A friend bougnt this at walmart. 43 dollars I believe. It’s very well built and much heavier than an OE filter but it doesn’t pass the sunlight test. You can see tiny pinholes just like the oiled filters. I was hoping it would be better cause it’s a nice looking filter otherwise ! In 2 of the pics I’m holding it up to the sun and you can see the pinholes
K&N select dry filter ( pics)
- Thread starter 2013ecof150
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- Oct 28, 2014
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I'm not a fan of K&N filters because my son and I ran one in his Impala several years ago, and I did UOA. His Silicon counts were in the stratosphere. I think Horizon and Blackstone start flagging Silicon counts when they go over about 30 ppm. We made ONE change to his vehicle, we added a K&N air filter. UOA came back with 993 ppm Silicon. I threw away the overpriced piece of trash called a K&N filter and put an OEM filter back on. Next UOA came back normal.
If anyone GAVE ME a K&N filter, I would throw it away. I am aware of their reputation in off road racing under extremely dusty conditions, but that's NOT our daily driving conditions.
Perhaps if you coat the filter with 1/2" layer of fine dry sand (like in a Baja race) it might be a better filter, but it is ill suited for street use. Rant over.
If anyone GAVE ME a K&N filter, I would throw it away. I am aware of their reputation in off road racing under extremely dusty conditions, but that's NOT our daily driving conditions.
Perhaps if you coat the filter with 1/2" layer of fine dry sand (like in a Baja race) it might be a better filter, but it is ill suited for street use. Rant over.
I wouldn’t run them either. I was very intrigued when he first showed it to me. They don’t sell them in the Walmarts near me, I had never seen one in person. Thought it might be a great filter…until I held it up to the sun
Buy AEM Dry-flow. Even though it's owned by K&N
Amazing that none of my UOAs on 5 vehicles all running K&Ns have low/normal silicon numbers.
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
Yes, but we know you don't drive in dusty conditions
And neither do a whole lot of other people.Yes, but we know you don't drive in dusty conditions
I put K&N drop ins in my g37s back aroud 2010 when everyone was doing it. 6 months later I was having idling problems. Dealership wouldn't cover it and said I needed my throttle body cleaned. I can't confirm or deny, but it did go away and I never had it again when I switched back to OEM.
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
Sure, but I think it important to acknowledge that point. Right now here, with all the salt and sand still on the roads and it warming up and the wind picking up, we have tons of dust and dirt blowing around that people's air filters are required to stop.
A whole lot of other people do.
I believe in several of my posts in the long K&N threads over the years here I've commented that I live in an area that is low dust (I don't drive on dirt roads very often and overall the mid-Atlantic suburbs aren't like some of the western states) and that for folks living in high dust areas these may not be the way to go. For my vehicles with K&N filters (all of them now), I've typically gone ~50K before a clean/re-oil. On the other end of this dicussion, I don't believe I've ever seen a post here by those that tell folks not to use these filters that for normal day to day driving in a low dust area with a properly maintained and fitting filter, your UOA SiO2 results will look normal - it's important to acknoweldge that point as well when folks chime in to these threads. The poster above with the 900+ppm SiO2 reading clearly has something else going on there beyond just running a K&N air filter..it had to be not seated correctly or something else egregious w/r to maintenance etc. The only elevated SiO2 readings I've gotten in my cars that I do UOAs on are from 1) repairs when sealer was used that contacted the oil and 2) HPL oil that has quite a bit more SiO2 in the VOA than other Euro oils I've used.
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
Is it though? What is the value in drawing attention to the low risk scenario when all that's required is noting the high risk one? We don't tell people to sail when it's sunny, you tell them not to sail when it's thunder and lightning. We don't have signs saying "good traction when dry", we note "slippery when wet", we don't put a notice on the flat mirror saying "object in mirror is as it appears", only on the convex saying "objects in mirror are closer than they appear".
No, there's no real risk in using a K&N in the absence of dust, but that doesn't need to be spelled out. But it should be noted that in a dusty environment, they are going to provide poorer filtration and that may have an impact on that person's decision to use one or not.
Yes, that number is well above what we've seen from folks running less efficient filters in dusty environments, I'm in agreement with you there.
I used AEM DryFlow for 100k on my Mazda 3. Never did a UOA so no idea on silicon, but I switched back to a Mahle OEM style filter. I agree with Overkill that there is generally no benefit to be had. Other than reusability, anyway, and the build quality was nice. It is pretty obvious from looking at the two filters that the OE style media will filter smaller particles better. On my M2 comp I will only use an OEM or equivalent filter. There's no gains to be had from filter and intake mods on that car.
I think about the only gripe that would really terrify me is using an oil type air filter and then be somewhere like South Kansas or Oklahoma when it's below freezing and throwing that horrible Red dirt clay stuff they have down there. I don't know what the freeze point is of the oil that they use to trap debris but it got me think of it eventually if it could get cold enough that it would completely get hard and I don't think you'd have anything to filter at all. I had really good luck with dry flow filters and occasionally during the summer if I know I'm going to go somewhere where there may be a high amount of dirt or dust I will throw on a pre-charger. I still use a k&n cabin filter because it fit my Honda Civic so there's no point buying another one. I don't have the patience for oil either.
It’s suitable for racing and that’s about it.
I would probably go with the steel mesh from blitz or the foam from HKS
