I've had a couple of different people tell me that these air filters are indeed worth the $50 cost.(also washable and guaranteed for years.) Supposedly gives better horsepower and fuel mileage. Would like to hear from any of you who have used these in your vehicles and whether you found them to be worth the cost...thanks
The only advantage K&N has is better flow when the filter is close to being stopped up. Other than that when new it allows more dirt to flow through than a conventional paper element. I had one on my old truck and it had a 60k cleaning interval and mine was dirty and ready for cleaning in less than 30k and the majority of its time was on the open road and not in a dusty area.
I used one on my LT1 equiped chevy impala. never had eny problems and got a few extra ponies at WOT....but even when lightly oiled i would have to regularly clean off the MAF sensors or i'd get a check engine light... A gauze type filter will flow more air as it has bigger holes, compared to a paper filter. I wou dlnot be woried as much with small specks of dirt and dust in the intake air as I would with the same type of stuff in the OIL... Although we just had to replace an engine in the one of the 15 passenger vans used by the athletic department. it went 60k miles on a factory oil filter and factory installed oil.....It was never brought in for service until the engine went Bye bye.....
to me? nope. I'll stick with factory stuff, unless I can find a high quality filter that will allow high volume air flow, plus keep the dirt out of my engine.
Had I known how they were designed I would not have even thought twice about buying one. Thanks guys for explaining how they work (or dont work actually) plus the dirt in the engine risk...no thanks
NO, stay away from K&N filters, they are garbage. If you want a really good intake system/filter then AFE (advanced flow engineering) is the way to go. www.afefilters.com they are real quality washable/reusable filters, If available for your model, get the proguard 7.
Not really worth it in my opinion. Put one in an F-250 I used to have, and didn't notice a increase on performance or mileage.
Ok I have to ask you Marc... Why did the engine go bye bye? Is it possibly because nobody ever changed the oil in the van? Just wondering.
The van is used mostly by students and is not under the direct control of the garage. Ie they dont' check it in and out for it to be used the Athletic department does that. so when the vehicle come due for 3 month service the garage manager(good golfing partner) sends a request to the Athletivc diector for the van for service....van never shows. emails continue to be sent and ignored.... there was no oil in the van when our tow truck brought it back, but ther was a hole in the oil pan.... It is doubtful the the students ever checked the oil. but if they did check the oil and just kept adding it, the filter couldhave been clogged... thus droppingt he oil pressure....The Gargae manager never checked the filter. just ordered a new engine and billed to the AD....
