Jah2000

Will that gauge work with a K&N filter? Since, even when super dirty, the K&N still has a grip load of airflow.

rrounds

This gauge doesn't care what intake or filter you have, all it does is monitor restriction. Your air filter can be dirty as hell but as long as it lets enough air through the filter with no restriction you're good to run the filter longer. If you have 11" to 15" of restriction on the gauge then you know it's time to clean or change the filter. This gauge lets you know with out guessing if your filter is to dirty.

ROD

Car Analogy

But it can't tell you if the filter you're using lets in dirt along with its extra flow beyond the overkill stock filters flow...

NobleAccord

Since this topic is alive, ill throw in a question for you smart ppl


I recently got a PSWJDM intake installed on my ap1
Now i read on here somewhere that a user had rocks, dirt and leaves in the primary chamber after however many miles...

Im sure i'll eventually come to that overtime...
And im sure my Filter will be quite dirty...

So heres comes the question, The partcles that bypass the airfilter will obviously end up in the engine...


Wont they be atomized during combustion?
if not, and they end up in oil over time, what kind of wear are we looking at on engine internals?

I'm guessing frequent oil changes might remedy this...but how frequent im not sure...

windhund116

Particles will also pass into the intake mechanism. And can lead to wearing out moving parts in that area.

From my experience in dirt bike racing... dirt is one of the biggest reasons for early engine wear & failure. A lot of engineering went into the air boxes and filters used on those MCs.

starchland

So the filter is 6 years old? Is it passed the best before date?

rrounds

That's right, it won't tell you how good or bad the filter is actually filtering. A UOA will do that for you.

ROD

rrounds

If you can get rocks and leaves pass the filter, you don't have a filter.

ROD

rrounds

No, my UOA's were all showing my filter doing a great job. Six years is "my" limit for a filter.

ROD

Car Analogy

I think he means rocks and leaves in the airbox, before the filter. The stock airbox does a decent job at keeping that stuff out of the airbox. But aftermarket filters can be different, and there can be more debris allowed in the filter area, thus the filter might get dirtier, sooner, as compared to stock.

Of course, all that would do is require more frequent filter change. It wouldn't allow more dirt into engine. It would just allow less air as filter clogged.

So his question is a little invalid.

What is valid is a filter that allowed more particles past it than stock, would have what result? Wouldn't those tiny particles 'atomize'? The answer is, no. Not at all. But the worry isn't they will get into the oil, and cause bearing wear. The worry is they will get on the cylinder walls, and cause ring and cylinder wear. Lowering compression over time, more oil blowby, loss of power, early engine demise.

The cylinder walls have a light coat of oil, so any grit that gets to cylinder, will tend to stick to the cylinder walls. Yeah, some of it will shoot out the exhaust not causing damage, but some of it will stick to cylinder walls, and when piston slides back through it on next stroke, it will act like sandpaper, grinding away at walls and rings.