Can K&N Filters allow for more dirt ingestion?

Thanks, but I'm going back stock.

 

Do you guys not understand anything about the filtration properties of a high flow filter? They're called "high flow" for a reason, they are less restrictive than stock paper OEM filters and allow a greater volume of air into the engine, that's called it's level of efficiency. High performance filters will naturally not protect as well as a stock filter element because it's made to produce HP gains, not longevity and protection of your engine. So when you see dirt behind your AFE or K&N it's doing exactly what it's designed to do. If you guys want a restrictive cheap paper element go ahead and put your stock filters in. Of course if you're running in the Baja sand dunes of course you don't want to run a K&N OR an AFE or any high flow air filter out there unless you want all that silt getting sucked into your engine. For street use K&N filters are tested to allow a certain amount of acceptable microns of dirt or silt through without damaging your engine. Honestly it sounds like 98% of you guys don't know basics of performance modifications and engines.

 

So what do you use in your Baja sand dunes?

 

You make absolutely no sense at all. You just said it was VERY dusty how could you not expect to visually see ANY dirt behind your filter? And no honestly I don't think most of you know that finding dirt behind your filter is normal. You guys realize that some air has to get by the filter or else your engine wouldn't be able to breathe. And yes dirt and silt are measured in microns so yes they will pass through any brand filter stock or aftermarket.

 

Well I'm glad I could educate you on something, but it's not exactly rocket science.

 

You must be a doctor. Got some decent information with absolutely no idea how to communicate it.....epic fail.

 

Personally I also would not put any oiled cotton gauze (K&N) filter in my vehicles, due to the filter ability mentioned. Filtering vs. flow, pick one....

When I did my research on the ProDry, the oil anaysis results seemed to point to an initial increase in silica in the oil, then after a few months, the silica readings diminish to about normal paper filter levels.

So yes, it appears to have some of the same characteristics as K&N, but the ProDry does seem to normalize to paper filtering ability after some dirt settles in.

Learning to me,,, don't completely clean the ProDry and you should be able to keep the filtering ability and have a re-useable filter.....

 

If I recall correctly though, you haven't personally tested the ProDry-S, right? That's why I went to BITOG to do some research. If you had data on the ProDry, I would have definitely used that.

Not trying to belabor the point, but when doing air filter research it seems that the ProDry-S has a lack of good data points. This can lead to quite a bit of subjective analysis, up to and including me

Personally I like the idea of a re-usable filter. I have no expectation that any filter will lead to any noticable performance increase, and I don't want to deal with any oiled filter. Leaves me with the ProDry.

 

FYI, these are a pics of the K&N from my DIRT BIKE. 2nd pic has NOT been cleaned, this is just the engine side of the filter. Notice the shiny oil on the black plastic doesn't even have ANY dirt stuck to it.

The oil is what traps the dirt and allows air to flow thru. Paper filter rely on really small holes in the paper to trap the dirt, which restricts airflow. K&N type filters rely on teh oil to trap the dirt and still allow air to flow thru.

 

What do you mean by "oil analysis"??

Look at my above pics. The "oil" is really dirty (it's supposed to be!). The inside of the filter however, is extremely clean. Cleaner than the inside of any OEM filter I've seen...

 

The engine oil... ingested sand/dirt/dust becomes part of combustion blow-by and shows up as high silica or silicon in used engine oil analysis. High levels are very bad since oil filter by-passes at start up when oil's thick... or, in a worse case scenario, clogs early and bypasses constantly. The usual effect is to cam lobes and timing chains and sprockets. Bearings are less affected since they use hydrodynamic lubrication and the particles are too small.

In a competition engine who cares; it's not in the game for 200K miles.

 

engine oil?

 

Engine oil not filter oil. It may appear "cleaner" because it's red not gray.

 

lotta keyboard Ph.D's up in here

 

I'm sure the K&N's do let in some amount of fine particulates. ANYTHING that lets in air will. Of course, that's why it's recommended you change your oil at regular intervals anyway (K&N or OEM filter).

But just look at my above posted pics. The black plastic on the inside (engine side) has a thin layer of filter oil on it. I did this to see how much, if any, particulates are getting past the filter. It's perfectly clean, and this was from 4 days/200+ miles of dirtbiking. Even extremely fine microscopic particulates would have stuck to the oil and discolored the plastic (made it the same color as the outside of the filter). I've noticed this every time I've cleaned the filter, even after months of not cleaning it (the motorcycle filter). I have a K&N type air intake system on my Taco, and hove noticed the exact same thing (but much longer intervals btwn filter cleanings).

I don't claim to be an expert, or have results from "oil analysis", I'm just pointing out what I've experienced.

 

Read this:

Summary: Oiled air filters suck (literally). MOST aftermarket air filters clog faster and reduce performance. OEM is the way to go.

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/airfilter/airtest1.htm

 

Well, at lunch today, I went to Advance Auto and ordered the OEM air filter housing. 138 bucks, and I'll have her tomorrow.

So, we can pretend I never had a stupid K&N oil filter on my Taco in the first place.

 

^You mean air filter, K&N Air filter.