K & N filters

DE88ROX wrote:
Been thinking about getting a K&N filter for the truck. aside from not having to buy filters all the time, is it a good investment in your TV?

NO.

Go to a store, take one out of teh box, hold it up to the lights and observe how big the holes are in the gauze they claim is "filter media"

Every few months I do this and can see light through it.

I tried one for 3k miles and there was dust downstream in the rubber tubes and the turbo. I could see light thru the holes in the weaving and it wasn't much better for airflow. The stock paper puller 16" w.c., the K&N pulled 12" w.c. and then I built a big paper filter that pulls 3" w.c. Craig

I tried them back and forth for several years in three different trucks. Did not notice any different performance or mpg. I change engine oil at 5k religiously and the oil always seemed dirtier with k&n than OEM.

Never did any oil analysis so my experience is anecdotal.

C Schomer wrote:
and then I built a big paper filter that pulls 3" w.c. Craig

Another Dodge BHAF(big hooking air filter) setup! I just did not like the extra noise.

This is the most effective filter setup. Very low restriction like you noted. Will run for years due to the large surface air. Do you have a outer wears cover on your filter?

You can see the SS heat shield below the Banks exhaust brake on the hot side of the turbo. I even installed the filter minder on the far end of the filter, which may have not been the best location?




Chris

I'm not reading a bunch of internet myth in this thread. But I am reading from people who say they are the actual people who installed a K & N and had dirt and fouling sensor problems. I've got my own experience too.

I had a VW dune buggy with dual carburetors. I put some nice shiny new factory oiled K & N filters on it. These filters were held down with two bolts each and they were carefully seated and the bolts were tight, but not over tight. I have enough experience with the desert sand to know that it will get anywhere that is not well sealed so I was very careful with installation.

After about 3/4 of a day of driving dusty roads it started running poorly. I pulled the air cleaner covers and there was a fine coating of sand inside the filters. This was not the fine dusty baby powder sand, but actual gritty particles.

I did continue to run the filters because I was young and dumb.

Okay, well now I'm older and still apparently dumb because while the buggy is long gone, I still run a K & N on my fuel injection conversion early Bronco. Really this is because I haven't had the time to go looking for a cone paper filter to replace it with.

Want more actual truth not internet myth? Before I started working on computers I was a dealership mechanic here in sunny Southern California. This is true, I'm not making it up. Kids would bring in a poorly running truck. Many of the trucks equipped with a K & N had a fouled mass airflow sensor.

This sensor sits just behind the filter and is a wire that is heated and the computer figures out how much air is flowing into the engine by how much current it takes to keep the wire hot as the airflow cools it. We could shut the truck off, let the sensor cool and blast the burned on K & N oil off the sensor wire with brake cleaner. This would fix about 85-90 percent of the mass airflow failures when a K & N was involved.

To those mechanics that state the K&N doesn't foul sensors, your young drivers must be better at oiling their filters than the so cal kids, because ours are fouling sensors.

Believe what you want about the K & N, but I know for a fact that they don't filter well because I have seen it first hand.

opnspaces wrote:


Believe what you want about the K & N, but I know for a fact that they don't filter well because I have seen it first hand.

That is why I ask people if they have done an oil analysis. Most will show a high silica reading with a K$N filter.

If there is HP to be gained, what I pictured above would win hands down.
"The stock paper puller 16" w.c., the K&N pulled 12" w.c. and then I built a big paper filter that pulls 3" w.c. Craig "

Chris

I run my X in the dunes once a year and in those 4 days you can see all the sand collected in the K&N. I did pull the filter immediately after just to check to see if any got by. I found no dust or anything past the filter. And I have never had to clean a MAF sensor ever due to a K&N. I've only cleaned them as a maint. Procedure. This is also a fact.

Let's see. Some have problems with k&n and some don't. Studies have found k&n pass more dirt particles. Seen any posts of OEM paper filters giving problems? Any studies showing OEM filter passing more dirt than k&n? Yeah but race cars use k&n! Hello! How long does a race car run between over hauls?
I say everyone put on what they want. But, I will stick to OEM pleated paper filters.

dodge guy wrote:
I run my X in the dunes once a year and in those 4 days you can see all the sand collected in the K&N. I did pull the filter immediately after just to check to see if any got by. I found no dust or anything past the filter. And I have never had to clean a MAF sensor ever due to a K&N. I've only cleaned them as a maint. Procedure. This is also a fact.

So there you go, full scientific proof that they are not a problem!

:S:S:S

From what I understand the makers of AFE air filters came from K&N and started making a superior oil type air filters. I have ran the big cone type on my 98 RAM 12V for about 250K of it's 380K life and I have done several oil samples thru Blackstone over the years and the tests came back good.

But I would never even run an AFE on a vehicle that has sensors that can and will be fouled.

Stick with stock filters like on the 4th ten RAM's because they can deny warranty coverage if they choose, Besides the stock filters filter very well and flow plenty of air.