Blowing out a filter does not work.

[andyd]

Wabbout a wash in some sort of solvent? In olden days there was a pre- parts washer 1/3 full 5 gallon bucket of regular.

 

[widman]

Originally Posted By: Ducked

All I've ever done is hoover them, sucking on the outside. Doesn't work very well. What I havn't tried is to hoover them in the filter housing, with the air intake taped to the hoover, sort of pneumatic back-flushing, though it'd be good if the reverse flow air into the filter was fairly clean. http://www.widman.biz/English/Analysis/Cleaning.html Some bad oil analysis results, claimed to be due to air filter cleaning (I assume with compressed air) This is an interpretation of the results and, while it seems reasonable, doesn't seem to have been definitively proved. It also seems to assume that filter-cleaning is inherently wrong. In other words, it makes no distinction between cleaning them "well" and cleaning them "badly". These may be cases where dirt has been blown into the engine or the filter has been damaged. The consequences of this are likely to be worse in South America (or here in Southern Taiwan) than in the UK. These people http://www.airfilterblaster.com/ would disagree with you. They SELL a pneumatic back-flushing gadget, (As I suggested above. Like most of my nominally clever/fairly obvious ideas, it's already being done.) This is aimed at construction/farming/mining plant which of course will clog filters a lot quicker/more expensively than most private cars. The testing they detail isn't very scientific, pretty close to anecdotal evidence in fact, though that doesn't mean its wrong. In particular, "damage" is operationally defined as "light doesn't shine through it". That'd be a good way of spotting actual holes, but I might want tighter criteria before I risked my shiny new bulldozer on it.

Anytime you think about the pulse cleaning or pressure cleaning of a filter and how certain applications work, you need to take into consideration the design of the filter. The filters designed for for pulse cleaning are surface loading filters, where a fine mesh of nanofibers, 1 to 2 microns thick cover the surface, and the main portion of the media is mostly for support, but some depth of what gets through. The Dirt stays on the outside to be blown off (although eventually the depth pat will fill up. Automotive filters are depth loading filters. You can't get that back out without some damage to the filter media. My originally quoted procedure is an emergency procedure, as is says. It will get you back to civilization, but should be done carefully, and then replaced as soon as possible. And

Quote:

Some bad oil analysis results, claimed to be due to air filter cleaning (I assume with compressed air) This is an interpretation of the results and, while it seems reasonable, doesn't seem to have been definitively proved.

Not just an interpretation of results from a paper standpoint, but confirmed in field, admitted to by operators, witnessed personally.

 

[Mambo_Dave]

Not only does it not work, but in the trucking industry where large filters are more expensive, we're starting to believe that the amount of air pressure needed (or perhaps used) to clean out air filters actually opens the pores/holes up, and causes engines to go bad faster in / around really dusty environments. I just looked at a Caterpillar truck engine (IIRC, in a Freightliner) with only 166,000 miles on it where the piston rings were toast. Most likely from a hack in a local garage trying to save the owners of the truck money on air filters despite the truck being parked in a very dusty area.

 

[KingCake]

Uh you can't even see the stuff that's actually clogging the filter. The loose stuff doesn't matter.

 

[widman]

Originally Posted By: Mambo_Dave

Not only does it not work, but in the trucking industry where large filters are more expensive, we're starting to believe that the amount of air pressure needed (or perhaps used) to clean out air filters actually opens the pores/holes up, and causes engines to go bad faster in / around really dusty environments. I just looked at a Caterpillar truck engine (IIRC, in a Freightliner) with only 166,000 miles on it where the piston rings were toast. Most likely from a hack in a local garage trying to save the owners of the truck money on air filters despite the truck being parked in a very dusty area.

This is what I see every day. same pressure they use to fill the truck tires. Absurd amount of dust n UOA.

 

[DoubleWasp]

Originally Posted By: rrounds

Originally Posted By: Chris142

My gauge has a red and green area. Once the yellow gizmo gets pulled about 1/2 down power suffers and the truck really blows black smoke.

I would change the gauge out for one that gave you real numbers like the Wix gauge. If you still get a restriction then you have to find out what is causing the restriction. On my S2000 its the stock opening in the air box and I fixed it by cutting a 3" hole in the side of the air box and ran a 3" hose down to the fender well(no more restriction with the air box lid on). You might need a larger air filter or piping to the T/B. Some call it R/D or trial & error but its not to hard to make your intake less restrictive. I get 50k+ miles on my stock air intake on my '13 Wrangler and thats with more than 500 miles of desert driving out of S. Calif, Yuma,AZ and southern Utah before the air filter needs to be changed. For yours to pull some restriction after so few miles is not right. ROD

That's why I always laugh when people are searching for the lowest restriction drop-in air filter. More than likely, the filter has less restriction than the intake tract.