Wut can i use to clean this thing besides the kit that u can buy?? i heard soap and water is better????

 

I use dish soap. Re-oil using their oil, follow the directions.

 

i thought the oil messes up the maf sensor?

 

If you over oil it or its not dry and you put it back in and go for a drive it can certainly gum up the MAF sensors.

Also...when it rains water gets in there and reactivates that oil all over the filter and the MAF gets gummed up anyway.

Its just something that happens with K&N filters.


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what i do whenever i get a new k&n is i drive it around for about a week or so, then clean up the maf just to be sure there is no oil on it. by that time excess oil will be off of the filter and you will be good to go

 

I just use the kit and dont re-oil mine. 3.8 v6 btw..

 

Then you might as well not be using that air filter. Without the oil on it, it doesn't do anything worthwhile, as there isn't enough filter element there to trap dirt if dry.

 

make sure to oil only the bottom side of the filter and not the top side.

 

You do realize that the reason K&N can claim a tiny tiny eensy beensy HP increase over a paper filter is because the K&N filter SIMPLY allows more air through...which in turn means that more small dirt particles and debris also gets through to your engine...which means more engine (ring) wear.

The K&N "oil" just takes up space between the mesh contruction when it dries, allowing just a little less debris and dirt to pass.

If you're not using the oil than you are getting the max amount of dirt and debris through to your engine.

Just use a paper filter, give up that .1 hp the K&N MIGHT give you, and have MUCH better engine protection.

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good point i never thought of it that way

 

i have a K&N because of the FIPK, but if i had a LS1 lid setup id use a paper filter

 

so i should change to a reg paper filter?

 

Its all choice. If K&N does give a gain in HP...you can bet its like 1 hp. So you have to decide if you want to clean it and re-oil it and get dirty MAF sensors every time its wet outside (because that reactivates the oil and it starts to run into the engine over and through the MAF sensors)....and without question...you WILL have less engine protection from a K&N. There is simply no arguing that fact.

Just go into an auto parts store and push the button on that K&N filter display. Sure enough, the K&N lets more air through to raise the ping-pong ball higher than the paper filter can. More air = more dirt passage.

But when you actually have an 8 cylinder engine sucking air through a filter, the flow is the same. Its not like their little .0001 cfm electric fan motor on that display.

so, your choice. Is it worth all that, and a possible 1 hp gain...for less engine protection?????


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agreed, get the paper filter

 

Well Crap lol........Fine im in

 

I'm going to assume here that a K&N filter does what the manufacturer says, in that it filters at least as well as an OEM paper element. If that is in fact the case, and I've never been able to find any test data to either support or refute the claim that isn't annecdotal, then it makes sense to use. The reason it makes sense to use it isn't that you'll get more power because of it, (although in some instances you may as it IS a fact that they flow more air dirty than a paper element does) rather it makes sense because it saves money that can then be put elsewhere. You won't go through many paper elements these days before you've paid the equivalent cost.

The amount of oil you take into your engine because of it is so miniscule as to not be an issue in my mind, although it would be interesting to see someone run a test on MAF cleaning frequency.

 

I have been trying to find a write-up/test for months about K&N filters vs paper filters.....that a road race team did. From memory......They started with a brand new engine each time. They used a K&N filter for a given amount of races and then did a leakdown check. Then they used a brand new engine for the same amount of races and used a paper filter and di the leakdown test. It was a big difference in wear using the K&N filter. That write-up was posted on this site a few years ago but I can't find the damn thing.

My thoughts on the K&N for a daily driver is that every time it rains or is just wet out after a rain.....the oil is coming off. I'm not saying the oil going through the engine means anything because it doesn't, its just not enough. But it does have to pass the MAF, and over time, each tiem the car is driven, that MAF is getting gradually clogged up. So over a period of time the engine is gradually decreasing in performance via a gradually clogging MAF. Instead of the MAF always delivering OPTIMAL performance over that same time period.

People always come on here and say how they have no codes, but the engine just isn't running up to par. Its been slowly over a couple months changing and not running that great. Its usually a dirty MAF. They clean it and bam, runs like new again. So a MAF that is slowly getting clogged up robs you of optimal gas mileage and performance. The only time the K&N equipped engine operates optimally is in the beginning, until that oil gets any moisture on it and it starts to shed of the mesh construction.

So decreased performance, decreased mpg, and decreased engine protection because the oil is wearing off normally and it wears off greatly any time it gets moisture on it.

A paper filter lasts me 10,000 miles, easy. Thats like 1 filter a year and absolutely no hassles and optimal engine protection.

A test I'd like to see....clean and re-oil a K&N filter, let it dry properly and install it. Then drive in a medium intensity rain shower for 20 minutes. I would put my money on the fact that a laarge portion of the oil is "gone." And if thats true, then people have been driving around for months with no oil at all left on their K&N filters and never even knew it. And that MAF would be very dirty.

Take some of that oil and spray it on a screw driver. Let it dry. Then spray a mist of water on it. I bet it gets reactivated and its moist again where it will run off if wind was applied to it, or the MASSIVE suction of a V8 engine.

This would be a test, where if it happened the way I describe, would put K&N out of business.


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so the paper one will not cost me any hp?

 

absolutely not

 

Interesting that you mention this....been rainy as hell here the last couple of days. I mean the kind of rain you have to pull over and stop for 'cuz it's coming down so hard. I'll have to pull my air box off and take a look at my MAF this weekend.