K&N filter after 51K miles of service (Pictures)

[barlowc]

I took some pictures of the K&N filter in our VUE when I inspected it last week. This filter was put in when the odometer had only 215 miles on it and has been in service for about 51K miles. I have not yet cleaned and re-oiled the filter.

Clean Side

Dirty Side

Air Box (i.e. the side BEFORE the filter)

I post these not to start another thread debating K&N filters. That horse has been beat enough.

Rather, I just wanted to share some pictures. As you'll notice, the clean side is really clean. The side of the air box after the filter was just like new with no dust whatsoever. Same with intake conduit that leads to the engine.

The UOA I had done about a year ago at 36K miles (look here) had a Silicon count of 14. I just sent a sample to Blackstone today, taken when I changed the oil yesterday, so I'm anxious to see what it reports. I imagine I'll have the results Friday and will post them this weekend.

Assuming the UOA doesn't raise any air filtration concerns, I'll clean the filter, properly re-oil it, and run it for another 50K. Of course I'll check it annually and watch for signs of any problems in UOAs too.

 

[Thax]

Looks good to me , I would clean and re-oil . Keep it in there barring a horrible silicon reading on your pending uoa.

 

[XS650]

You have avoided one of the most common K&N filter mistakes. You don't clean yours too frequently.

 

[Propflux01]

I thought the K&N oil made the filter red..?

 

[ltslimjim]

^Only while fresh and present, this is from a few years after the filter starting loading up with debris.

 

[Lead Shoes]

How is cleaning a K&N filter early a mistake??

 

[spasm3]

Originally Posted By: Brenden
How is cleaning a K&N filter early a mistake??


If you clean them too often, then they don't filter as well and let more dirt through. After they get a bit dirty, they stop dirt better.

 

[Lead Shoes]

Weird, I was never a fan of oiled filters, I will stick to changing my Purolator cone filter every 15k miles.

 

[Donald]

Originally Posted By: barlowc
I took some pictures of the K&N filter in our VUE when I inspected it last week. This filter was put in when the odometer had only 215 miles on it and has been in service for about 51K miles. I have not yet cleaned and re-oiled the filter.

Clean Side

Dirty Side

Air Box (i.e. the side BEFORE the filter)

I post these not to start another thread debating K&N filters. That horse has been beat enough.

Rather, I just wanted to share some pictures. As you'll notice, the clean side is really clean. The side of the air box after the filter was just like new with no dust whatsoever. Same with intake conduit that leads to the engine.

The UOA I had done about a year ago at 36K miles (look here) had a Silicon count of 14. I just sent a sample to Blackstone today, taken when I changed the oil yesterday, so I'm anxious to see what it reports. I imagine I'll have the results Friday and will post them this weekend.

Assuming the UOA doesn't raise any air filtration concerns, I'll clean the filter, properly re-oil it, and run it for another 50K. Of course I'll check it annually and watch for signs of any problems in UOAs too.


Will you vacuum out those leaves and other dirt before the reinstall? They are on the dirty side, but I could never leave them.

 

[JHZR2]

Originally Posted By: Brenden
How is cleaning a K&N filter early a mistake??


Filtering really is based upon the average pore size of the media, and the ability to build up a "cake" of dirt on that media. The cake does the filtering, not the media itself.

For a porous media like K&N, it is critical to build up the oiled cake and let it exist there to do its job.

I personally would likely have pulled the filter and gotten the big dirt off once or twice, but it looks good.

 

[Jim Allen]

Originally Posted By: XS650
You have avoided one of the most common K&N filter mistakes. You don't clean yours too frequently.

Well said!

A good oiled cotton gauze (OCG) filter has "adequate" filtration that gets better as it loads up. Be very careful when cleaning, making sure NOT to blow thru using compressed air. Let it air dry in a warm spot, then reoil.

