General Intake / Exhaust Mods

obyone

Most likely to over zealous application where more is good and flooded is better.

stever

Everything I've heard about the K&N air filter has been anecdotal.

Steve, Host

bottgers

I'm trying to figure out why anyone would think using a K&N filter would improve fuel economy. Since a K&N flows more air, that would either mean using one would cause your engine to use MORE fuel, or if it's not, your engine's running lean.

bottgers

Here's one way to look at K&N filters. Think of them as one part of a three part system. Assuming your intake will allow the extra airflow the K&N provides compared to OEM filters, they can offer performance gains. However, you can't simply drop in a K&N and expect a gain. Your fuel delivery system has to be able to supply an increased amount of fuel to keep your fuel/air ratio at its optimum. Then your exhaust system will need to be able to handle the extra flow. If either of these sytems can't accomadate, the only benefit you'll get by adding a K&N is a filter you'll never have to replace.

bigfur

Im still lurking around here, and if you add an aftermarket exhaust you will definatly like the new sound it gives. As far as power goes, i feel that the filter itself dosent do alot for the vehical. Now if you get the Full intake (FIPK) system in, then you will see some slight gains in horsepower. I love my FIPK system with a Flowmaster dual exhaust. Just Beautiful sound in my opinion.

obyone

I'd dump them in a heartbeat and add a supercharger. Now we talking HP gains. Other than that, the gains are miniscule. Looking to dump them cats too. Talk about restriction. Too bad they don't make them test pipes and sell them for the Silverado like they do for those Hondas and Acuras on ebay.

K&N has good marketing I'll give them that.

mitchflorida

I read all these claims of increased horsepower and gas mileage beacause of the K&N air filter system, for very little money.

If it is so great a product and increases hp so much, how come the Acuras and Lexus of the world don't use it as OEM?

Something doesn't add up here.

ksuwildcat001

Some vehicles do from the factory with K&N filters. The new Viper, Ford SVT Lightning, the 2000 Ford SVT Mustang Cobra R, etc...

They tend to only come as standard equipment on high end high performance vehicles.

mitchflorida

Two of the biggest selling points for a car are its horsepower and mpg. Would Toyota pay $20 extra to improve these? You bet your bippie.

bigfur

how did we go from power and lack of MPG gains to factory cars (which we all know could be better) and political talk??? Sheesh i come on here to AVIOD political crap usually HAHA!

P.S. Still love my FIPK kit.

tidester

Let's drop the political baiting and cheap shots.

Thanks.

tidester, host

bigfur

Politics, arent most of these boards about baiting and cheap shots??? HAHA. Bet im gonna get alot of serious people rippin me now...oh well.

tidester

No, they are not. Let's get back on topic.

tidester, host

mitchflorida

The people who write car reviews do indeed care about horsepower and mpg. Consumer Reports for example.

This reminds me of the STP additives and special spark plugs that people used to buy . .

ksuwildcat001

First off, while car reviewers car about that stuff, I'd bet most people buy a car because of how reliable it is, how it looks, etc. Only a small margine of consumers are performance oriented and buy things based on how they perform.

By your reasoning then why don't the car companies put synthetic fluids in all their vehicles, use Optima batteries, twin spark plugs for each cylinder, better exhaust systems, etc... straight from the factory?????

Why, because it costs too much once you add it up for every car they sell, so they let the consumers enhance things later if they desire. Most don't care and leave their vehicles pretty much as they were when the bought them.

mitchflorida

You may be right that the K&N makes a small improvement on performance. Let's leave it at that.

bigfur

if we wanted alot of performance id guess wed just fire up a supercharger and some nitrous?

doogie

I have this intake system without the mod. intake tube for an 02 chevy silverado. I thought the tube would come with the kit. But didn't. the tube costs about 100.00. I can't really notice any improvements. Still shifts the same going up hills, and the mileage didn't get any better. I had a 97 gmc 5.7l, with a k&n system, and I noticed a big diff. in throttle response and mileage. Has anyone noticed this? and would spending another 100 bucks on the tube make a diff. or would it be a waste of $? thanks for any help.

obyone

is more intake noise. If you noticed any difference in your '97 it probably was a restrictive intake. As it is your current Silverado's intake system isn't the same setup as the '97 and a lot more efficient.

