What air filter is recommended ?

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oilcan

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After getting rid of the K&N filter in our 02 Dakota we got rid of the Dakota. In it's place sits 04 Chevy Trailbazer 4x4. It runs great and does for us one of the most important things, it gets 20-26 MPG., with a 275 HP I-6. I'm running Mobil 1 oil. because that is what my Chevy dealer sold, never used it before, but if they recommend it and it is good enough for Corvettes, I'll use it.
Now my question, While my Chevy dealer checked the air filter he informed me that a replacement factory air filter would cost me about $35, he said when I needed one I might consider a filter that I could reuse, this is a cone style filter. I consider the people on this site to have vast knowledge, can I get some thoughts & ideas about this.
 
Well you seem to have your mind made up about the K&N, but that's what I use for the same reason you are considering.
 
Yep, the air filters for the Trailblazers are pretty steep. We have an 02 Trailblazer 2WD and it's got a huge cylindrical paper filter on it. Replacements I've found range from about $25 for a cheap paper filter to around $75 for a K&N. I'd personally get the K&N if cost isn't a factor, they have made slight MPG and seat of the pants gains in two other vehicles I've used them in.

Also, how do you get 20-26 mpg? We're lucky to get 13-14, and it used for 50% highway and 50% city, and it even has Mobil 1 too!
 
I'm not sure, from the day we bought it the mileage was good. At 10,000 miles I changed to Mobil 1 oil. That gave us alittle more. I drive about 68 Mph on the road. I know I'm very pleased with it. We bought a Chevy because alot of my friends drive Chevy 4x4s with 5.3s and get 18-20 MPG, and after a Dakota 4x4 that got 15 MPG, heck I have a modifed Ford 460 that gets 10-12 MPG on the road. One thing is I live in Rural Nevada and 90% of our driving is open road. It's 300 miles to Las Vegas, Reno, & Salt Lake.

Since our Trailblazer uses a cone type, I see Summit has some cone type filters selling under their name any one know anything about them?
 
quote:
Originally posted by oilcan:
After getting rid of the K&N filter in our 02 Dakota we got rid of the Dakota. In it's place sits 04 Chevy Trailbazer 4x4.
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My deepest and heartfelt condolences.
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I went with an Airaid air filter, will see how they work, they claim they will filter down to 2 microns.
DStewart, are you paying resects for buying a Trailblazer, or owning a Dodge. Ha Ha.
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I've seen too many engines ruined by that extra flow and extra dirt. Proven by oil analisis. I stay with the paper elements, change as necesary, and prefer the engine to last a longer time.
 
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I really dont believe thats true, unless your refering to driving through a desert with no air filter on your car.

I know a kid who has had a T-shirt stretched over his air box for quite some time now.

This is the only website where people obsess that there engine is going to be ruined from a K&N or anything non-oem.

Its funny, but this website sort of reminds me of a bunch of stubborn 90 year old men. LoL.

Many people have long lasting cars with Any over the counter sold air filter, they all work.

No ones had a K&N or Foam air filter engine failure hands down, no one has to tell me some BS story about a bunch of miners who wouldnt use anything but paper.

Fact is i think your foolish to have wasted your money on a K&N if your not going to use it, but it makes sense since you bought a Dodge in the first place.
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Some of my friends have performance filters that only filter down to 100 microns!

Thats somthing to worry about, not worry about a bunch of great filters with tiny differences.
 
quote:
Originally posted by RedWolf4000:
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This is the only website where people obsess that there engine is going to be ruined from a K&N or anything non-oem.

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You must not spend much time on line. Google "K&N" and crap and you will find a bunch of other websites where members don't worship at the K&N alter.

[ November 28, 2004, 11:07 PM: Message edited by: XS650 ]
 
If it wasn't important to provide the cleanest possible air to your engine, I am sure companies like GM would throw cheaper filters in their cars. Why in the world would you spend $75 on a K&N when it has been proven in side-by-side ISO 5011 air filter tests to let 39 times more dirt into the engine than the stock paper? Not to mention the fact that without heavy modifications to your engine you will never see ANY horsepower gains?

K&N is a marketing marvel. They have people around the world convinced that their engines are STARVING for air. Use a K&N on the race track. It will keep the bricks and birds out of your engine. Race cars have their engines torn down and rebuilt constantly and oil changed every 500 miles or less. They need the airflow. We don't. If stock paper filters are too pricy, get a Baldwin or some other quality paper filter. As far as Fram, they have only 2/3 the paper in their filters. They MUST use less restrictive paper in order to get away with this. This lets in more dirt. We spend thousands on our vehicles. 20-30 dollars every 20k miles should not be a concern. SPICER
 
quote:
Originally posted by SPICER:
I am sure companies like GM would throw cheaper filters in their cars.
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Actually, they probably would. Most people fail to realize that an "OEM" part, be it an air filter or a camshaft, most always comes from the supplier that put in the lowest bid. And when you cut cost on something, quality usually suffers.

