Post by
amc49 »
https://forums.nicoclub.com/amc49-u275146.html
Thu Nov 01, 2018 9:27 pm
Before I say what I will, realize it is only an opinion........................but they can damage your engine. They are fine once any over-oiling is drawn off but that extra oil in the intake air then pollutes your MAF sensor if you have one. It also gets on plugs to make them bang out easier until they burn completely off.
Once you run the engine long enough (a couple of weeks) pull the filter and look through it in strong sunlight, all the millions of pores you see are ports where grit can go right through without touching any oil at all to trap them.
Why the foam type that has a longer pathway that convolutes through the material traps dirt better. The K&N work fine when fresh and wet, it dies off once they suck to be drier past a point. The K&N are thin enough in cross-section to let dirt go past but the convolute in foam forces the dirt to twist and turn more due to the thickness and traps better as a result. I found that out after lots of use of both types on hotrod motorcycles.
The dry paper type is so much less work to deal with. And I have reused them many times by simply blowing them out every once in a while. They say you can't......but do you listen to the people who want to sell you the new one? I don't.
As of late I have even carefully used solvent to clean a Nissan OEM paper filter and it ended up in like new condition.......on car working fine right now. Used fuel since it contains ethanol, the ethanol allows the fuel to rinse off much faster and complete with water after and no blowing out at all to preserve the paper structure and a complete air dry. Idea worked like gangbusters, don't let the filter SIT in the fuel-get it in and out as quick as possible to avoid letting the solvents attack the resins holding the filter together.