Hello Everybody,

There has been a few discussions here at work between getting a K&N airfilter or staying with a stock filter. I have a disagreement with a couple people here that say a K&N filter will burn up your engine. Personally, I know about 50+ people that have K&N's on there vehicle and have never had a problem. Has anybody ever heard of this? Does anybody think the problem lies somewhere else and not the K&N? If anybody could shed some light on this I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you.

 

if u keep it clean it will never fail you.

 

I did web searches and found some ugly stories about K and N, letting fine dirt into the intake. I sent an email to K and N and got a response from some female marketing mouthpiece. Although she extolled the virtues of a K and N and provided a bunch of K and N reports, SAE testing etc. Never once did she or the k and N literature say word 1 about superior filtration.


Went to service the K and N on my F150 which hauls my dirtbike off the road everyother week. Guess what I found in my intake duct after the superhype K and N. DIRT!!! Care to gues what I found in the intake duct of my daughter's Dodge diesel. Lots of dirt, diesels having over 2X the compression of a gas engine and have greater intake suction and therefore suck more dirt through the filter.


The intake track in my 01 Cobra was clean, but that car never goes off road and only gets driven about 4.000 miles per year VS 20,000.

Got rid of the K and N's on the truck and car. want a good deal. $20 for both plus shipping. both will fit



K and N's defininetly flow lots of air. I put a K and N in a dirt bike once at 10,000 foot altitude because I did not have leaner jets. Got rid of the overrich conditon immediately.

 

There are a few areas to talk about.
The first reason most replace with a K/N is the name recognition attributed to performance due to increased airflow.
Do you need this feature for your drivng? There is little to no gain under normal conditions.

Second, the construction requires oiling the surface to catch dirt. Not doing this allows larger micron size dirt to pass through. This has an effect on engine life, oil contamination etc.. This more open construction is how the extra airflow is accomplished.
Will you oil the correct amount each time, not under oiling or over oilng and contaminate the air meter, each time?

Third, the stock MC filter does a better job on filtering over it's life span before restriction/ replacement is needed.
There are other points to be made but these are the larger ones.
There are those who just have HP on the mind and those who want long term service.
What's your pleasure?

 

Thank you all for your reply.

The people that are saying it burns the sensors out and causes the motor to fail didn't say anything about how they clean their filter. For all I know they probably never cleaned it, or if they did clean it then they might not of oiled it right. I own a 1999 F-150 and a 1999 GTP, both have K&N filters, I clean then right and oil then right and have never had a problem. Thanks again for all your help.

 

i have had my K@N on for 30000 miles and i offroad my truck very hard dirt mud and all, and i have never had any dirt mud or anything in my intake tub or throttle body, i clean it whenever it gets dirty, and oil it and clean it acording to specs on the cleaning kit and never had a problem with it messing up sensors, if you dont follow instructions ofcourse it will mess things up it is a great product and i would recomend it to everyone, the only thing i didnt like is that it had no heat shield i fixed that with some, sheetmetal

 

I had over 150K miles on my Ranger when I traded it for my 150. The drop-in K&N was installed when I had about 10K miles on it. That truck spent a lot of time chasing our desert racer through the deserts of So. Cal. I never had a problem with dirt. Over-cleaning can be bad also - let it get dirty. I cleaned it about once a year.

 

my K and N was always properly maintained- but AZ has very fine dust when you go off road.
when i ride the dirt bike the dust always goes right through my jersey and stains my undershirt. in fact the dust makes an outline of my chest protector.


maybe under the right conditions a K and N is okay.
for the unnoticeable gain in performance on a 4 wheel vehicle IMO they are not worth the risk

 

If they are so great, how come none of the 18 wheelers on the road use them?

 

I have had my experience with KN filters and have used them alot on my race vehicles for many years. As much as I loved using them, they are a maintenance item, and if the proper up keep is not stayed ontop of, then you will loose the motor.

If your not much of a "keep up with servicing your vehicle person" then I wouldn't have one on the vehicle.

You need to be attentive to the lubricant and quanity you install on the filter and make sure you get the element completely covered.

You need to make sure you clean it properly and re oil it again properly. Then you need to install it properly. You mess up on one step and you can loose a motor.

If you need more air, you might look into getting a taller filter or a ram air or intake air induction speedy tube like the mustangs have rigged up. If you have a square filter box, some diesels have larger boxes, head to the salvage yard and modify your system with a larger stock intake system.

Unless you have made some major engine mods...do you really need more air?

I'll date myself but remember the days of flipping over your aircleaner lid to give your car the Burt Reynolds car sound?

Back when Iwas just a yound pup, we couldn't afford hot rod fancy filters like the factory guys, so we enlarged the hieght and circumference of our stock filters and for extra protection shot some WD-40 (which was considered a new product back then) on the element, Then we would take chicken wire and wrap around the outside of the element to protect the cleaner for when the guy ahead of you kicking up a rooster tail of track debri and bomb barded you with dirt clods. Ah, Those were the days!!

Good Luck to you,

 

You not dating yourself to bad....Up until 94, atleast for the Chev S-10's, all had round breathers and guys would turn the top upside down to hear the throttle body. I prefer the sound of intake over exhaust myself... I have the utlimate Burt Reynolds sound... (81 TA with orginal Quadrajet under the shaker hood scoop) man I love to hear that quadrajunk open up and howl. As it echos in the hood scoop which acts like an echo chamber, it literaly rattles the pillar trim panels. Wow the thrill is undescibeable.

 

Ha Ha Awesome! My dad would got so mad when he caught us one time in the driveway before we flipped the air cleaner lid back over to his his new 76 buick La Sabre 350 with 4 BBl quadrajet.

Deep down he loved the sound as much as we did. He just knew we had been out burning his gas and spinning his tires.

My 72 firebird with the 455 4 BBl Quad, I just loved punching into it going down the highway, passing cars. You know what I am talking about, Oh the fond memories!

I did like the pontiac cam sound out of the tail pipes at idle. All my buddys were chevy small block fans at the time. That pontiac cackle sound was like no other to me, and the trans Ams and firebirds had it going on back then.

I had several late 60's mustangs with big blocks but the pontiac with the quad is the one I reflect on alot.

Have enjoyed the post, take care

 

Yes I know what you mean... This car was one of my child hood fantasy cars... After I seen Smokey and the Bandit then my room was TA posters, bedspread, I still have some shirts, jackets, hats, key chains and otehr parafanalia from back then (what a 10 Year old boy does with a key chain I dont know). But I got them for presents because I loved anything with the TA phonix on it. I got this car for my 18 Birthday because I never lost the fire for them and man I have never loved any present as much as I did/do this one. It's gone down hill drasticllly since I got it. It has been sitting on the back burner waiting for time and money to restore it. Hopefully I will beable to get to it this summer. The bad thing is once youve heard a classic Pontiac intake, especialy from the drivers seat. I find myself trying to mimic that sound in all vehicles... Just can't do it!

Though I have already spotted and been eye balling the replica shaker hood for the truck....

 

122,000 miles, 100k of them with a K&N filter of some sort. Case closed for me?,,,,98



And the lid is flipped on the K&N filtered 86 360 Ramcharger.

 

A good friend of mine had a 78 T/A in HS, awesome sounding, especially doing donuts in wet grass. Had the scoop knocked out and
a filter sized chrome lid on it. Dual turbo mufflers, and a quadrajet. Memories, lol.,,,,98