Well Kcat-fan, welcome to the world of 'Bolt-On' speed equipment.

Many fortunes were made by 'me' reading Hot Rod and Car Craft. All manufactures place a great deal of money in research and developement to bring to us the latest and greatest.

I came from a generation of old that fell for items such as 'water injection.' We understood it will help with detonation as advertised. It sounded great until winter came and all of us kids thought that methanol would be a great additive and created a red neck fuel injection system. Oh did the bench racing and BS stories ever 'pile' up that winter.

I came from the days of removing two barrel manifolds to replace with four barrels, Quadra jets and splitting the exhaust on a stock 350, 250 hp, 1969 Camaro back in 1979. I did not know if it went any better but the 'Blue Bottle' glass packs gave the right sound.

Everything I did to that car was an improvement. It could have been a 5 horse power gain from the split exhaust or maybe .5 horsepower from flipping the air cleaner top upside down. The bottom line I was making it better.

Read all you can, make notes, understand facts, work towards a measured goal. Let us know when you get to the "what size of cam should I install". You are on the right path, have fun.

Dano,

 

Are you going to install a set of headers or just duel the pipes? If you are going to get serious about horse power, I would consider a set of coated headers or the 2.5 in rams horns or something... Then take her to the exhaust shop and have them put larger pipe on it while the are at it.

I am about to have my exhaust system rebuilt from the headers back. $700

 

People advertise gizmos that double gas mileage too. Doesn't mean its true. if the K&N unit 'added' any measureable HP, then all it really did was restore some airflow that the previous filter may have restricted. I don't know of any dynos that accurately measure a 1-3 HP change in power. You could keep dynoing the same engine and get slightly different results each time - which K&N does - then inaccurately attribute that change to your gizmo.

Personally I prefer a little better filtration at the supposed cost of 1 or 2 HP.

Bottom line, a K&N filter won't measureably increase torque.

 

I LOVE these K&N debates! Seems like every year we get more and more of these, and they get funnier each time.

Tree hugger arguements don't count. He asked for HP increased.
Once and for all lets agree to disgree. Advertising a 5 HP increase by adding their filter is just that advertising.

K&N filter HP increase is like a cult religion gone insane, and they drank the Kool-Aid. No one believes that anymore.

Looks but other than that, it's just another way to dispose of your money.

 

K&N Filters are a must in an open environment. On a car with a hood not so much. But ride a motorcycle in a driving rain storm for 3 days and see if a K&N oiled filter is worth the money on a bike or even a 4x4 that might get a little water under the hood. But on a car, I just like the look and contrary to what you might believe an oiled filter is every bit as efficient as a brand new paper filter. K&N has tests to show it, and folks here are all about proof.

 

Dano, for what it's worth, I like you. You brought it all together and couldn't have said it better.

 

If you really must know how much hp you have at any given time, you can take the car and have it dynoed, so you can brag about what the car produces.

If you really want a much more useful measure of how impressive the car is, you can take it to the track, and have timeslips to prove how badass it is [or potentially isnt].

Or you can just do what most people I see at cruise nights do...they just make up arbitrary power numbers and brag about it. Ive met many a person with a 500+ hp 350 with simple modifications.

 

This is good information, however I'm curious what testing you observed? Coming from you, I can be reasonably sure this is good info, so I'm more curious than seeking validation.

In Tucson we have this insidious dust with very very small particle size. It seems to get on/into everything.