Well, it rained today, and I noticed that the area in which im planning on putting the filter for my home-made FWI was wet, meaning that it is exposed to water when it rains, how much is hard to say.

What im wondering is how well does the average filter hold up to water exposure? How much water is too much?

Im going to probably seal off some parts as best I can, the splashguard in the wheelwell has a few places that need sealed up, but the rest of the water looks to me to be coming from the front of the car, from areas like the headlight openings and that general area.

I will be using an AEM Dryflow filter for this little project.

Should I consider getting a filter wrap?

filters suck in wet conditions. I love how my mpg drops 2-10 mpg when it rains. It doesn't even have to rain hard, just a drizzle

After some more looking around I noticed there are two gaps in my splash shielding about 2 inches around or so, not huge, but big enough to let water in. So im going to try and find something to seal those up once the weather starts cooperating a little more.

Then there will be a lot of testing before the setup ever hits the road, not too mention before I destroy the stock airbox as part of the new setup

But IIRC a good filter should repel water instead of soaking it in. I will just have to remember to be careful with driving through standing water especially. I think thats how it got wet in there today, is because I had to repeatedly drive through a couple inches of water while driving 30+ mph.

Any other input will be appreciated.

I'm not sure how your fenders are in comparison to the Bonneville, but I saw Seth'* (smellbird) 1999 SSEi with a FWI. I think he used some kind of black plastic he got from Home Depot to create an effective splash gaurd. He mentioned not having any problems with it, but maybe he or someone else who knows better could chime in too.

Go with an AEM bypass valve. That will keep your motor from injesting any water should you run into any puddles.

For a shield for the filter, cut up a plastic 1 gallon paint bucket (or dremel the hell out of a metal one)

That AEM valve looks like a very interesting product, Ill definetely keep it in mind.

Doing some reading on AEM'* site seemed to state that the bypass valve was only necessary if the filter might be submerged at any point...im not seeing myself submerging mine at any point.

I also noticed that they actualy stated more or less that a little bit of spray from rain wouldnt hurt anything, but I still want to protect as best I can.

I contacted smellbird to figure out what he used for splashguard material, and Im having a really hard time visualizing that paint can idea...