K&N Air Filter?

When you figure the cost of maintaining it there really is no savings. I did the K& N one time a long time ago but realized its a lot easier to just drop in a new paper one

N-Trouble wrote:
Save your money and just stick a K&N sticker on your back window,,, Should be good for 10-15HP easily. LOL...

K&N is the new STP sticker!! LOL

So I have never used one, looking at them I could not see an advantage. I see more work to maintain. With my Diesel, if I was looking to increase the air flow to the engine I would rather go to a "BHAF" "Big Honkin Air Filter". Large surface area paper air filter.

mbutts wrote:
When I bought my Expy used, the seller included a K&N intake (he had removed it because the dealer scared him about voiding his warranty). I decided not to use it due to increased noise and the benefit was so tiny (about 3.5% increase in HP at 4,000 RPM) that it wasn't worth the effort to install and maintain it.

And then what happened.....???

Each of my 4 vehicles run K&N's. After hearing the "horror" stories, I began smearing some clear grease on the intakes of my vehicles to see if any dust was getting past the K&N's. After a couple of years of unscientific testing, and with the grease remaining crystal clear, I decided that the filters were doing their job just fine.

Just my $.02 and I'll continue saving money by re-using my K&N's.

Adam

My vehicles aren't starving for air with the stock setup. Nothing to be gained except noise and the possibility of tiny oily clumps of dust breaking away from the filter media causing problems with intake sensors and maybe even galling cylinder walls. NASCAR used to use oiled gauze filters and went back to dry media for this reason. I prefer to properly maintain my vehicles with OEM or equivalent replacement parts.

Save your money and just stick a K&N sticker on your back window,,, Should be good for 10-15HP easily. LOL...

Thanks for the input!
I will stay with OEM

I saw the dirt after the K&N filter on our 8.1 chev. That was enough for me to not use it anymore.

chevman

I used to use them on all my vehicles; bikes and cars/trucks. That was before the advent of computerized intake/combustion control by the vehicle itself. K&Ns coupled with exhaust modifications and carburetor jet changes (remember those?) could yield demonstrable results. Enter the computer control...doesn't matter how much air is there (restrictions), the computer will change the ignition/fuel systems to use what it needs which is easily provided by the stock filter system. The stock filter system doesn't require bucks to K&N for their filters and certainly doesn't require the maintenance required for them. Stopped using them for those reasons. I also am in the camp that without the required maintenance, performed religiously, they do pass more "dirt" than the paper filters they are designed to replace.