Having flowbenched clean and dirty filters (including OCG's), my somewhat calibrated eye would judge that filter to be only about 10-15 percent blocked. Since that OCG filter can flow some 50 percent more air than your stock engine can use (a safe average for OCG filters vs stock), you had a long way to go before performance would be effected at all. So even now, you might be getting carried away with a cleaning

I second the notion above of just vacuuming the big stuff off and letting it go longer.... bearing in mind one thing. The porosity of this type of filter may allow a severely blocked filter to start pulling dirt thru when the PD gets too high. It takes a lot to block an OCG filter this way but some years back, I recall there were such issues with OCG filters used on turbo diesels in severe service. A turbo can double or triple the amount of air an engine uses, so an engine needs a larger filter than it would normally get based on displacement and VE alone. As I remember it, a standard cellulose filter of the day would get blocked enough to warn the operator with poor performance and MPG (or occasionally by sucking the panel filter into the intake ( : < ) but the OCG would "clean" itself from the inside out and this was disastrous for the turbo and not so great for the engine. Obviously, these are cases of extreme, abject neglect but noteworthy nonetheless.

 

[Scum_Frog]

Looks like the K&N filter is doing a fine job.

 

[ltslimjim]

Interesting post Jim Allen, I agree with the points made and pose this somewhat 'awkward' question:

Along with perhaps simply removing the obviously larger debris on the air filter(as pictured by the OP, and in the box itself), what advantages/disadvantages would 'lightly' adding more oil to the filter(say in the inlet side) have after this 'light' cleansing?

Could that aid efficiency at this point for the OP current app?

 

[Jim Allen]

Originally Posted By: ltslimjim
Interesting post Jim Allen, I agree with the points made and pose this somewhat 'awkward' question:

Along with perhaps simply removing the obviously larger debris on the air filter(as pictured by the OP, and in the box itself), what advantages/disadvantages would 'lightly' adding more oil to the filter(say in the inlet side) have after this 'light' cleansing?

Could that aid efficiency at this point for the OP current app?


We think alike, though I've actually done it. I've bathed dirt and desicated bug corpses alike with red oil for a quick air filter "tune-up." Will not claim it did any good and I don't know if it did any harm.

 

[barlowc]

Originally Posted By: Donald
Will you vacuum out those leaves and other dirt before the reinstall? They are on the dirty side, but I could never leave them.

Yes, I plan on using my shop-vac to clean out the airbox. If it weren't for the fact that it's too cold out, I'd flush it with water too.

 

[ltslimjim]

Originally Posted By: Jim Allen
Originally Posted By: ltslimjim
Interesting post Jim Allen, I agree with the points made and pose this somewhat 'awkward' question:

Along with perhaps simply removing the obviously larger debris on the air filter(as pictured by the OP, and in the box itself), what advantages/disadvantages would 'lightly' adding more oil to the filter(say in the inlet side) have after this 'light' cleansing?

Could that aid efficiency at this point for the OP current app?


We think alike, though I've actually done it. I've bathed dirt and desicated bug corpses alike with red oil for a quick air filter "tune-up." Will not claim it did any good and I don't know if it did any harm.


Wow, oh man, this post made my day. Thanks for confirming the great minds line of reasoning.

 

[Klutch9]

Originally Posted By: spasm3
Originally Posted By: Brenden
How is cleaning a K&N filter early a mistake??


If you clean them too often, then they don't filter as well and let more dirt through. After they get a bit dirty, they stop dirt better.


As is true with any filter, for air or oil.

 

[boxcartommie22]

i agree barlowc!! no fine dust in the throttle body!!all paper filters i have used throughout the years leave a very fine dust in my throttle bodies!!i have tried all brands of paper filters and they all leave a very fine dust in the throttle body..the k&n bashing that goes on here is the worse old wives tale you hear of in the performance arena..

 

[HTSS_TR]

Can you explain higher silicon in the UOA's with K&N filters than with normal paper filters ?

 

[Jim Allen]

Originally Posted By: boxcartommie22
i agree barlowc!! no fine dust in the throttle body!!all paper filters i have used throughout the years leave a very fine dust in my throttle bodies!!i have tried all brands of paper filters and they all leave a very fine dust in the throttle body..the k&n bashing that goes on here is the worse old wives tale you hear of in the performance arena..


Yeah, like there is a significant or ultimately useful amount of hp to be gained from an oiled cotton gauze drop-in filter.

And I absolutely believe that all the brands paper filters you've used left dust in the intake when the oil cotton gauze didn't. C'mon, don't be ridiculous.