ok so i am a huge fan of the JK's but i dont have one..."yet". I have a 2005 Unlimited LJ with a K&N Cold Air Intake. but i was on "jeepfourm" one day and i kept reading all sorts of posts from TJ owners saying that K&N air filters does a horible job in filtration. This bothered me...i love my jeep and im a bit of freak when it comes to service dates, tires ballancing..ect. ive had the K&N on for about 8k miles and no problems with engine, very satisfied with the profomance gains and ive been on some extreamly dusty trails too. I trust you guys more than the guys on "Jeepfourm" is my K&N letting my engine eat to much dirt/dust? does it realy hurt my engine or is it just a bunch of B.S.?

thanks guys.

 

i do not have the cold air intake i have the drop in and i think it does a great job. ive had it for about 15,000 miles with no problems. The drop in speaks for itself. i clean it after every dusty trail run and the inside if the intake side tube is always clean. ALWAYS never any trash. the other side ..... well its always trashed lol mud etc. i think its a great product. Takes a while to get down oiling it so youdont over do it but once you get that down it pays for itself. I didnt buy mine for HP or for gas Milage i bought it so i did not have to replace my paper filter everytime i i went down a dusty gravel road. I dont knwo where you are but here in the blue ridge mountains every trail you find will be after 4 miles of a dusty nasty gravel road. And when you have 14 jeeps in your convoy that make sfor a very dusty trip.

 

okk thanks but the guys on "jeepforum" were making it sound like i was running my jeep with no filter at all. one even said, "remove your K&N before you suck in enough dirt to fill a litter box"

 

Dave from Northridge told me they were no good also. Too many fine particles get thru. I was gonna put in a drop in when i did my snorkel and got talked out of it. I stayed with the stock filter.

 

Well I think its fine if a person sucks in a bit of dust, but an engine running at 3000rpm with oil grabbing anything it gets a chance. That smallest amount of oil on the sides does grab dust, and no chance I want dust in my engine at 3000rpm and oil changes every 3k. not worth the risk, there are other high flow conical pure paper based filters that improve air flow with out the "oiling it just enough' and the risk of dust getting through.

MHO from another southwest dusty state.

 

K&N essentially invented the high-performance filter. You will do fine with one. They warranty their product as well or better than any other. You can go to their web site and check them out, then check out the huge number of professional race teams that use them, then query how many of us regular Joes use them and you should be satisfied with your findings.

 

The acid test is to do the white glove thing. Take a clean rag, preferably white, and wipe down the inside of your intake hose (gently - don't want to damage the air flow sensor). If it comes up with ANY dirt, or if there is ANY dirt on the top of the air cleaner box, well, your filter ain't doing its job.

I'm glad to report that since I switched to the K&N drop in, it always comes up clean. Not so much with the throw-away filter type.

 

Of course K&N has bad filtration. Any fool knows to flow more air, you have to flow more dirt.

 

This is true if you use the same material. However, may small holes will be able to filter better with more flow than a few bigger holes. The “holes” are how the air gets through the fiber media.

Certain oil filters are capable of filtering out smaller particles without reducing flow. This is accomplished through the use of synthetic fibers.

 

I have owned the Airaid CAI and now the K&N drop-in filters. Both of which have very similar performance gain feels to them. They both seem to work just fine around town and what-not, but on a trail with a very fine dust such as lime, it's a different story. The Airaid certainly filtered out more fine particles than the K&N in that setting. I found a light film of fine dust in my intake after a full weekend of playing in the dirt and dust with the K&N drop-in. But with the Airaid I didn't have any dust that I could see in the intake after very similar conditions. I will be going back to the Airaid . . . When I get around to it.