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Performance panel air filters

FIND

Explorer Addict
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99 XLT V8 AWD
This is a point I have tried to make with people numerous times in the past, but unfortunately, just about everyone with $50 to spend on a part for their car that some advertising told them they needed to go faster thinks they have a degree in engineering.

Anyway, I'll put this up there for now

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/air-filtration-test/

The differential pressure test was performed using a water manometer where one psi of pressure is equivalent to 27.7″ of water. The differential pressure was measured between atmospheric and the pressure drop after the air filter in the stock airbox. The max pressure drop in this test was seen at only 7.0 inches of water or 0.25 psi. The factory airbox and piping with no filter yielded a pressure drop of 5.0 inches of water or 0.18 psi. That means that the worst filter in this test only caused a pressure drop of 0.07 psi. In my opinion, this means that if you are picking an air filter based on performance, you probably aren’t doing your car any favors. For the record, the K&N was the best flowing filter. Of the 3 types of media tested, the cotton gauze type filters flow best. There are other brands besides K&N for sale, of which most are probably made by K&N for resellers. Foam air filters flowed marginally better than paper.

Read the rest of the article to find out how much worse those filters are at keeping the crud out of your engine that you don't want in it. As for the pressure drop, I had been meaning to set up a water manometer for some time now to show the lack of difference on an explorer's intake, but this will work for now. To any of you who want to point out that that 0.07 psi is lost power, recall, even the foam filters added to the pressure drop over the air box with no filter, so the difference is much less, and that pressure drop is from atmospheric pressure, which is 14.7 psi on average, so the difference is miniscule. Also, this test was done on a Miata, and if any of you have ever seen their airbox, you know that there is much less filter surface area to cross-sectional area in the intake pipe than you see on an Explorer, so on an Explorer, the difference would be less pronounced.

I hope this helps some of you in the future when choosing an air filter to buy, or at least helps you decide to spend your fifty bucks on something you can at least enjoy.:salute: Remember, whenever you hear someone telling you about how much power and fuel economy their air filter gave them, the butt-dyno's calibration is directly related to the weight of your wallet after you buy parts.

:edit: I just realized, I should have probably put this in a different section, like Under the Hood, Need for Speed or Exploring Everything Under the Sun. Oh well, if some mod wants to move it, feel free. I just wanted to put this up so people could get this information instead of the stuff people keep repeating.
 



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Good to know since I have been running one lately! :)
 












I always thought that you could clean out the K&N type filters. Is this true? If it is then you would probably save some cash because you don't have to replace your filter as often, especially when operating in dusty conditions.
 






Yeah, you can, but they allow the most dirt and contaminants to get through to your engine. If you really wanted to use a re-useable filter element... Stay away from the type that get oiled, there are plenty of TSBs about MAF damage from those types of filters, and stay away from foam or gauze type filters. Amsoil makes a re-useable filter element. Nothing is going to filter better than a good OEM style filter, but I guess the Amsoil is a reasonable trade-off from a cost point of view.

Also, I find that as far as dusty areas go, most of the time you can vacuum that stuff out of your filter or blow it out using compressed air. Just make sure to blow it out the reverse direction air flows in. What really clogs air filters is fine particulate, especially the kind you get from city driving where there is smog. Dust from fields and dusty roads is generally too large of particulates to lodge themselves inside the filter, so they are easy to clean out, even a filter element that is not re-useable.
 






Just wanted to ad my thoughts on your topic FIND...

Would you look for the "best performance" trans filter? Fuel Filter? Oil filter? Or how about home air filter? Or drinking/bathing water filter? If you judged by flow and not filtration?

Filters are there to serve a propose, and that is to filter out harmful contaminates that might otherwise degrade the machine or purpose they are designed to protect.

Would you spend an extra $30-$50 dollars to make an extra 1-2hp across-the-board knowing you will have to change your oil twice as much and know there is twice as much wear happening?

Would you spend twice the money on a high-flow fuel filter that would clog your injectors twice as fast which would cost you 3-4 times the amount to replace, besides to lose loss in fuel economy?

I personally would pay twice the amount to get thrice the filtration for four times as long the life as you would get from "main stream" products that tell you to replace there filters (without cleaning) every 15-25,000 miles and not have an oil base filtration that mucks up the MAM sensor...

Just saying...

QFT. Granted, it is a balancing game with that kind of thing. You can always add more filtration, but there comes a point where you are choking off the engine, so I think the OEM solutions are generally where a person should go. Anyway, if a person could spend 30-50 on a filter and gain 1-2 horsepower, the issue of performance filters would be more reasonable to discuss. But as it is, most performance intake kits are only going to get you 1-2 horsepower at best, so something like a panel filter that is just going to let crap in your engine that your filter is supposed to keep out just seems like a waste to me.
 






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