K&N filter

[Hootbro]

I've read as many articles/watched YouTube videos as I care to read/watch over the past couple days and I've come to the conclusion that there are just as many for as there are against. And almost all claim they know a mechanic who backs them.
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It all comes down to how risk averse someone is and their willingness to absorb the cost if wrong. In this case, 50/50 is good enough for you. 50/50 in many other areas of life though would be catastrophic.

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[red/green hawk]

I don't know one mechanic who backs them, but I only know three closely.

I know two fairly well. One is militantly anti F&N the other says they're fine. The one that hates them my father-in-law tows for and he always give me straight up opinion. The other is a family friend who never tries to take advantage of me. So who do I trust?That's my point in a nutshell. And I hear you, after any trail I go on I perform the needed maintenance afterwards sometimes that same day but most assuredly within a day or 2.

 

[red/green hawk]

It all comes down to how risk averse someone is and their willingness to absorb the cost if wrong. In this case, 50/50 is good enough for you. 50/50 in many other areas of life though would be catastrophic.

With all due respect I don't catagorize air filters in the same class as say brain surgery. I think if K&N was catastrophic to a car engine they would no longer be in business. I'm not a K&N apologist. I'm merely pointing out that there are just many for as there are against.

 

[cecaa850]

I don't know one mechanic who backs them, but I only know three closely. In my area, dust is kicked up at anything over crawling speed. I have an air gun to hook up to my onboard compressor to blow out the Jeep after a normal trail run. My engine and cabin air filters look horrible at just half the mileage of what is recommended in the book, so I blow them out regularly, and run them for a bit if I can see through them, and replace as needed. Many things vary by the area we drive in, such as those rubber mats some people consider a must-have because they are always in mud. I see mud once a year, prefer cloth mats. If you drive in a low-dust area, you will have a different perspective.

Put a factory oiled K&N in and hit the dusty trail. First time you have to clean it take a flashlight and look up the air cleaner tube toward the throttle body and look for signs of dirt that's passed the filter. That will tell you all you need to know. I'd never use one and also don't know any techs who would.

 

[WXman]

With all due respect I don't catagorize air filters in the same class as say brain surgery. I think if K&N was catastrophic to a car engine they would no longer be in business. I'm not a K&N apologist. I'm merely pointing out that there are just many for as there are against.

The thing about it is that the damage done from a K&N happens slowly. Perhaps tens of thousands of miles. It's a cumulative effect of particulate wear over time. So, it's virtually impossible for the average owner to prove that the filter caused the damage.

At the end of the day, running one to gain 5-10 horsepower on a Jeep is likely a bad move as it won't be noticeable in acceleration anyhow. In a muscle car where tenths of a second at the track matter, perhaps I can see it. But for a Jeep we need better protection for those dusty roads.

I have a K&N drop-in on my '95 Mustang with the old 302 V8 but only because the prior owner installed it. I pulled the MAF sensor yesterday and it sure enough had grime and gunk on the filaments. The CRC MAF sensor cleaner worked really well....it's just such a pain to get access to the MAF on these cars.

 

[Gren71]

personally i dont know a dang thing about air filters...I just like the k&n because ive ran them my whole life and..
A) never had an issue even with cars over 100k miles...all of which i put on
B) they last longer between changes and can be cleaned

im unconcerned with performance gain since is negligible, just ease of Use. Show me a filter that doesn’t do the mythical damage AND lasts similarly as long as the k&n and ill switch.

 

[red/green hawk]

The thing about it is that the damage done from a K&N happens slowly. Perhaps tens of thousands of miles. It's a cumulative effect of particulate wear over time.

I get it. I think there are a lot offactors. Like people who stomp on it at a stop light only to hurry up to slam on the brakes at the next light. Or not letting your engine warm up a bit before driving it no matter how hot or cold it is. Both of which have a cumulative effect over time. Every single car my neighbor has leaks oil and sounds like crap. They are fairly new. Most recently a 2017 Impalla. I have a 2008 Suburban (which I have K&N installed) with 170k miles that still looks and runs flawlessly. I will suggest it's more about how we treat our vehicles than anything.

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