BTW, since you're running the K&N have you cleaned your throttle body lately?

doogie

Don't you have a chevy p/u 5.3 l? I think I remember you saying you had a airaid intake, and then switched to k&n. Did you notice any performance at all with the k&n? I put a TBS on with the Airaid intake. Filter box and filter only, using stock tube. Like I said before, didn't notice any difference. I looked at the dyno tests on Airaid website, that basically shows not getting much horse power untill upper rpm range. Starting at about 4900 or so. How many people consistently use this rpm range? so at this point I'm thinking I wasted money.

obyone

for the FIPK only cause it was cheap on ebay and figured I wanted to personally check it out. After installing it, all I noticed was a little more noise coming from under the hood. Resonance from the tube.

The airaid I installed on my '02 Denali. I also ordered the tube for the airaid. The resonance is much worse with the airaid tube than the K&N. Either way though it was money wasted. I removed the airaid tube off the Denali cause the resonance was really irritating. Left the airaid setup on.

Last week, I cleaned the throttle bodies of both and found a lot of black residue.

tlcman

I have a 2000 Honda Accord 2.3 Vtec, and I ordered a K&N filter from my local supplier....(I am sold on K&N since my last application on a 1994 Land Cruiser 4.5 I-6 noticed about a 10hp gain!) Anyway, I was wondering If anyone knows If I willnotice any difference in sound or preformance, after all it is a box style filter : (

stever

Interesting thread:

mac24 "Jeep Wrangler" Jun 7, 2004 3:39pm

Steve, Host

ksuwildcat001

I will agree that just swapping the filter out probably won't gain any power or mpg. It will only last longer than the regular paper filter and thus pay for itself in that regards.

However, swapping out the entire intake tube system and filter has been proven in tests to improve power over the OEM setup. Some OEM systems are extremely restrictive in an attempt to cut down on intake noise. I've seen independent magazine tests where they have gained anywhere from 10 to 15 hp by swapping out the OEM system for an aftermarket high performance intake system. That and the benefit of not having to replace the filter was more than enough reason for me to switch to K&N.

bigfur

Has it been beaten to death finally???

stever

No, that's I don't like SUVs, why do you? :-)

Steve, Host

bigfur

My mistake but this one seems to come close. I can probably sum it up in one sentance. Some people think it works, some people think it dosent.

stever

Yeah, and even if it does work, does the hassle factor outweigh the ease of changing a paper filter?

Steve, Host

ksuwildcat001

What hassle factor? What is there about it that is anymore of a hassle than using a paper filter?

stever

You have to clean the dirty K&N occasionally, air dry it, and then re-oil it with the recommended oil. I can pop an $8 paper filter in 3 times in less time than I can clean a K&N style filter once.

And it's less messy and I don't have to worry whether I over-oiled the filter and that my downstream sensors are going to get ruined.

Thanks for the post, Bigfur! <g>

Steve, Host

ksuwildcat001

No offense, Steve, but have you actually owned one and gone thru the process? It takes hardly any time at all and there really isn't any risk of over oiling it if you follow the directions. Not to mention you don't have to do it very often at all anyway. Over the time between cleanings I would spend more time than that swapping paper filters.

stever

No, I tend to stay with OEM stuff. I figure the factory engineers know what works and I'm not into lots of maintenance on my cars, especially if there's not a clear economic benefit.

I do my own oil changes (with regular oil), but that's at 7,500 miles and I rotate the tires then. The air filter gets switched at 15k.

Otherwise my rides are lucky to get washed and waxed twice a year.. I've had 4 cars since '82 and minimal maintenance seems to be paying off. ymmv :-)

No offense taken, but doesn't it take some time (hours?) to air dry the filter after you wash it? And Karl's article indicates it takes at least 20 minutes for the cleaning and oiling part of the process (link).

Steve, Host

ksuwildcat001

Just curious about what you think then since the new Viper and prior Mustang Cobra Rs came from the factory with K&N filters. Would you used it then?

It takes me roughly 10 minutes to clean and reoil mine. I do it in the evening and then just let it sit in the garage overnight while I sleep, so I have zero actual downtime.

stever

Yeah, I'd use it. The main appeal to me with the oil filters is the extended cleaning interval. I don't know what Dodge recommends, but I'd probably go for 50,000 miles unless I started eating a lot of dust.

