Should I switch back to paper from K&N?

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I originally went with K&N because of the hype, and seeing the display in action really opened my eyes.. and I was 18 and didn't know squat.

Well I'd like to see that test again with the paper element filter "coked". Even if the K&N shot more air thru, it's also pushing more silicon too.

I ran a K&N air filter on my Ranger for probably 175k. I was cleaning the filter every 3 years, no notice in anything.
I switched back to a paper element when my stock airbox finally cracked a little, and would've failed my smog check. so i put a replacement airbox in and decided to put a Wix in place. the K&N is sitting in the wix box, very dirty. I have run the wix for about 2000 miles. I have noticed a small hit in gas mileage. I don't believe the filter is coked enough yet to acheive maximum air flow. However my oil does not look like tar!
with the K&N I'd have black oil around 500 miles on new Synpower. I figured for years the engine was dirty. The 4.0 has been fed Synpower 5w40 since 48k. I'm now at 240k. I know Valvoline doesnt have a high detergency package.

So I'm now convinced, the K&N will stay in the box.

I had a K&N rep come visit me last month, the guy pushed every benefit imaginable, even stating they modified the oil so it doesn't seep off like it used to. Well that's actually old news. it's the overoilers that get this issue usualy.

What's strange is in my '89 Firebird, it had a circular standup filter, I ran a K&N in that from 12k, my oil didn't get dirty like it did in my Ranger. I'm wondering if it's due to the placement of the airbox and intake hole. It wasn't easy for dirt to get in there.
 
I had a K&N on my Jeep and it passed a lot of dirt. I would not recommend one. I have switched to Wix with no more issues.
 
I have K&N conical filters on my Mustang and Cobalt SS Turbo, but I also have the pre-filter wraps on those cone filters. I found it prevents a LOT of the grit from packing into the filter element to the point that only the really small stuff might touch the filter element. Those pre-filter wraps (drycharger?) aren't restrictive either according to my MAF tuning.

On the newer Ford EcoBoost engines, there's no MAF sensor (speed density) so you could run oiled filters to your heart's content, except people are dynoing cold air intakes and not seeing much gains over the stock airbox with paper filter. In fact, someone took the entire airbox assembly off (no restriction from the box/filter) and dyno'd the car and then dyno'd it with the airbox on and found less than 3hp/tq gains without the airbox/filter. This was on a SHO!
 
metroplex,

You do realize that there is tuning going on?

Gone, I think, are the days of circular filters and open exhausts. We now have pressurized/forced intakes and scavenged exhausts. I suspect the effect is more pronounced on turbo/super charged applications!
 
Originally Posted By: mjoekingz28
metroplex,

You do realize that there is tuning going on?

Gone, I think, are the days of circular filters and open exhausts. We now have pressurized/forced intakes and scavenged exhausts. I suspect the effect is more pronounced on turbo/super charged applications!


I tuned the Mass air flow systems on my Mustang GT and the Cobalt SS Turbo, so I'm aware of how much leaner the cars were running with the cold air/short ram intakes installed. The Cobalt's LNF is actually closed loop with a factory wideband O2, so even that wasn't able to correct the 13-15% leaner fuel trims from the K&N SRI. I had to fix that or else cold starts resulted in really bad idling. The Cobalt SS Turbo has a gasoline turbo direct injected engine (LNF) which came out first in the 2006 Opel GT (Saturn Sky Redline) which uses Bosch fueling. It's basically the precursor to the "EcoBoost" 2.0/2.3 inline 4, except GM still uses a MAF sensor instead of speed density.

On the Ford EcoBoost engines, they're all speed density with factory wideband O2 sensors. That said, my 2014 SHO's fuel trims show the engine is running about 11-13% lean (11-13% positive fuel correction). The speed density system uses a quadratic formula for airflow modeling. I've tried my best to figure out how to tune for this, but the general consensus from the EcoBoost crowd is to not worry about it, and aftermarket intakes won't require a retune. The speed density tuning is required only when large changes to VE are done. It seems there's not much gain from the 3 or 4 different cold air systems available for the EcoBoost 3.5L V6, but downpipes can produce gains especially on the turbo applications.
 
