Accel Kool Blue

[metroplex]

By the time my engine gets to 180k, I'll probably have great grand children and we'll be cruising around in crafts taht use plasma injection manifolds and warp nacelles.

Seriously, my 1981 T-bird was bought new and used as a daily driver. 22+ years later its got 95k miles on it.

That carburetor had more air leaks than an American sub in WW2.

Anyhow, I know what you mean. Accel claims that it can filter out particles greater than 2.8 microns.
The element definitely has smaller holes than the K&N.

 

[metroplex]

A friend brought up a good point...

If the K&Ns would cause abnormal engine wear that would result in damage/failure, why would Ford make it a OEM item for their SVT Cobra (I'm not totally sure on this but either the SVT cobra or another SVT car had a blue K&N as a stock filter element).

Paper filters have an efficiency of about 1% more than K&N-style filters.

 

[Last_Z]

quote:

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Originally posted by metroplex:

Anyhow, I know what you mean. Accel claims that it can filter out particles greater than 2.8 microns.
The element definitely has smaller holes than the K&N.

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Hey metroplex......I just took out my Kool Blue and put in a new Fram.
I took the KB and examined it a bit. First of all, it looks exactly like a K&N....even the gauze looks the same size, not smaller.
I rubbed my finger on the clean side of the filter and there was particles of a good size on my finger. The oil may hold it within the filter, but if the oil dries out a bit, then the filter might realese it all at once.
I also put the filter on it's side and put a flashlight behind it. To my surprise, the filter let's about 50-75% of the light through. You can also see small holes on the filter that dust can get through very easily (even big particles)
I really doubt that this filter can compare to any paper filter from what I saw. It did flow much beter than the paper one, so much better that it actually leaned the engine out temporarily until the PCM compensated. I also felt like it gave me 5-10 horses and throttle response was up as well.
As much as I hate it, I had to take it out of the car. I have a 02 Z with the free ram air mod.....I don't know if you guys have ever seen this ram air thing, but it really shoots up air at high speed towards the filter.....very dirty air. I'm sure some of this dirty air is just passing through the KB unchecked.

I might sell it or just keep it until someone proves conclusively that it filters as advertised. Accel's claim of a 2.8 micron filtering capability is a load of crap in my opinion.
I know this are not scientific tests, but sometimes defects like this are easy to spot with the naked eye.
Thanks, Rick

 

[metroplex]

Last_Z: The Kool Blue definitely has smaller holes than the K&N.

I used a flashlight test, the holes are about 50%-75% smaller, but yes they still aren't as good as paper filters - K&N admits to this 1% difference.

Paper filters need an oiling mechanism for catching dirt as well, and at that they're 98% efficient. K&N-style filters are about 97% efficient.

With that being said, I have NOT heard of any normally aspirated gas engines failing because of an abnormal amount of dirt in the engine. As long as the oil and oil filters are doing their job, you shouldn't notice an excessive amount of wear. I've heard of folks running K&N's for 5 years/250k miles w/o any problems (engine tore down, etc). The older carbureted cars never had airtight seals in the carb air boxes anyhow - but the engines still withstand the abuse.

I would think that a cold start in the morning with dino oil would cause more wear than using a synthetic with a K&N style filter.

 

[Patman]

quote:

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Originally posted by metroplex:
A friend brought up a good point...

If the K&Ns would cause abnormal engine wear that would result in damage/failure, why would Ford make it a OEM item for their SVT Cobra (I'm not totally sure on this but either the SVT cobra or another SVT car had a blue K&N as a stock filter element).

Paper filters have an efficiency of about 1% more than K&N-style filters.

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In terms of stopping dirt, paper filters are a lot more efficient than just 1% over a K&N, that's for sure! Oil analysis results on here have proven that fact.

And Ford puts them on as OEM for one reason, horsepower. They couldn't care less if someone gets 180k or 220k out of that engine. Chances are very good that no SVT Cobra will reach that kind of mileage without a rebuild anyways, especially since most of the SVT owners will put a smaller pulley on there (I know that's a mod I would do the very first day I picked up a new supercharged Cobra, since it's 30+ hp out of such a simple mod)