K & N filter change

Wes Tausend wrote:
...

There is another way to look at the filter issue. And a logical explanation of how they work, or don't work.

The Mississippi River has sometimes been called the "Big Muddy". The Missouri, which runs nearby, has been sometimes called the "Little Muddy".

The reason they are called that is because both rivers hold fine silt in their moving water. And the reason they do that is because of the slow speed of their flow. Whenever the same water becomes a backwater, the silt settles out into a muck, and the water clears up. The similar speed of flow is also why both rivers have the same-sized-particle sandy bottoms; sized that of table salt. The salt-sized particles fall out of suspension because the water flows precisely no faster. If the water was faster, the bottom would tend to gravel, then faster yet finally, the coarse rock seen so common in mountain streams.

Air is a fluid like water. When flowing, it always carrys fine particles with it. Where I live, the wind blows a lot; ND is second only to Texas in windpower. The air may look clean, but it is not. On severely windy days the haze of larger particles can be seen. Not as much as it used to be before no-till farming, but still there. Enough so that continuously exposed windshields eventually cloud over from the abrasion, and paint loses it's shine.

So if wind "flows" brisk in an intake, why would it deposit sand on the walls. It would deposit sand if the particles were larger than the flow could suspend, but the intake air flows faster than the outside air whence it came. So only a certain type particles would remain in an intake. They would have to be sticky. Sticky, sharp crystaline particles like gypsum or salt dust. White. If there were a low count supply of such "sticky" particles in the outside air, no sign of the pounds of passing dust would be seen riding in the pounds of air an engine inhales.

With an open, non-filtered, intake, even on pavement, the dirt would merely enter the engine, grind a little precisely machined metal away and leave. Whoever I sold my truck to, would pay the price of reduced engine life. I have wind and salt where I live so I would likely see signs of dirt in my intake. Some owners in other parts of the country would remain blissfully unaware, and maybe even suffer less damage from slightly cleaner air.

So why would anyone want to run an air filter with crude open porosity like a K&N instead of a fine-micron paper filter? It seems illogical to me. We all know that the new diesels demand clean, fine-micron fuel filters and no-one argues the point. So is it ok to wear out pistons and bearings, but not injectors?
Wes
...

OK?!.............and after all that when dirt flows through a K&N the micro fine dirt will stick to the oiled material in the filter. Or does the dirt steer around the microscopic filter crevises and go right on to the engine?

Sheesh! :S