Originally Posted By: mjoekingz28
Is there an Ecoboost Ford four cam 5.0 in the works?
It would be scary powerful if they did.
 
I cleaned my first K&N panel air filter. It's a bit of a pain, there's still some debris (leaves) stuck in the pleats that I can't get out. I'd rather just toss/recycle a paper panel filter every 3 years or 30k miles. I can tap out most of the debris on a paper filter every year or 12k miles, and still see light through the pleats.

My conical K&N filters all have the drycharger pre-filter wraps. Those wraps keep almost all of the debris out, except for really fine powder grit. The grit that is the size of sand particles are blocked by the wrap. Based on my MAF tuning, there's no impact to the air transfer function with those wraps, so I don't believe they are restrictions - even on a turbo application.
 
I cleaned debris from my Purolator by taking precision needle nose pliers and carefully extracting what I could.

Take care as to not pull on the cotton.


Some manuals state it being okay to clean with compressed air from the clean side, but I feel it is too dangerous and pretty pointless------that is of course unless you are Chris142 or the feller from Kuwait, but for regular/non-severe situations, the manual or 30,000 miles sounds about par.
 
Originally Posted By: mjoekingz28
I cleaned debris from my Purolator by taking precision needle nose pliers and carefully extracting what I could.

Take care as to not pull on the cotton.

Some manuals state it being okay to clean with compressed air from the clean side, but I feel it is too dangerous and pretty pointless------that is of course unless you are Chris142 or the feller from Kuwait, but for regular/non-severe situations, the manual or 30,000 miles sounds about par.

This is too much work, time consuming and possible damage to the filter.

I used discarded pantyhose as pre-filter, you should be able to find somewhere along the intake tube before the air box to install it.

Once a year when I do oil change I clean the pantyhose pre-filter, without touching the air box and the air filter itself. I only change the air filter every 5-6 years or 50-60k miles.

The filter was fairly clean after 50-60k miles, but the seal wasn't as soft as new.
 
Saw one for the first time on wife's B-I-L's Tacoma. Heard the old saw that it increases power. Whatever. Should have saved his money and used OEM air filters.
 
Originally Posted By: bmod305
I used to rebuild dirt track engines-methanol & racing gas SBC. I could tell every time when the owner used a K&N filter-the rings were shot after 18-25 nights vs 40 or more nights with a quality paper filter. I probably rebuilt 75 or more SBC engines and everyone that used a K&N filter was worn more. Just my non-scientific observation.

Dave

I am with this guy^^^^
 
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AFe in the Tacoma since the MAF sensor does NOT like the oil that can get through the K&N at first install. Bad way to spend over $50 for that know better.

My Cherokee a K&N has been in it and cleaned and re-oiled every so often in it from when I first started driving it when I got my license. That was many many years ago. It does help to "recharge" it!!!!

I rather let that jeep be able to breathe and have the flowmaster 50 series delta flow than just use a paper filter. The borla header is a bad a-- add-on boost, too!

I would love to find out how much hp it really has and the torque it now puts down at the wheels.
 
Sorry to hear all the horror stories, I've never experienced an oily or dusty intake tract while using K&N, or any other issues. I've used them for over 25 satisfied years.
 
K&N series 77 CAI in the truck.
45k and still see through it and not that dirty.
Replaced with an Amsoil universal from Pablo

(Anyone want the filter and recharge kit?)
 
Originally Posted By: rsylvstr
K&N series 77 CAI in the truck. 45k and still see through it and not that dirty. Replaced with an Amsoil universal from Pablo

(Anyone want the filter and recharge kit?)

No, Thanks.

45k miles and still see light through it means something. Brand new OEM paper filter can't see light through it, even then it isn't as efficient as a thin dirt cake after 5-10k miles.
 
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