I recently purchased 04 TRZ06. I would like to keep it mostly stock but I am not against a few minor mods. I would like to replace the stock air filter with a K&N replacement filter and enlarge the openning a little to let in a little more air. Have there been any issues caused by the oil from the filter or any codes popping up from more air coming in? Thanks this has been a really great site for info.

 

Search "Zip tie mod"

 

Thanks! I think I will start with the zip tie mod first and go with stock air filter. Thanks again.

 

No problem. Enjoy!

 

Good approach. If you want lower restriction and better air filtering, get an Amzoil air filter. They have lower restriction and are as good or better at filtering than the stock filter. K&N's aren't very good filters.

 

The "zip tie" or "flip tie" modifications will require you inspect and change the filter more frequently. Keep that in mind.

There is nothing wrong with a K&N filter...or any other quality gauze filter that requires oil. It's the owner that's the problem. Follow the manufacturers directions. Clean the filter regularly, not the thousands and thousands of miles that some neglectful owners do. Allow the filter to dry thoroughly and apply the oil sparingly to the tops of the pleats and allow it to wick down. It doesn't take much. You won't have any contaminated MAF issues that way.

S&B FILTERS (CA) also makes replacement C5/Z06 oem type filters. The S&B filter cleaning kit uses a syringe instead of the aerosol oil to prevent over oiling and MAF contamination. If I'm not mistaken HALLTECH uses the S&B filters in their products. I'd wager that 99% of the after market "cold air" products use oil gauze filters.

FWIW, I use either a K&N, S&B or AIR RAID filters in all of our vehicles. They're all oil gauze filters, none of which have ever caused a contaminated MAF. They get cleaned with every other oil/filter change.

Here was my solution to allowing more air into the engine. Yes, I know that it's a very rare 110v version...

 

I did this mod, using a K&N filter, and it has worked great.

 

K&N's are crap.

Since I don't have test data on the other gauze filters I can't say they are all crap, but if they aren't significantly different than the K&N, they they probably are too. K&N's don't filter as well, and although they have a bit less restriction, they clog faster so you have to maintain them more often. There is no reason to put in a K&N for the minimal horsepower improvement.

Here is a link to an objective test were K&N is compared with other filters using the ISO 5011 test procedure.

http://www.nicoclub.com/archives/kn-vs-oem-filter.html

As is clear from the test data the K&N isn't a very good filter and despite their heavy advertising, is better than nothing, but not much.

Amzoil has a new filter out that is supposed to have restriction almost as low as the K&N, but actually filters well. I have not seen any objective tests on it so I can't confirm it, but here is a link to their site describing the technology.

http://www.amsoil.com/storefront/eaa.aspx

This is a different technology than paper or oiled gauze and appears to work better.

 

Do not over oil the filter.

 

Hey hotwheels57, that looks better than factory! The mesh really gives it a nice custom look.

 

Your MAF will go

 

Not trying to stir up the debate, but if anyone wants to try the AMSOIL Ea Air Filter mentioned above (C5 part EAA83 which I run on the track), please drop me a PM as I can save you about 25% on this via the AMSOIL Preferred Customer Program.

 

3 years and 55K miles with a K&N no codes or problems.

DO use the gasket K&N supplies or the airbox will not stay closed and the filter won't seal.

 

And yet you seem perfectly comfortable recommending the AMSOIL filter based solely on their advertising!

 

Just don't over oil it....
any light weight oil will do... i use transmission oil ( red) and an aerosol pump bottle to mist on the oil.
I clean the filter 1x per year..... 135K (s)miles and no MAF codes...

 

you don't need a bunch of BS baised "testing" to know if an airfilter works or not. Buy a new filter. Take your intake apart and clean well (also look at the MAF and make sure it's clean). Put in new filter and drive for a month or so. Take apart and if you notice a significant amount of dirt in the intake, or the MAF looks different, then you know "stuff" is getting by. I'm sorry, but I don't understand why people argue about things like this, it's not complicated. However, I do completely agree that over oiling can cause issues and that often it's "driver error" when it comes to oiling filters that causes the problem.
Best of luck to everyone. FYI: I use the Blackwing and works very well.

 

A blackwing does the job.

 

I use K&N filters on all my 4 cars and have used them the past 20+ years without a prob.

As with any filter,you have a trade off of flow vs filtration.

I clean it at every OCI and re-oil it.To make sure I haven't over-oiled...I let the oil soak in ( from spray) and blow out the excess with a leaf blower.

As always,IMO....

\db2
Carolina

 

First, I don’t have any affiliation with Amsoil, but I do know a thing or two about air filtration, since we use high volume air filters on gas turbine engines that I design. If you look at the post I made, I said I didn’t have a independent test data to prove that this particular filter is better.

If you do some additional digging you will find there are some pretty compelling charts in this pdf on the Amsoil site.

https://www.amsoil.com/lit/g2202.pdf

In particular, when you add the ability to filter out smaller particles at a higher efficiency, as well as the ability to hold more dirt, you have what is basically a better filter. Also in the PDF is a chart showing engine wear versus mass of dust passed. That chart came from an SAE paper where they measured ring wear and correlated ring wear to dust ingestion, so I do know where that chart came from. The point being, you can directly correlate wear in your engine to how much dirt your filter passes. At least Amsoil is publishing some hard data that we can use to compare.

And yes it is advertising, but, assuming that it is true, (and I have no reason to doubt it from the tech data that I have on the turbine technology that it is based on), it is a better filtration system.

K&N’s advertising is very slick. They go into great detail about what their test procedure is and how they do their testing, what dust they use and how they measure efficiency. Funny, but you never see a curve like in the Amsoil site as to how much of each size dust particles they can filter out, or a comparison of how much dirt their filter holds. They go on and on about how they test, but they don’t share any data. You have to figure that they have the data, since they have done all this great testing. But if they aren’t sharing it, they know how it stacks up, and it probably isn’t very good.

Bottom line is I KNOW K&N’s are crap and I wouldn’t use one. I have seen comparative testing performed to SAE and ISO standards that proves that. The only question that remains is the Amsoil filter better than the stock paper filter? I have seen sufficient data (and yes it is from Amsoil) that says it is better and I am currently using one.