moisture being sucked up will come with consequences... Water is one of the most powerful substances on this planet and over time has shaped things like the Grand Canyon. That is of course of many, many years! So lets shorten the time frame shall we? Lets say 5 years? Over that time period there would still be enough moisture sucked up to cause oxidation and build-up to occur within the turbo. Also, not to mention that the turbo (running up to 600,000RPM) gets INCREDIBLY hot! What happens to metal when it is extremely hot then gets hit with cold water? It has such a fast cooling that the metal starts to become brittle. Over time, this heating and cooling effect will wear out your turbo's internals faster than what they would run at without the Ram-air setup. In fact, I have heard a few stories where the turbine fins have actually broken off due to them becoming so brittle over time...

Finally, this would not really include people who live in the desert or rarely see rain... but for the vast majority of us that live in either rainy or snow/rain mixed climates, this is something that NEEDS to be taken into account! There is a reason guys who run high PSI turbos DO NOT run Ram-air setups and majority will run short-ram intakes... so they can get the best fastest air-flow into the turbo. Like I said before, This IS NOT an immediate effect and you WILL be able to run this setup if you are OK with the following...

1. You live in an area where there is almost NO rain.

2. You are OK with your turbo's life being essentially cut in half if not more.

3. Having enough money to pay around $1900+ dollars for the whole ram-air setup vs. around $150-300 for a standard intake system.

 

I can tell you from personal experience that hydro lock on a high-compression turbocharged engine is a Very Bad Thing.

 

@Exitus04

Awww muffin so youre saying when i see heavy load on the semi climbing a hill and the BOOST GAUGE is showing 35-40psi of BOOST im reading suction? Please, i experience this stuff on the daily.

Also theres this thing called a pyrometer it records temp readings for the dpf system average reading is 950-1100F....well if your gasses are that hot your iron manifold is a little cooler than it and oh wait your turbo is bolted on that...and that same exhaust gas is spinning the turbo.

Still wanna tell me that Diesel turbos run cool?

Of course diesels are easier to hydrolock, they use compression to detonate fuel not spark. Ive never had to replace a hydrolocked engine (except for the one that got hydrolocked from fuel... Funny story there).

As for being high compression, yeah. Cummins Isx's final numbers=17:1 at 36psi thats how you get 600hp and 2150ft lbs of torque. Did i mention that more power+ higher compression means more heat thatll soak that turbo??

Also i guarentee you take better care of your car than 90% of truckers ive seen guys driving 9 quarts low of oil, almost double the oil change interveral, never checking stuff, letting it idle and coke up all day so it gets hot spots in the egr and exhaust.

Again i know what im talking about, i kind of do this for a living.

 

I know you do, but diesel engines/turbos run differently than the gas ones. Of course youll see more pressure when you are under extreme load like that... same thing would happen if you were going up a hill with a gas car. But per our discussion in the chat box, were not talking about instant failure, were are talking about whether or not the constant moisture and/or water sucked into the intake will cause failure down the road. So, like I said there... these small turbos on the darts are mass produced and are designed and meant specifically for what they are designed to do. Nothing more, nothing less... The little 1.4l engine depends way too much on the turbo in order to give it the power and MPG that it can make. You said that people who run water/meth injection on the suction side are idiots because that can ruin the turbo, yet those injection systems are designed to mist the mixture into the turbo to both cool and add the meth into the system... I completely agree that unless you have a turbo build for a system like that you should NOT use it! (unless its at the throttle body spacer, then just use meth and not a mix!) My point from that is with a direct ram-air system to the suction side of the turbo, if you are driving in rain you will get water in there... and it wont be a mist due to it not coming out of a spray nozzle!

I know that the mopar CAI box was originally designed for the 2.0 and 2.4 engine and was altered a little bit to fit the 1.4. That being said, if when these air boxes were developed they didnt have to take into account the suction pressure of a turbo running at 24PSI, why would they? That more work than what they are being paid for. If you look at pictures or have had the Mopar CAI in your hands, youll see the only difference is the tubing that goes to the throttle body (on the 2.0 & 2.4) or the turbo (on the 1.4) the box design is exactly the same. The opening for the ram-air addition is literally right next to the opening for the filter... or where the suction power would be the greatest. Granted there is still the opening for the original ram-air duct in the front grill, but that one DOES work reverse gravity so you really dont have to worry about it. (plus many people have disconnected that baffling system for there CAI or whatever they have.)

Anyways, my final points on this are...

It is an extremely expensive setup for gains that will not be much better than a standard short-ram or full CAI. Sport appearance hood: $700-800 Ram-air piece: $150-200 Mopar Intake: $250-300... not to mention the hood doesnt come painted (unless you have a 2016) so paint matching and labor: $250-500? Thats an awful lot of money for essentially nothing. Plus, if anything were to happen to your turbo tack on another $1500-1800 dollars for a replacement and labor...

If you want to do this with your 1.4T, go for it! It will work! Will it do much? Probably not... But for people who live in areas that see tons of rain on a regular basis, be warned!!! This setup can wear out your turbo!
This setup is best for a NON-daily driven dart that does NOT get driven in the rain or through harsh weather! If it sees a little rain here or there, not a big deal but for the daily drivers who drive their darts through thick and thin... you may be in for some rough waters ahead (no pun intended).