That said, I have been very happy with my K&Ns that I've used over the years, but I don't feel like I "worship at the K&N alter. Redwolf is right about one thing, if you use a quality filter (K&N, Wix, Baldwin, etc.) and check and change it regularly, you won't have problems.
 
Exactly. OEM parts are almost Always the cheapest stuff. I love Chevrolet, but I am not BIAS, i will admit that GM is the biggest CUT CORNER company of all car companies. There smaller cars suffer from cut-corner tactics the worst of all other small cars. Its sad. Never had a bad chevy engine though.

A red blood cell is 8 microns wide. When a K&N lets smaller dust in your engine, it really doesnt eat up your engine as bad as you think it might. Yes, smaller particles are what cause engine wear,but thats because they slip by ALL filters, but the wear practically means nothing, its the big stuff that causes damage that will end your engine quickly.

You have all used an air filter thats done a worse job then a K&N without even knowing it, lol. Trust me.
 
If I had a brand new very nice vehicle I would use the OEM recomeded filter. 30 or 35 dollars every 25-30,000 miles is not high finance compared to the price of the vehicle.
 
quote:
Originally posted by Eddie:
If I had a brand new very nice vehicle I would use the OEM recomeded filter. 30 or 35 dollars every 25-30,000 miles is not high finance compared to the price of the vehicle.
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Why would you do that if you could buy a better filter for less money?
 
For what its worth I just received my nephews most recent UOA from Blackstone. His rig is a 2002 Dodge Ram 1500 4.7 V-8, we installed the whole Airaid intake kit on. His truck has 8100 miles on this run and it showed 4ppm for silicon with all other numbers right in line. So to say that these types of filters dont work is kinda bogus.
 
Gotor, I dont think you are being 100% realistic, unless you are refering to no air filter at all. No one has ever seen a problem due to cotton guaze, no matter what machine or field of work, at least not yet.

Can you tell us about the ruined engines you are talking about?
 
quote:
Originally posted by RedWolf4000:
Exactly. OEM parts are almost Always the cheapest stuff. I love Chevrolet, but I am not BIAS, i will admit that GM is the biggest CUT CORNER company of all car companies. There smaller cars suffer from cut-corner tactics the worst of all other small cars. Its sad. Never had a bad chevy engine though.

A red blood cell is 8 microns wide. When a K&N lets smaller dust in your engine, it really doesnt eat up your engine as bad as you think it might. Yes, smaller particles are what cause engine wear,but thats because they slip by ALL filters, but the wear practically means nothing, its the big stuff that causes damage that will end your engine quickly.

You have all used an air filter thats done a worse job then a K&N without even knowing it, lol. Trust me.
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Cheap and inexpensive are not always the same. The issue is not price. If price was a direct reflection of filtering ability, the K&N would filter 3 times better than the OE AC Delco.
When we did the filter study we did a side-by-side comparison of multiple filters for the same application (Chevy/GMC Duramax Diesel). This was the ISO(International Standards Organization) 5011 test. Formerly known as the SAE J726. This is THE internationally recognized standard for testing filter performance.
Without any consideration for price, the AC Delco stock paper filter performed better than ALL other filters tested at filtering efficiency and dirt holding capacity. The K&N was by far the worst. This was NO surprise to most people who understand the basic concepts of filtering air. As a general rule, the better the airflow(less restriction) the more dirt that is let past.

It is also a general understanding that the most damaging particle size for dirt in the oil (from air intake) is the 5-10 micron size. This is because this corresponds to the tollerances between engine parts.
It is unclear of the size of particles that get through in the ISO 5011 test. This is because the dirt that gets past is simply weighed, not put under microscope and measured for diameter. However, It is assumed that by virtue of filter design, the larger particles are the ones trapped and the smaller ones get past. Therefore, a filter that is 99.96% efficient (AC Delco) is letting FAR FEWER of these damaging particles into your engine than a filter that is only 96.60% efficient (K&N). SPICER
 
quote:
Originally posted by SPICER:

When we did the filter study we did a side-by-side comparison of multiple filters for the same application (Chevy/GMC Duramax Diesel). This was the ISO(International Standards Organization) 5011 test. Formerly known as the SAE J726. This is THE internationally recognized standard for testing filter performance.
Without any consideration for price, the AC Delco stock paper filter performed better than ALL other filters tested at filtering efficiency and dirt holding capacity
Click to expand...
Just a question of curiousity, were the AC filters you tested the plain, dry variety, or the newer "lightly oiled" type?
 
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