K & N Filters ??? Good or Bad ??

I've heard recently that 'oil coated' Air filters.......

transfer oil to the engine's Mass Air Flow Sensor and mess up

the Air Flow sensor readings..... Kinda like bad

information set to the Engine CPU....... Garbage in,

Garbage out.... Might have to buy a new Mass Air Flow Sensor??

I once ran something quite similar on a Harley Davidson. Can't give them a glowing report. On a carb engine the lack of/over oiling can run havoc with your fuel / air mixture. With a computer controlled engine this will not be the case but the oil DOES migrate down the intake tract and the evidence is there to see. My take - This is just a gimmick, pure and simple and can't possibly filter as effectively as a god paper filter. I will never use anything like a K&N again ever.

- Regards Gordie

Even normal oiling can. Stick with dry type stock filter because there is no magic P in those things unless you believe in snake oil too. They also do filter less too.

----------------- The SnoMan

I have one on my Toyota Corolla and am looking at getting one for my Suburban as soon as they go on sale again. I have had them on several vehicles and have always had noticably greater power as soon as I installed one. On one vehicle it eliminated or greatly delayed a downshift on a hill going to work. Before the K & N it would always downshift (with cruise set at 55) about half-way up the hill. After the K & N it would either not downshift at all or not downshift until almost all the way up the hill. I always got noticably better gas mileage out of it also. My son has one on his Saturn. Never had any problems!

Mike D.

The K&N filter can create a problem. The oil can slip thur the filter and get on the mass airflow sensor, and then down into the engine. The dirty mass airflow sensor can cause incorrect readings and cause the computer to lean or rich up the fuel. I can't tell a bit of difference in power or gas millieage with the K&N or a paper filter. I would stick with the stock paper filter and keep it change every 12,000 Miles or when ever it gets dirty, they are a heck of alot cheaper then K&N.

Brian

Had one on '98 Chev. 5.7 and ran it till i sold it with about 112,000 miles on it and never had any trouble with any sensors. Ran this almost right from new b/c the replacement paper at the time was half of the k&n. Currently run one on my 99 Yukon 5.7.

I have one on my S10. I noticed better performance. Not a lot but some. The mileage increased a tad bit. I've had it for 218,000 miles. Currently

338K now.

I'd get another one if I got another vehicle.

LS

You might check out this link for Bob The Oil Guy and his air filteration tests too

The SnoMan

I had a friend that was raving about the increased mileage and power of K&N filters so I did a non scientific test with an old Dodge Diplomat that I converted to 4 barrel ele. ignition. On a street that is about 1 mile from my house, there are yardage markers on the side of the road from 0 all the way to a mile and they are used for taxi's to check there meters in the cars against. Well this is a perfect place to test how well the tuning of the carb was going and my recurving of the distributor till it was perfect. I could run the 1/4 in 14.65 seconds (which is quick for an old gutless Diplomat) and highway mileage was 20.1mpg with cruise on at 60mph.

So what I did was try his new K&N air filter on my car and guess what in the

1/4 mile I ran 14.6 seconds for the best of 5 tries so I gained nothing basically. I then ran the car out to do a mileage test and low and behold I got 20.3 mpg.

So yes they do work but I would have to drive a whole lot just to pay for the difference this filter made.

Nice thought out comment. And on top of all this it has been proven that they fiter air less in process. Also when you with a carb which has no real active mixture control, a minute change in airfilter restriction will effect A/F ratio how ever slight while a F/I engine will keep it more constant. (this could explain your .2 MPG increase)

----------------- The SnoMan