Air Filter Test Opportunity

[Ron-Indy]

My car has an air filter housing that would enable two different air filters to be tested simultaneously.

Don't know how unique it is, but if someone has an idea for testing 2 differant filters with zero risk of foreign object ingestion, I'm game.

I have K&N's, Fram and Dodge OEM filters in house.

[ March 12, 2003, 11:26 PM: Message edited by: Ron-Indy ]

 

[Justin]

So you drive a Viper?

What grade oil do you run in the 8.0L V-10?

 

[Ron-Indy]

Ran the factory fill of 10W-30 Mobil 1 up until mid summer last year, then went to 15W-50 Mobil 1 for a bit of racing but will move over to 5w-40 Delvac 1 at next change.

 

[jason07-1zzfe]

Not sure that that would work. How is the intake set-up?
If the 2 intake tracts go to separate manifolds for each head it may (but then you may confuse the fuel management by having less air on one bank).
If the 2 intake tracts go to a centralized intake manifold then there is no way you can determine anything. Air follows the path of least resistance thus the one with less flow will see little dirt and the high flow one will see even higher flow than it is supposed to and will get totally abused.

 

[jason07-1zzfe]

That's what I thought, I should have known that. What do you want to test? Efficiency,flow, or capacity or all? I think you already know the K&N flows more in your application. Didn't you dyno 10 more hp? If you want to know exactly how much less restrictive it is, you could hook a manometer to the intake tubing. And someone said with a scan tool program they could read CFM from the MAF Sensor output. Maybe that can be done with your car. Then for capacity I imagine you could drive for significant mileage and compare these same readings. You won't know the actual loading, but at least they will have recieved same loading.

Efficiency would not be easy to do with any degree of accuracy. I'd have to think about it. But your best bet would be to send them to a lab. Probably would cost a couple thousand for all 3 though.

[ March 13, 2003, 01:07 PM: Message edited by: Jason Troxell ]

 

[Ron-Indy]

Jason,

Had noticed a link on another post that a guy that was running different air filters for a period of time and looking at the color of a secondary filter as an indication of each filters filtering ability. Given that the time of year, road conditions, etc. vary during each test period, I though the Viper intake set up provided a unique opportunity to test 2 filters under identical conditions, simultaneously.

You are correct, I do know the K&N's flow much better than paper, but don't know whether I can believe the hype regarding their superior filtering ability. Any filter media that I can see holes in or that needs dirt on it's surface to filter better makes my suspicious. What I'd love to find is free horsepower, i.e. flow with no engine life downside.

As with most of these things, it's more of a curiosity and fun diversion than anything.

Thanks for your comments....

 

[jason07-1zzfe]

I remember that now too, I'll have to look it up and take a look again. I think a secondary filter with enough efficiency would be extremely restrictive if placed in that air stream.

If you want more flow with no downside, you need a bigger filter. If you can fit a paper filter double the size you have, that should be more than enough. But then you will have to design a new airbox.
Or maybe try some truck filters. I think some of those use some pretty huge canisters. Again need to find room.

I can pretty much guarantee you the K&N is not more efficient than the factory paper filters.

 

[Eiron]

It looks like you could capture some type of media where the funnel of the filterbox outlet attaches to the intake tube. It wouldn't even have to be actual filtering media, right? Only something on which to capture a color variance (oiled cheesecloth?). The biggest concern would be ensuring that you didn't end up ingesting your color-variance media. Maybe make sure media material is always showing all around the intake diameter?

[Edit:] Air Filter Test

[ March 13, 2003, 05:36 PM: Message edited by: Greg Netzner ]

 

[Ron-Indy]

Good point Jason, but probably not worth the effort to redesign the airbox. In fact, there isn't any room under the hood anyway.

Greg, Agreed, fear of ingestion is paramount. Unless I can find a bulletproof way to test, it's not worth risking a $17,000 engine.

I guess it was a bad idea.... Besides I can't feel the 2.5% variance anyway.

Thanks for the comments!

 

[Ron-Indy]

Jason,

Completely independent intake tracks.

My intakes tubes are a more subtle black....