Curious, does the K&N air filter provide provide filtration as well as a paper filter?

 

I have a K&N filter. In my opinion, it does nothing better or worse than the cheap paper one that came in the truck. I guess the real benefit to it is the 1,000,000 mile warranty. Aside from periodic cleaning and oiling, I will never need to buy a new one again; which made it worthwhile to me.

 

If you take a look at the K&N hold it to the light. You can not only see through it, but you can see holes that are fairly large in diamter. The theory being is that the oil on the cotton guaze will span those holes and trap the dirt.

This may or maynot be the case. I had one for about 15,000 miles(it's in the trash now)
The reason? when I pulled it to check I found dirt/dust on the inside of the intake. Also during the use I saw my Silicon on the oil sample at about 18ppm. I would like to normally see this below 10. So I switched back to paper.

I saw no milage gains or losses over paper. I never cleaned the filter during that time, though I did reoil it once.

Amsoil makes an aftermarket filter that uses oiled foam as it's filtration media, though in the past they did not make one for the F150's conical styled airbox.
Oiled foam in used in alot of Dirt bikes, Lawn and garden equipment to really stop alot of dirt. The way this theory works is that there is no straight path for dirt to make it past 1-2 inches of media. This type of filtration media is known as "Depth" type media(whereas K&N and paper are known as "Surface" type media.)

If a dirt particle made it past the initial part of the filter, there is still over 1" for the dirt/air to pass through in hopes that it would stop 99% of the dirt that is 5 microns and larger.

The Foam type media is supposedly 98% open and is supposed to deliver 2000 square foot of filteration surbace ara per cubic foot of filter media. So you see there is alot of surface area to stop dirt.

Now on to the good part. Finally, after 5 years Amsoil is comming out with a replacement filter for the F150's and Mustangs that take the conical styled filter.
They don't have it out yet, but I will be the first to order this and try it out.

The way that I feel is that with the Foam styled filters, you have great airflow, combined with great filtreration effeciency, combine with long(er) service life(the filter can be reused over and over).
The recommended service interval for cleaning and reoiling is 25,000 miles or 1 year.

 

Major Causes of Bearing Failure:

Dederal Mogul:
Dirt 49.9%
Insufficient lubrication 15.3%
misassembley 13.4%
misalignment 9.8%
overloading 8.7%
corrosion 4.5%
Other 5.4%

Case history of 5,000 failures.

As you can see, you want to have the cleanist air possible going into your engine.

Four Fundamental Filtration Mechanisms:

Surface Screening.
Depth Screening.
Adsorption.
Diffusion.

Some filters fall short and only use 2 of the above mechanisms.

 

http://www.nx2k.com/truck/kn_filter_dirty_or_not.htm

 

In response to msparks comment ( I did reoil it once though ). Without cleaning it, What good did reoiling it do? It tells you that overoiling is just as bad as underoiling it. Ive had K&N in all my vehicles and will continue to use them, Yeah there may be different products on the market, some may even be better, but Ive never had any problems with mine, and will continue to use K&N

 

eveyone's always critical of over-oiling K&N filters. What they don't tell you is that even if you do over oil, you can clean the MAFS. Also, it would take one heck of a lot oil to migrate. Simple remedy:

oil sparingly at first. Then let the element sit for 10 minutes to soak in. Then re-oil the white parts of the filter. Let sit again. If you don't have any visable oil seaping on teh black plastic/rubber parts of the filter, you're good to go.

K&N filters (cotton) has been proven to outflow foam and virtually all other types of media. K&N has published some outside tests and hired some statisticians to scientifically prove that even when soiled, the K&N will be more effective.

I envite any-one of you to email K&N and specifically ask for a copy. They will send it to you via your email.

PS I'm staying with paper in my Stang 1) because I'm staying stock 2) I will be changing the filter evey 10,000 miles or 1 year. the paper filters are more effective when new, but degrade unlike the K&N cotton when used in dusty conditions. In other words the paper clogs and does not permit proper airflow for performance.

