I have an opportunity to buy a K&N filter for my truck, brand new, for a cheap price, like 50 bucks.

My question is, is it worth it? I've been reading that if they aren't properly taken care of, the oils can hurt the life of the motor. Is this true?

Would I be better off saving my 50$ and buying a higher quality OEM filter?

Also, If I do go with the K&N,(And my future exhaust setup) I'm assuming that some programming would have to be done?
Thanks guys!

 

If long term engine life is a major concern, I'd get a tune within a couple months of putting the "filter" on if it's a cold air intake type setup. They can make your motor run a little lean when you're taking in more air and not telling your MAF to compensate for it. But it's very minor and it's not required, even with an exhaust. But most people will agree that a tuner will get more benefit from both and intake and exhaust. If it's purely a filter, dont worry about a tune, it's just a slightly less restrictive filter! There are also oil-less filters available, which I would choose. Who the hell is gonna remember to oil a filter regularly? Lol

 

I've ran K&N's for years on my street and race cars. Never heard of the oil issue. As for a retune, your MAF can compensate for the extra incoming air.

 

I don't like them. More air flow comes at the expense of less filtering. Hold one up to the sunlight sometime and look through it. Everyone I have ever seen has pinholes that sun shines directly through. You don't see that on paper filters. Not to mention having to clean your MAF a lot more unless you magically find the perfect amount of oil to use on it. I would stick to the OEM filter or Wix or something of equal quality and do the Gotts Mod.

 

If you do an online search for “air filter test” there is a lot of very good information. IMHO, the CAI units are NOT WORTH THE $$! Unless you are talking about a system that was specifically designed for a specific application there are very little hp/tq gains actually achieved in a street use vehicle and there are very few docs that these mfg’s can produce that actually show an increase in hp/tq in the power-band range of a relatively stock street vehicle.

I would avoid oil impregnated filters. While they have their purpose in off-road applications, Ford/GM/Dodge all have “watch-out” bulletins where the oil has contaminated intake sensors. - they even have a training video for the techs on this (flatratetech.com) .

If you look at the flow data, WIX HP filters flow 98+% of K&N and have a much smoother flow post filter plus excellent filtering, for a fraction of the price!

Testand Corporation conducted an ISO standards test on automotive air filters which can be viewed at this link: http://www.dieselbombers.com/chevrol...r-testing.html.

“After only 24 minutes the K&N had accumulated 221gms of dirt but passed 7.0gms. Compared to the AC, the K&N “plugged up” nearly 3 times faster, passed 18 times more dirt and captured 37% less dirt.”

 

Thanks for the info guys! I think I'll just stick with the paper filter and do the gotts mod!