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I will say that K&N filters do sacrafice filtering ability
IMO, a true statement. I have purchased two used Dodge CTD trucks that had the washable (fuzzy window screen) filters. One I know was K&N, the other I'm not sure, but it probably was.
BOTH of those trucks had fine particulate matter (dirt) in the intake duct downstream from the "filter"!
Needless to say, I took those STRAINERS (no way could they be called FILTERS) out and threw them away. I replaced them with NAPA GOLD (Wix) OEM style paper air filters. The restriction indicators did not show any increase in intake restriction.
I used to work in a plant that had a very severe dust (aluminum oxide) problem. We tried every type of air cleaner known to man (FARR Rotopamic, Donaldson Cyclopac, various centrifugal pre-cleaners, etc.). We found that the best bet was a combination of a Donaldson Cyclopac and a Donaldson oil-bath air cleaner in series, the dry filter first then the oil bath. This lash-up was installed on a Detroit Diesel 2-53 engine that operated in this dusty environment about 6 hours out of an 8 hour shift, all day every day. The engineers told us to not even bother to try the K&N style "filters". When clean, they would pass too much dust, and by the time they were dirty enough to actually filter out the dust, they would be only one shift or so from being plugged.
By the way, paper filters CAN be washed, but for the price of an automotive filter element it is not economically feasible. That is, it costs more to get the filter washed than the price of a new one. We tried getting the Donaldson Cyclopac filters washed, and the cost was only about 2/3rds of the price of a new one, but the cleaned ones only lasted half as long before tripping the restriction indicators. In a less dusty environment, the cleaned filters may have worked fine, but not in our extremely dirty plant.
Ha the Fuelshark I clicked the link and who can argue the scientific approach the guy took in developing it? Funny.
I remember ads for fuel line magnets and when cars had carburetors there was this thing you could attach over the carb air intake that would swirl the air like a tornado right into your carb.
How about half the stuff in a JC Whitney catalog from the 80's. I remember a guy with a 6 cylinder camaro and he had so much crap attached to it that the car was probably slower due to all the extra weight but he thought it was faster.
you are 100% right but paper cheap filter will flow more than 100% of what the motor can suck in.
Most modern motors are not anywhere near their limit on stock parts, especially when we're talking about forced induction.
K&N intakes can make a difference, but they're not worth the cost if you're not going mod appropriately or tune for the extra flow. I would argue they're not worth the cost at all for the majority of naturally aspirated vehicles.
I guess I was confusing filter with intake size. Though once you upgrade your intake size you're not going to be using an OEM paper filter anyway. My AEM filter has a little K&N logo on it so I assume it's just a rebranded K&N.
I've had it for probably a good 20-30k miles and clean it regularly. Turbo is doing fine.
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