What are the cost verses benefits of putting a K & N intake / filter on my 2007 RAV4 Limited edition (6 cyl) ?
Does it give better mileage, power ?
Does it give better mileage, power ?
What are the advantages of a K&N Air intake/filter?
frozen
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I'm going to speak on personal experience with K&N filters. I've had a Rotary RX3SP. A 1977 383 Nova, and my RAV4.1.
The only thing that the K&N does are as follow:
Better Power. The engine breaths a lot better. I had a Moroso filter on my 383. When I installed the K&N filter. It unleashed the power and that engine roared.
Better sound: more air meant a better sounding exhaust.
Better Economy: Well, here, it depends on how heavy a right foot you have. Power and Speed, with a great sounding engine is addictive. Once you feel the power, you want more. It's relative to your same style of driving.
:wink:
No paper, foam works as good as K&N. I've tested them all. K&N...period. If you are a non believer. Do what I did. Test them all, you'll see. :wink:
The only thing that the K&N does are as follow:
Better Power. The engine breaths a lot better. I had a Moroso filter on my 383. When I installed the K&N filter. It unleashed the power and that engine roared.
Better sound: more air meant a better sounding exhaust.
Better Economy: Well, here, it depends on how heavy a right foot you have. Power and Speed, with a great sounding engine is addictive. Once you feel the power, you want more. It's relative to your same style of driving.
:wink:
No paper, foam works as good as K&N. I've tested them all. K&N...period. If you are a non believer. Do what I did. Test them all, you'll see. :wink:
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If it is a direct replacement for the stock filter you will realize almost nothing as far as power gains. The sole advantage is that you will never have to replace it. The negative is that it will admit a great deal more dirt than a stock paper filter. I have used K&N filters long before they were available via mail order, you had to order them from England direct. When a cone style K&N filter is combined with an intake system designed for a particular engine the advantages can be quite amazing. Many other intake systems have followed suit and are better at filtering and offering a bit more power. AEM is one and I have used almost all available over the decades. In my opinion a direct replacement panel filter is not worth the money. Do a full intake or forget about it.
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K&N, like the other oiled cotton gause filter vendors, do make bold claims of HP increases. But I am a bit skeptical of such huge increases. I first bought a K&N back in the early 90s and currently have two in place. One for the Camaro and one for my Chevy truck, but I don't think they offer much of a power increase over a new oem filter. They are cleanable and reuseable and that is their main advantage in my opinion.
Drop in filters generally doesn't do anything. It does increase efficiency of the engine which can translate to more power or higher fuel efficiency but it depends on driving habits. Jam that pedal and you end up with lower MPG. Also you aren't going to get the % increase or even close to it. Just take their claim and subtract 80%.
As for that study, though good, is flawed in it's testing methods... and so are the bold HP gains from K&N. How do I know? I've done studies of my own and using a programmable ECU on motorcycles, you can clearly see the difference when it's actually on a moving vehicle. All those dyno tests on air filters aren't worth a damn.
As for the dirt it "lets in", the particles are so small that it will not do any damage to your engine. I've had K&N filters on all my vehicles after the first air filter change. So unless all my engines are dying prematurely (one vehicle had over 150k miles, another 100k miles in 20 years, another at 50k miles and going strong, a motorcycle at 12,000 miles, etc) there's really no damaging effect.
As for that study, though good, is flawed in it's testing methods... and so are the bold HP gains from K&N. How do I know? I've done studies of my own and using a programmable ECU on motorcycles, you can clearly see the difference when it's actually on a moving vehicle. All those dyno tests on air filters aren't worth a damn.
As for the dirt it "lets in", the particles are so small that it will not do any damage to your engine. I've had K&N filters on all my vehicles after the first air filter change. So unless all my engines are dying prematurely (one vehicle had over 150k miles, another 100k miles in 20 years, another at 50k miles and going strong, a motorcycle at 12,000 miles, etc) there's really no damaging effect.
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From the conclusion of the above filter study:
People with oiled foam have problems with MAF contamination.