You don't want to know how long I'd run synthetic oil :-)

Steve, Host

stever

Anyone use a Filter Minder?

"The Filter Minder is placed between the air filter and air intake of an internal combustion engine and measures how restricted an engine's air intake has become."

It's new to me, but sounds like a way to insure that whatever air filter you are using is still clean enough. Although some Usenet posts think it's worse than worthless.

WCCO-TV

Steve, Host

elmoblatch

with a K & N air filter on board. It's been about 10 months & mpg is the same as the window sticker says.

Very disappointed I wasted money on it.

ksuwildcat001

The K&N costs more, but it will also last longer and not have to be replaced like the OEM paper filters. Depending on how long you intend to keep the Jeep you could actually save money by not having to buy replacement paper filters.

the_big_h

pays for itself after 3-4 cleanings using their $10 cleaning kit.

so even economically it's a good choice :-)

highender

magazine compared a few after market air intake systems and a few filters....and hooked all up to a dyno so that there would be objective data.

They found that for most of the engines that they tested, there was some improvement in HP , and it increased when a special intake was added. However, the amount of gain in HP depended on the original engine design. Some already allowed freeflow of air, so a K&N or other air intake systems did not produce much improvement, since it was NOT the limiting agent on the engine. However, for most engines, they got a gain in HP, becuase air intake was part of the problem limiting the engine efficiency.

The article somewhere under the stack of magazines that I read...I'll post the source, once I dig thru it ( it needed cleaning anyways, to provide more flow for future reading material)

gotb

I have a 2003 Nissan Sentra and I initially thought about getting a K&N drop-in filter or CAI for more HP and mileage but after reading so many posts on b15sentra.net about fried MAF sensor, I decided to just keep OEM air filter.

gotb

http://home.usadatanet.net/~jbplock/ISO5011/SPICER.htm

Interesting.

portknoxxa

Looking to upgrade my '04 Galant GTS with some xtra HP. Some have told me to go with a cold air intake system, ram air, etc. When it comes to this i'm clueless. Any advice would be great. I'm not looking to go with super/turbo chargers, just something simple and "cheap".

bigfur

How much power are you looking to add?

Mr_Shiftright

The CAI isn't going to do anything for you because your stock system takes in cold air already---if you trace your air intake you'll see that it's pretty optimum
A cannister type air filtration system has more science behind it, since you can get a ram-air effect. But here again, without a special intake manifold and injection work, the net effect is going to be pretty slim pickins'.

If you want some real HP, you have to spend money. Otherwise, it's hardly worth the trouble for 1-3 HP if you're lucky, maybe a little more with a ram-air, at high rpm and under optimum conditions...possibly 8HP or so?

mparis1

hello, do you think i should install a K/N FILTER AIR ASSEMBLY??? \is it worth oit any problems... thegto engin is a ls2 corvette engine.... any of you fellas in new york city/ long island??can you recommend speed shops...............thanks...michael

Mr_Shiftright

You probably want something more sophisticated and which has been shown to actually WORK, like the Vararam Industries' VR-1B ram air system. I have read that this system can net you about 12 rear wheel HP.

The down side of these ram air systems is that they suck air from pretty far down under the grille and present a danger of picking up water in a rainstorm---causing hydro-locking and a very dead and damaged engine (water enters cylinders and bends connecting rods).

I'm not endorsing this system but just giving you an idea of what seems to work.

It costs $369, so $30-35 per HP is pretty darn good. Of course it takes some time to install it...it's not just a drop in filter.

PS: I don't know if they make this for your GTO...maybe only the C5

mparis1

thanks.... that ends that... what about dyno tuning/ superchips... i value your opinions as i am new to this...........michael

Mr_Shiftright

That's kinda off topic here. I'll start a "chips" forum soon and you can ask there. Also try the GTO forum in the Coupes/Convertibles Board

MrShiftright
Co-Host

stever

We have one in Aftermarket & Accessories that I thought was going to be moved here (or linked). Here's the link:

Chip Upgrades.. worth it?

Steve, Host

Mr_Shiftright

You want to ask Karen to move it or link it or should I? It's doesn't have many posts so people could catch up quickly on it.