Car guys....Air filter question

[Bently_Coop]

Save your money on the filter. OEM parts are plenty good. Most of the time advertised filtration and numbers is B.S.

Best thing to do is use OEM or better parts, filters, fluids and quality gasoline.

[toys in the toybox]

Indeed OEM is sufficient for stock cars....but we want MORE

[Mr. Q]

Most vehicles have restrictive intakes for safety (prevent hydrolocking in cold air intake situations) and fuel economy. I've seen cold air intakes paired with a custom tune gain upwards of 20whp for some cars (my old 2007 mustang gt) and as little as 2hp. Is what you want to do with your truck, honestly. If your goal is fuel economy, I'd stay away from aftermarket intake systems. If your goal is ease of filter change/not having to buy a filter every other year, get a k&n and recharge it yourself.
I personally upgrade to larger/better flowing intake manifold , cold air intake, and custom tune to gain power. I basically move my power peak from where the factory had it to a more optimal range when racing.

[XDM9cWA]

Indeed OEM is sufficient for stock cars....but we want MORE

any comment on the wool oil filter used in mercedes vs the paper oil filter used on US cars?

[toys in the toybox]

Filter media, really??

[cmica]

needed my morning laugh

[.45ACPaddy]

Personally I haven't seen a huge difference in fuel economy or power when it comes to using an aftermarket air filter. But I can reuse the same filter over and over again. So the gain from using a K&N filter is the fact you can just clean it and reuse. I'd keep two on deck, that way when you pull one from your engine for cleaning, you have another ready to go. They take about a day to dry out, so while one is drying the other can be put in service. That's how I run mine. One gets dirty, I swap in the clean one and wash the dirty one, and set that one on the shelf until I need to swap again. Rinse and repeat. Overall it's cheaper for me (and my Honda Civic) to do this than to keep buying new filters every time I need one.

You'd be surprised how dirty they can get in just 3000 miles. I've had it to where I spray the cleaning solution on, then when I run the garden hose through it the water comes out damn near black.

So I'd say it's more of a money saving matter than a matter of gaining more power or fuel economy.

[CQBgopher]

Maybe it only offers better economy when coupled with their cat-back exhaust systems....?

[STED9R]

Dang....Really thought it was bs when someone mentioned this on the other wayward thread.
All this talk about intakes, how many of you actually know true results of ram effect? CC intake runners? Gaining hp by the simple method of 3 way seat cut? Bowl hogging? How about turbulence in relation to wall textures and diameter? Air speed versus volume? Stoichiometry(think that's how it's spelled) in relation to available O2 at a certain temp AND flame front. How about clocking plugs? Hemispherical heads? Yep, I shoulda been weekend bolt on parts salesman, though maybe I still can.....
Keep reading those power rags and buying what's advertised, really, they are not out to make money at all, just being 100% truthful and helping the consumer as they wouldn't bs to make money would they?
There are other ways to gain hp instead of going cheap and slapping on various bolt on crap that's detrimental to longevity....just deleted a bunch, wasn't the oil thread so butt hurt can't flow an I used up my lightweight oil coating some parts for storage.
Filters?, knock yourself out on oil foam. Proven FACT time and friggen time again that the k&n style media filters does less for filtration than the cheapest shelf paper media filter of SAME(read an understand that) same available filtering surface area. K&N or similar style work good for flow an not so much for filtering in relation to a paper element.
Now, with that said a couple things. Paper/media elements filter best when a certain percent of the surface area is dirty/covered in dust and yet still support the needed flow for proper combustion. Read all this as filtered, not flow!!!!! Those foam style filters work, don't get me wrong there, but, in regards to the filtering ability, there is a sacrifice between flow and filtering. Hey, I ran a foam filter on my dual sport. Only damn reason was that I wasn't going to shell out $30 a pop every time I went off road, only time I ever oiled it was when going off road. You'd be amazed as to what the oil that you slather or spray on a filter does when it does leave the filter, but that needs to be another thread.
But then again, I just yaking out my ass, I'm clueless..
And for the old school guys, filtering through a screen door would've worked better than oil bath!

[ANZAC]

Aftermarket could range from a top of the line aftermarket air filter to some crap Chinese knock off.... so a better way to answer this is OE filters are a pretty safe bet and work well. I just put an AFE aftermarket cold air intake kit on my Zombie Apocalypse van, works great.

[Mediumrarechicken]

I don't use air filters at all. I'm trying to make my engines stronger.

[toys in the toybox]

Dan I'm gonna kick you if you keep this up.

Mr. Q Hydrolocking is water related. Stock intakes are what they are based on cheapest engineering and noise control. Intakes will not alter fuel economy!

[STED9R]

[quote="toys in the toybox"]Dan I'm gonna kick you if you keep this up.

NO!!! This fun an gets the rusty gears turning a bit more remembering all that I've forgotten!!!
Im trying to remember a gm part number for a cam we had been experimenting on a looong ways back, that cam even made it into a few production units unbeknownst to the owners, anyway, in all attempts to derail, it was designed to make exhaust valves float at high rpm but still ramp down easy on backside of lobe when spring finally overtook inertia. That was done so low rpms still had good throttle and the power brakes had enough vacuum while giving it high end performance. Engineers, lotta dope smoking an booze in the confined spaces..no, I'm not an engineer. Makes one wonder though the Prozac party that someone found out that pissing in the exhaust netted lower emissions......
Dano, need a thread that has the most unique ways to shutdown a runaway. How about proper antifreeze? Difference in stabbing a tire with a durometer as opposed to rolling into it and relationships in hardness from a michelan and firestone all season tire.

Derailed yet?
In all seriousness, not being an ass, just recalling a shit ton of stuff long forgotten and of not much use to you younger crowds with all the new technologies, I'm not old, just gave up trying to stay up on all the new fangled stuff as the brain just doesn't have room and anymore, all info is somewhere on the net.

[Mr. Q]

Dan I'm gonna kick you if you keep this up.

Mr. Q Hydrolocking is water related. Stock intakes are what they are based on cheapest engineering and noise control. Intakes will not alter fuel economy!

lol I know what hydrolocking is. I was referencing this type of cold air intake, where the intake is low inside the bumper: http://www.nolimitmotorsport.com/prod/AEM-21-532?gclid=CMfk-MLH3r8CFatzMgodPHUABw

I wrote that post in haste because I didn't have time and it was late. I could get into all the theoretical stuff and practical applications if you want lol

[toys in the toybox]

Theoretical and practical is why this post exists. Most of us understand cold air kits so it would be easier if you told us your theory rather than starting in on 10,000 other possibilities.

So what word or theory did you mean to use in place of hydro locking or were you referencing or did you mean Hydro locking from the ingestion of h20 due to water above the bumper??

Either way mileage will be the same. Ram air , cold air, hot air. None of this matters for mileage.....horsepower yes


Not sure ram air is a valid theory but I'll go with it for our purposes here

Last edited by toys in the toybox on Thu Jul 24, 2014 10:50 am, edited 1 time in total.