Rotate air filter every oci?

[JustinH]

I have read that blowing compressed air into a filter will put tiny holes in the media, reducing its efficiency.

Every fall when it gets a little cooler, I replace cabin filters and air filters in all my cars with stuff from rockauto. I usually end up replacing wipers as well, as the heat does not take kindly to rubber components.

 

[Slick17601]

Some of the posts on this board lately really make me scratch my head...this one included.

 

[Driz]

Clean out the debris in the canister. Then blow the filter out from the inside towards the outside with compressed air. I seldom change an air glitter anymore doing this unless it looks to be breaking down ect.

 

[Ducked]

Originally Posted By: HangFire
Originally Posted By: GMBoy
But on a more serious note - i don't see any benefit at all to this. Most filters are shaped such a way you can't rotate them anyway


Back in the day when most cars had circular air filters, they would visibly build-up dirt on the inlet side. Rotating was a common thing back then.


Yeh, remember being told to do that. May even have done it, can't remember. Now I still have a circular air filter, but now I reckon the air will take the path of least resistance, bypassing the dirty patch, so rotating will serve little purpose.

 

[GMBoy]

Originally Posted By: HangFire
Originally Posted By: GMBoy
But on a more serious note - i don't see any benefit at all to this. Most filters are shaped such a way you can't rotate them anyway


Back in the day when most cars had circular air filters, they would visibly build-up dirt on the inlet side. Rotating was a common thing back then.


Yes. My '78 jeep has a round chrome air cleaner that I rotate. Back when it had the factory air cleaner assembly, I removed the PCV pipe to the air cleaner because that spot on the filter would get stained with oil blowby. Installed an open chrome one and it is dirty so fast lol.

 

[spasm3]

Originally Posted By: HangFire


Back in the day when most cars had circular air filters, they would visibly build-up dirt on the inlet side. Rotating was a common thing back then.


We would clean and flip the air cleaner. Easy on GM round air cleaners. I just had to make sure i flipped it back before my dad drove it. Quadrajets, and Dualjets were really loud and awesome when the lid was flipped!

 

[Ducked]

Originally Posted By: spasm3
Originally Posted By: HangFire


Back in the day when most cars had circular air filters, they would visibly build-up dirt on the inlet side. Rotating was a common thing back then.


We would clean and flip the air cleaner. Easy on GM round air cleaners. I just had to make sure i flipped it back before my dad drove it. Quadrajets, and Dualjets were really loud and awesome when the lid was flipped!


What does this mean?

It SEEMS to refer to "flipping" both the filter and the case lid.

"Flipping" the filter would do nothing, assuming it is dorso-ventrally symetrical, which I think they are.

"Flipping" the lid SEEMS to effectively bypass the filter, since it probably wont seal in that configuration. . Why would even an American Teenager think this was a good (sorry AWSUM) idea?

 

[Malo83]

I rotate the round filter on my 83 Silverado, rotate 180 to the clean side.

 

[spasm3]

Originally Posted By: Ducked

What does this mean?



It was the lid. It may not have sealed as well. It sounded awesome, I was a teen when i did this.

If you ever did/heard this on a v-8 carb car, you'd know why teen guys did it.

 

[copcarguy]

Originally Posted By: spasm3
Originally Posted By: Ducked

What does this mean?



It was the lid. It may not have sealed as well. It sounded awesome, I was a teen when i did this.

If you ever did/heard this on a v-8 carb car, you'd know why teen guys did it.

I'd flip the lids on the Dodge Diplomats and Gran Furies I used to drive. When those secondaries opened up the sound was so glorious it made me happy to be alive.

 

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

Not possible. One corner of the air filter has a radius that differs from the other three. Won't fit any other way, but there is a Murphy out there that can mess this up.

 

[DoubleWasp]

Rotating a filter really does nothing. The air is going to find the path of least resistance, and a dirty looking spot on a filter is not nearly as restrictive as people think.

 

[Malo83]

Originally Posted By: DoubleWasp
Rotating a filter really does nothing. The air is going to find the path of least resistance, and a dirty looking spot on a filter is not nearly as restrictive as people think.

Maybe! but I sleep better knowing the dirty spot is on the weak side

 

[rrounds]

Originally Posted By: Chris142
Originally Posted By: EdwardC
Nope.

Right or wrong, I've subscribed to the school of thought that the air filter should be disturbed as little as possible to avoid letting dirt into the intake. I also let the air filter run much longer than the prescribed interval, assuming it filters better as it gets plugged up.
this. I put restriction gauges on my cars and only open them up as needed.

+2 Use a restriction gauge and KNOW when to change the air filter, I get 90k miles on my S2000 air filter.
Don't ever blow compressed air on a air filter, all you will do is allow more dirt into yuor engine.
http://www.widman.biz/English/Analysis/Cleaning.html

http://www.widman.biz/English/Analysis/High_pressure.html

ROD

 

[Ducked]

Originally Posted By: copcarguy
Originally Posted By: spasm3
Originally Posted By: Ducked

What does this mean?



It was the lid. It may not have sealed as well. It sounded awesome, I was a teen when i did this.

If you ever did/heard this on a v-8 carb car, you'd know why teen guys did it.

I'd flip the lids on the Dodge Diplomats and Gran Furies I used to drive. When those secondaries opened up the sound was so glorious it made me happy to be alive.

Thanks. Always nice to have one's prejudices confirmed.

 

[CR94]

Originally Posted By: Ducked
... Thanks. Always nice to have one's prejudices confirmed.
Yep! Screwing down the wingnut so hard that the filter was partially crushed adds to the effect.

 

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

Tennie Boppers

 

[Matagonka]

Haha, nope!

 

[Malo83]

Originally Posted By: HosteenJorje
Tennie Boppers

Did the inverted lid thing back in the 70's on my mom's Merc Cougar, loved it when those secondaries opened up,

 

[Ducked]

Originally Posted By: rrounds
Originally Posted By: Chris142
Originally Posted By: EdwardC
Nope.

Right or wrong, I've subscribed to the school of thought that the air filter should be disturbed as little as possible to avoid letting dirt into the intake. I also let the air filter run much longer than the prescribed interval, assuming it filters better as it gets plugged up.
this. I put restriction gauges on my cars and only open them up as needed.

+2 Use a restriction gauge and KNOW when to change the air filter, I get 90k miles on my S2000 air filter.
Don't ever blow compressed air on a air filter, all you will do is allow more dirt into yuor engine.
http://www.widman.biz/English/Analysis/Cleaning.html

http://www.widman.biz/English/Analysis/High_pressure.html

ROD


OK, 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, say, the UK.

http://www.airfilterblaster.com/

Pneumatic back-flushing gadget

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.