CarbonCrew

There is an adage that says, "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch." K&N air filters are no exception. You cannot decrease the differential pressure across a filter and maintain the same filtering efficiency ratings. Simply put, as the filter restriction goes so, does it's ability to capture particles that enter the life blood of your engine. People go to great lengths running synthetic fluids, bypass filters, etc. to keep a healthy and clean running engine. I am baffled that many are so quick to compromise there engine over 1-2 hp, if that.

I am not on a island with my thoughts as there have been many tests that prove the K&N filters cannot keep up with a conventional paper-OE counterpart. A quick Google search should get you to these studies, if you can't find them let me know and I'll point you in the right direction.

H22toF20

^You are right about the filtration. But to say it's a compromise, is complete ignorance. Something that small will NEVER ruin an engine, end of discussion.

I would have invested in an intake, instead of a replacement filter for an air box, that looks to choke the engine. The opening looks to be smaller than the OEM 3" D pipe.

CarbonCrew

[QUOTE=H22toF20,May 29 2010, 09:51 PM] ^You are right about the filtration.

Aaron04

^^i bet you get all sad when you see guys with open itbs then huh lol

zeroptzero

I never really understood doing that, unless they intended on rebuilding their engines on a regular basis. It only takes 2 teaspoons of sand to kill the peformance of an engine.

It stands to reason that K&N filters allow in more dirt, just look at the filters from inside out, there are gaping holes in the media. I've seen quite a few used oil analysis summaries from engines running K&N filters that have showed higher silicon content, but much of that is dependant on the vehicle and the use that it is put through on a daily basis. I've also seen some testing where the silicon content was really low, but I just wouldn't chance it on my vehicles. The factory filter is a pretty good design IMO.

H22toF20

If you're worried about the minimal loss in engine life, due to a filter, then you shouldn't be modding your engine at all. I've ran a K&N filter on my Prelude for 40k miles with ZERO problems; great compression across the cylinders(190psi with a motor with 95k) and it runs great. This is also amazing considering that H22's start burning oil at higher mileage, due to the piston rings and FRM sleeves.

You are 100% right about the filtration of a K&N versus an OEM or something like an Apexi filter. But the difference isn't worth the argument.

For the record, I'm not a K&N fan boy. The BPI stack recommends a specific K&N filter, so that's what I use. 95% of the gains from an intake are from the change in pipe length, diameter, filter location and the opening of the pipe. And I'll leave it at that.