 

It had been over 2 years, the filter was not all that dirty, but looked a little dry. So I "lightly" touched it up.

You have to remember that the Oil is what stops the dirt, no oil, no stopping of dirt. Also the fact that the K&N filters better when it's dirty than when it's clean. So I didn't want to reduce the filtration effeciency by cleaning it.

I'm sure that the K&N works, It will probably stop enough dirt so that your engine will last 100's of thousands of miles. But when I find something better, I'm going to use it.

As far as the K&N vs. Paper. I would rather give up some flow to get better filtration, Stock paper will be more effecient when new. M150's Idea of changin paper every 10K sounds like a good practice to me.

He will be getting good filtration combined with more than adequate air flow.

Now on to the oiled foam, I'm all for it becuae I believe that it is better than both paper and oiled guaze. I get decent air flow over the life of the filter, plus I get (In my opinion) is the best filtration efficiency out there.

 

Do K&N Filters work with most air intake kits?
Jackie

 

The F150's 'drop in replacement' K&N filter is not interchangeable with the K&N that comes with the intake kits. I had a K&N for my F150 when I bought my Airaid (with its own K&N filter). Gave the K&N stock replacement filter to a friend.

BTW, I noticed no power or mileage increase with the drop in filter.

Whether in a stock airbox or with an intake kit, I feel confident in the K&N's ability to filter if oiled correctly. Microscope pics showing the 'big holes' in the K&N filter (10 microns big next to a 5 micron circle) are misleading.

First of all, the filter in the pics is not oiled. Secondly, the K&N filter is more than just 1 layer of fabric mesh. It may be 100's of layers of mesh for all we know (not that the K&N opponents are going to point out how many layers there are). Not all the holes in the mesh line up, making it very unlikely a 5 micron peice will get through the 10 micron holes.

To demonstrate how the K&N works, think of a redwood lattice, with holes maybe 1" wide. Now randomly pile 100 sheets of lattice on top of each other, and coat the lattice with glue. Now drop a 1/2" ball on the top. Does the ball drop straight through to the ground without touching (and sticking) to the lattice? No.

 

You do need to reoil on occasion. Especially, if you are in some very dusty conditions. The oil will 'wick out' of the cotton and into the dust. I was "eating dust" for over a week last summer, and my K&N was just 'caked' with dust when I got home.

Per the instructions, I just brushed off the excess dust and then lightly reoiled it and let it sit overnight. Popped it back in and been running fine ever since. I could not tell any difference in performance or mpg with the K&N full of dust or not. I'm sure a paper filter would have been basically clogged up with the amount of dust that I brushed off that K&N. Oh, the intake side of the system was still very clean too.

Here's the filter before I brushed it off.



Here's what the whole engine compartment looked like.



It looked like this after I cleaned her up!!

 

MitchF150, What did you use to clean up your compartment? When my K&N drop-in comes due for a cleaning I'm going to have to call you!

 

K&N, in the instructions, states that even though the oil (Red in Color) fades, you do not need to re-oil. In this situation it is only the dye that has faded due to use, but there is still a coat of oil on the element. The only time you need to re-oil is when you strip the oil off with the cleaner.

go read the FAQ's at their website.

 

Dam Mitch what did you use to clean your engine compartment??

 

closer9, Green_98,

I just got some of that non-foaming engine degreaser, covered the alternator (I've killed too many in the past cleaning engines!) and sprayed down the whole thing (cold engine). Let it sit for about 10 minutes (had a beer too!)........

Using my pressure washer, but keeping it far away and just let the "mist" of the spray rinse it off. I stayed away from the top of the intake and just cleaned the covers by hand. Everything else was pretty much fair game. I didn't spend too much time near any wiring, but only using the "mist" of the sprayer, keeps any large amounts of water to a minimum anyway.

When I was satisfied with the results, I just started it up and made sure it was running ok and then took it out for a drying run. Took it around town and a run up the freeway. About 1/2 hour total time. Parked it, opened the hood and let it cool down. Then I applied some tire dressing to the whole thing. Looks great, but does tend to attract dust a bit faster..........