I agree. If foam filter was such a great thing, why OEM filters were not foam?
People with oiled foam have problems with MAF contamination.
Price and build time would be my guess.friendly_jacek said:
If you continue your train of throught, then you should only buy OEM tires because otherwise Toyota would have outfitted it with the better tires.
Also if foam filters aren't good at all, then why does every race car use it? (as a side note, I don't actually know what all race car use but I'm making a guess based on what I've seen so far) Why not just stick with the OEM style filters?
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Those test results are also soon to be six years old. Advances have been made since then in aftermarket filter media. When I ran K&N filters (of all styles) many of those cars exceeded 150K miles prior to being sold with the K&N still intact and working.....as were the cars. I think they can be worthy depending what you expect from them.
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Well, OEM tires are the best in respect to fuel efficiency. The reason people go to aftermarket tires is they prefer better traction or longevity at the expense of unmeasurable loss of couple of % in MPG.Zeoth said:
As for race cars, true race engines are made to last only one or a couple of races. They probably run no air filter and the lightest possible oil.
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What that proves is that K&N doesn't decrease engine lifespan below 150,000 miles. Engines are capable to run up to 500,000-1,000,000 miles. The question is if they would last so long with K&N filter. I guess we need to ask truck drivers about the filters they use.RTexasF said:
At least one driver says 1,000,000 miles is possible with K&N filter, so maybe it's not so much an issue as I thought:
http://www.knfilters.com/news/news.aspx?ID=157
I would say the only thing that would wear out are the seals which needs to be replaced WELL before 500,000 miles. Piston rings, I would assume, are the ones most open to damage by letting more "particles". Most high compression engines don't normally get more than 200,000 miles before they develop enough of a compression leak to noticably effect BHP (butt horse power). So given multiple people here including myself has cars using K&N filters with mileage higher than 150,000 without issues, I would say it's pretty safe even if you don't think it will do anything.friendly_jacek said:
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Interesting, but do note that most of the graphs do not start at zero so the differences are much less than it would appear on a casual viewing.
BigSwede said:
[quote
People with oiled foam have problems with MAF contamination.[/quote]
My wifes Altima check engine light kept going off and on, then finally stayed on. The car failed inspection, cost me $125 to get analyzed on a computer, all because the MAF was dirtied by a K&N filter that let loads of dirt in.
We trashed it and put in a regular filter.
People with oiled foam have problems with MAF contamination.[/quote]
My wifes Altima check engine light kept going off and on, then finally stayed on. The car failed inspection, cost me $125 to get analyzed on a computer, all because the MAF was dirtied by a K&N filter that let loads of dirt in.
We trashed it and put in a regular filter.
Seriously what causes more resistance than the air filter in a intake?
The Throttle plate of course.
If you plan on Wide Open Throttle everywhere you'll notice the "Slight (5hp) (maybe)" performance increase.
However, if you hardly if ever Wide open Throttle there is no point in getting it.
K&N is just a Placebo.
It does not get you better mileage.
And it lets more dirt in your engine.
Unless you want to do a Cold Air Intake, the gains are a little better.
The Throttle plate of course.
If you plan on Wide Open Throttle everywhere you'll notice the "Slight (5hp) (maybe)" performance increase.
However, if you hardly if ever Wide open Throttle there is no point in getting it.
K&N is just a Placebo.
It does not get you better mileage.
And it lets more dirt in your engine.
Unless you want to do a Cold Air Intake, the gains are a little better.
Well wait a sec. Following your logic, you said CAI gains are better. Just as an FYI, your OEM intake is a CAI.Kurz said:
I'll tell you this again. Gains are minimal and hardly noticable. Never trust power or MPG rating from the manufacturer. You gain a washable filter that can potentially save you some money on the long run (and that's potentially).
As for the CAI, by removing the stock OEM CAI intake and replacing it with one say from Injen, you gain power and MPG in a couple ways:
1) Weight reduction
2) smooth flowing tube vs the tube links, resonator box, filter box, etc.
3) Bigger inlet for air
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I enjoy the K&N intake ...
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