K&N Air Filters YES or NO????

[Whitlow]

It made a BIG preformace increase on my Typhoon ! BIG !!!

 

Cb

 

 

You have a Typhoon? I want It!!!!

[cb1313]

Neither.... it gos fast enough to lock you in the seat belt...........!

 

Cb

[cb1313]

I have owned it for 15 years, 120,000 miles, no major repairs. It is faster than my 2002 Porsche Boxster S in the 1/4 mile.

 

Cb

[atlm]

There was an objective test of K&N filters done by one of the publications I subscribe to. It might have been Consumer Reports, but I really can't remember, as it was a couple of years ago or more.

 

What I do remember is the results of the testing showing that the only thing that increased was noise, which gave the impression of more power, but no extra power on the dyno.

 

The tests were done on passenger vehicles (cars/trucks), with the factory air intake tract system removed, and replaced with K&N "high performance" setups for those vehicles. Because of the removal of the intake tracts, with the filter exposed directly to air in the engine compartment, more dirt did get through. Their conclusion was that none of the K&N claims for that system (better mileage, more power) were substantiated, and the stock system did a better job, at a much lower cost.

 

There were a lot of posts about it in the Toyota Tundra forums immediately after the test was published, since K&N has an expensive filter setup for the Tundra that many owners had installed or were considering, with the same claims.

[dynodon]

Never read the Consumer reports article, but I did own a DynoJet dyno. With it I was able to confirm HP increases (at WOT, Wide Open Throttle) in peak hp on EVERY vehicle I installed a K&N filter on. This included a 160 hp truck, 220 hp SHO (I have put 145,000 miles on it, done regular oil analysis and if the filter passed 1600+% more dirt than a stock filter, it would show up for sure, and it doesn't!) older cars including a Pontiac with tri-power and more. Never found ANY evidence of dirt getting past the filter.

 

The DynoJet can show as little as 1 hp and I was able to verify HP and torque increases with synthetic oil, and with every K&N filter.

 

I consider this very good proof that a K&N does what it says at least for HP, but again, this is only at full throttle and only visibile near and at the peak hp rating. Any decent filter that is clean will flow plenty for any engine at part throttle.

 

A "race style" filter may be worth it to the person looking for every last .10 hp, but to most of us, it will never be felt, and may not be worth it.

[Rocket]

My main reason for using a K&N, is clean & re-oil it, stick it back in. No more ordering a filter for the scoot, or buying more filters for my other vehicles. I keep vehicles long enough, to make worthwhile, usually 10+ years.