Driving without air filter
Don't believe everything you see at a car show.
Some of the cars at shows and cruises take the filters off (and do several other things) just for the look. One of the guys I see regularly has a very neat and elaborate custom air filter / breather thing on his engine. The first time I saw it the engineer in me said "there is no way that will flow enough air to feed the engine in his vehicle" yet it's on there and I heard and saw the car drive in. One day we were talking and he admitted it was all for the look and he showed me the normal filter and element he installs before driving.
Myth busted.
Some of the cars at shows and cruises take the filters off (and do several other things) just for the look. One of the guys I see regularly has a very neat and elaborate custom air filter / breather thing on his engine. The first time I saw it the engineer in me said "there is no way that will flow enough air to feed the engine in his vehicle" yet it's on there and I heard and saw the car drive in. One day we were talking and he admitted it was all for the look and he showed me the normal filter and element he installs before driving.
Myth busted.
haha man there was a good argument thread over in forced induction about this. lets just say that people have their beliefs and they die hard.
i will say that filters to a really good job of keeping thrown belts out of the compressor inlet and thus saving you a costly rebuild
i will say that filters to a really good job of keeping thrown belts out of the compressor inlet and thus saving you a costly rebuild
I agree. There are a LOT of old time hot rodders with so called experience that says thing 1 works and thing 2 is better than thing 1 so logically thing 3 must be better still. Too bad life isn't so simple. I still find it amazing how many current with the times or even apparently progressive people find a comfortable spot and stop learning.
On The Tree
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 189
Likes: 1
From: Austin, TX
Don't believe everything you see at a car show.
Some of the cars at shows and cruises take the filters off (and do several other things) just for the look. One of the guys I see regularly has a very neat and elaborate custom air filter / breather thing on his engine. The first time I saw it the engineer in me said "there is no way that will flow enough air to feed the engine in his vehicle" yet it's on there and I heard and saw the car drive in. One day we were talking and he admitted it was all for the look and he showed me the normal filter and element he installs before driving.
Myth busted.
Some of the cars at shows and cruises take the filters off (and do several other things) just for the look. One of the guys I see regularly has a very neat and elaborate custom air filter / breather thing on his engine. The first time I saw it the engineer in me said "there is no way that will flow enough air to feed the engine in his vehicle" yet it's on there and I heard and saw the car drive in. One day we were talking and he admitted it was all for the look and he showed me the normal filter and element he installs before driving.
Myth busted.
Figure something out to filter the air, even if it's a pair of the old lady's pantyhose stretched over the throttle body. Anything is better than nothing here. All kinds of road debris gets kicked up under the hood, and the intake is basically the equivalent of a big open shop vac hose. Guess where those particles are inclined to go?
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What a poser. If it's not functional, it's not cool. Period.
Figure something out to filter the air, even if it's a pair of the old lady's pantyhose stretched over the throttle body. Anything is better than nothing here. All kinds of road debris gets kicked up under the hood, and the intake is basically the equivalent of a big open shop vac hose. Guess where those particles are inclined to go?
Figure something out to filter the air, even if it's a pair of the old lady's pantyhose stretched over the throttle body. Anything is better than nothing here. All kinds of road debris gets kicked up under the hood, and the intake is basically the equivalent of a big open shop vac hose. Guess where those particles are inclined to go?
Tracetrimble, you and I are on the same page on this one.
I wouldn't call this specific situation posing as the air cleaner WAS indeed functional, it just wasn't practical. The air cleaner in my previous comment (I wish I could find a picture of it) looked cool, went with the theme of his build and worked just not well enough. The problem was a severely flawed design that wasn't recognized until after everything was painted and assembled (this never happens, right?). The unit wasn't able to flow enough air to make any sort of roadworthy or fun power. If you can imagine a NASCAR restrictor plate on a big block you get the idea. His solution, a standard open element air filter for driving and his artwork for shows.
Comparing an intake to a big shop vac is a perfect example of why we need a filter. Too bad you can't explain that to some people chasing an extra 5HP until their engine eats something it doesn't like.
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Not sure I see how doing this could possibly be a good idea. Gain 3HP @ 6000k rpm, maybe? The average redneck doing this would see more performance benefits by laying off the Keystones for a week and dropping a couple pounds.
Don't forget to slap on an electric supercharger turbo intake fan boost for ultra gains https://www.ebay.com/itm/Car-Electri...-/123034206096
Don't forget to slap on an electric supercharger turbo intake fan boost for ultra gains https://www.ebay.com/itm/Car-Electri...-/123034206096
you'd actually be pretty surprised.I know I was,
on my friends 7875 turbo/5.3/mild cam car we saw like 50 wheel after taking the "screen" type filter off the inlet. this thing was incredibly open... like 1/4 holes. it just disrupted airflow that badly
adding a bellmouth gained another so 10, repeatably. just straightening and smoothing airflow.
eventually we put a really large air raid cone filter and a 90º which lost about 75 wheel at 16psi....so we turned it up 2 psi
on my friends 7875 turbo/5.3/mild cam car we saw like 50 wheel after taking the "screen" type filter off the inlet. this thing was incredibly open... like 1/4 holes. it just disrupted airflow that badly
adding a bellmouth gained another so 10, repeatably. just straightening and smoothing airflow.
eventually we put a really large air raid cone filter and a 90º which lost about 75 wheel at 16psi....so we turned it up 2 psi
Staging Lane
Joined: Mar 2015
Posts: 79
Likes: 2
you'd actually be pretty surprised.I know I was,
on my friends 7875 turbo/5.3/mild cam car we saw like 50 wheel after taking the "screen" type filter off the inlet. this thing was incredibly open... like 1/4 holes. it just disrupted airflow that badly
adding a bellmouth gained another so 10, repeatably. just straightening and smoothing airflow.
eventually we put a really large air raid cone filter and a 90º which lost about 75 wheel at 16psi....so we turned it up 2 psi
on my friends 7875 turbo/5.3/mild cam car we saw like 50 wheel after taking the "screen" type filter off the inlet. this thing was incredibly open... like 1/4 holes. it just disrupted airflow that badly
adding a bellmouth gained another so 10, repeatably. just straightening and smoothing airflow.
eventually we put a really large air raid cone filter and a 90º which lost about 75 wheel at 16psi....so we turned it up 2 psi
I run a turbo guard maxx which the higher flowing version of their screen because I can't fit a filter on my turbo no room
they claim 50hp over a filter - http://turbo-guard.com/dyno-results/
dont really care about dyno numbers but I may pull the turbo guard off for a run at the track and see if the car goes faster than with it on
yeah thats pretty much what we had, but it's better than sucking a bolt or a belt into a turbo. when you have 6-700 on tap, who cares about 50?
i was mostly surprised at how much a hard 90 in front of the inlet killed power. you could hear it struggle
next turbo build i do for myself is gonna have a nice big air raid filter with a straight shot to the inlet
i was mostly surprised at how much a hard 90 in front of the inlet killed power. you could hear it struggle
next turbo build i do for myself is gonna have a nice big air raid filter with a straight shot to the inlet