Wonder why off road guys use them almost exclusivly? I`ve use`d K&N on sand rails , Desert bikes that run in 10,000 times more dirt, silt etc. than a street car and never had a problem! I`ve seen them so dirty you couldn`t see the filter and taken them off and its perfectly clean inside. Proof is in the pudding.

 

Pudding is what comes out of my K&N when I clean it! Glad that crap never makes it to my engine. You do have to clean and re-oil them properly. I clean my MAF with CRC MAF cleaner at the same time.

 

 

This is the ONLY reason to use one, it keeps the LARGE particles out of the engines. Oiled cloth filters will filter out more large dirt/dust particles and can be cleaned often, making them the filter of choice for dirt bikes and desert vehicles.

Do a used oil analysis and see how much more silicon is in your oil when you use an oiled cloth filter. This extra "sand/dirt" in your oil is NOT doing your engine any good !

 

Testing that I read said that paper filters were actually better breathing and filtering when new and clean. Since our cars are basically vacumn cleaners that drive on the highways the paper filters don't stay clean very long. The paper filter that was in my car when I bought it had amazing things caught in it.

I find the K&N very dirty everytime I clean it. Which has been often during the last 100K miles. Looking forward to the next 100K. Your experience may vary.

 

The reason is that they don't collapse if they get wet. Paper filters will and that is why the K&N type filters were invented. It wasn't to filter any better, because they don't. It was because conventional filters collapse if you get them wet.

So long as you aren't getting the fiter wet, a paper filter is far better at keeping dirt out of your engine.

If you do some research you will find that under DIN and SAE testing, oiled gauze filters simply aren't very good. While K&N says they filter out 98% of dirt, a good paper filter keeps out 99.5% or better. To put it another way they let in between 3 and 7 times more dirt than a good paper filter. If you go to Bob the Oil Guy's forum you will find plenty of people who have done oil analysis and found high silicone (sand) in their oil following the use of K&N filters.

K&N even says that their filters are "good enough", but there isn't one piece of data on theri web site as to how their filters compare with paper on an SAE test. That alone should tell you something. Finally, you don't see any auto manufacturer putting them on their cars and offering a 100,000 mile warranty with this kind of filter on there. If there was any benefit to these things the auto makers would be all over it. They aren't because these filters just don't work that well.

 

K&N filters are just plain junk. They do a lot of advertising and gullible people buy them.

But you just can't ignore the simple fact that more airflow equals more dirt flow.

If you really want more air and dirt just remove the air filter completely.