ITG Maxogen Foam cone filters

[mpow3r]

What is the general consensus on using foam or cotton filters? Whether they be induction type cone filters or panel filters?

i have an ITG Maxogen cone filter on my euro E36 M3 and after reading a few posts on here i am wondering if it is letting dirt that may damage the engine?

It is an Oiled cotton filter and it does definately improve throttle response, initial pickup and breathing at the top of the rev range than the paper oem one or the ITG panel I had before. Only thing is, if it's going to damage the engine I'll revert back to the oem setup!

thanks

 

[Jim Allen]

In general, the oil cotton gauze filters are not as efficient at cleaning the air as most of the current cellulose or synthetic media OE filter. That can vary a bit according to the exact filters you are using versus what it replaced and the only way to know is to have each tested (an expensive proposition). Oiled cotton gauze with a foam sock is usually pretty efficient, however. I can't give specifics on either the aftermarket brand you mentioned nor the OE Bimmer piece, but you could do some research and find out what sort of media BMW uses. If they use a high quality media, it will be hard for most aftermarket filters to match in terms of filtering ability.

FWIW, in my experience, increased airflow via a new element has little effect and on the vehicles I've dyno tested, it had little or mostly no effect on power, despite what it may "feel" like. If there is new plumbing, you can often see a little bump... but again, how much depends on how well or poorly the OE designed the intake.

 

[mpow3r]

great thanks.
companies like ITG, K&N.... are very well known and respected so in general do you think that their products would let in enough dirt to damage the engine? Bearing in mind that the cleaning regime is followed as recommended by the manufacturer?

thanks

 

[Ken2]

Originally Posted By: mpow3r
great thanks.
companies like ITG, K&N.... are very well known and respected so in general do you think that their products would let in enough dirt to damage the engine? Bearing in mind that the cleaning regime is followed as recommended by the manufacturer?

thanks

Sure. We aren't talking about short term catastrophic damage here. We're talking about accelerated long term wear. Who keeps track except nuts like us? In any case, who has any way to measure when their engine should have worn out vs. when it actually did wear out? Not me. I'm convinced by the dirt I saw in the downstream side of my Volvo airbox when I used a K&N filter--cleaned and re-oiled exactly according to directions--and the oil analysis reports and air flow reports I see here and elsewhere. OEM or quality aftermarket OEM-type filters only for me, thank you. I do not respect K&N--I think they're running a great scam.

 

[Jim Allen]

Originally Posted By: mpow3r
great thanks.
companies like ITG, K&N.... are very well known and respected so in general do you think that their products would let in enough dirt to damage the engine? Bearing in mind that the cleaning regime is followed as recommended by the manufacturer?

thanks


In the street environment, oiled cotton gauze (OCG) may be "good enough," though perhaps not as efficient as OE. Let's face it, the street environment is not usually a very dirty place, so short term problems are not an issue and even long term ones are uncommon. The caveat would be that some civilized parts of the country, deserty environments, do have problems with the fine dust, which is the primary failing issue with the oiled cotton gauze. As I said, a foam sock is a pretty good equalizer for an OCG.

My own distrust of oiled cotton gauze came via off-roading. I had long used OCG in everything up to my discovery. I learned a trick years back to put a smear of heavy grease in the intake tract where dust might settle. I did it on my trail rig and in just a few thousand miles, including some dirty, high desert rockcrawling and off-roading, the grease had become gritty. There was nothing wrong with the seals or connections I could see. My eventual cure was to go to a big tractor filter with a washable synthetic media, a cyclonic attachment and an inner filter. No more trouble. Per square inch, the filter assembly I chose was probably more restrictive than the OCD but, since it was designed for a 640ci V8 turbo diesel, it was almost triple the area of even the oversized OCD that was on there. That generally got back any loss of airflow but I would have traded a bit of high rpm airflow for clean air.

 

[mpow3r]

Thanks for your comments and views guys.

appreciated

Kash