im not saying to take your air cleaner off, i was just showing the point that your not gonna gain any steet noticable performance from a "performance air cleaner" PS...bean there with the fire incedent, isnt no fun!!!!!!!

 

A "performance air filter" is just that a peformance filter over a paper element filter. An open element intake will be more free flowing but offers no dirt and dust filtering ability. I don't know bout tou guys but I don't like the idea of sucking that in my engine. Most stock intake systems are designed for fuel economy and noise reduction so most times they are not as effective as they could be.

 

The same thing happened to my Ram. The filter also keeps dirt and crap out of the engine.

 

Eh, these differences in filtration are so marginal, you wouldnt see an engine wear difference in over a million miles. This has been beat to death with other forums and peoples oil analysis. Take it from someone who changes there oil once every 15,000 miles, and has healthy engines in the mid 200,000's. The K&N works fine.

 

If you could buy 100000 mile oil, you would even if it didnt improve anything.
The K&N isnt a waste considering it last MUCH longer than a paper filter!

 

Well I don't know of any other air filter that NASA uses. So if K&N is good enough to use on the space shuttle than it's good enough to use on my truck.

 

I would just like to know if a K&N air filter will improve fuel economy or just adds more torque. I work on ATV'S and motorcycles, and can tell an increase in power but don't know about fuel consumption. I own an "07 Ram w/about 4500 miles on it. Is it to early to start trying to mod the truck or need time to break in?

 

I guess you guys running K&N have heard the horror stories of the filter media (cotton gauze)being sucked into the engine? All of the "oiled" filter are capable of having this happen, but I have heard of it happeningmostly with K&N. This isnt happening much on stock engines, and mostly on FI vehicles that are really pulling in air. Pretty much all the diesal guys that I know personally, and on different forums have pulled their K&N filters and threw them away and are using dryflow (foam) filters or paper filters. At the moment im currently using 2 fram air hog filters, and will be ditching them for AEM dry flow filters when I get done with my engine work here in a few weeks.

 

What you said is somewhat true. On a stock engine your not going to notice much performance. people say they feel aHP increase (i've said it myself already before I started hanging around/talking with engine builders and such) when they put a CAI on theyre vehicle. your not going to feel the maybe 10 hp you gain from it, the differance your feeling is the powerband being lowered a few hundred rpms (helps with passing and getting upto speed quicker)which is making you think you feel the "big" HP increase companys claim; but your really not. Now on a modified (headers, exhaust,cam, etc) engine you need the extra airflow that the CAI gives you, and in most cases guys will build there own CAI. Also something people dont know is how these company get the HP they are advertising, what they do (in most cases) is take a vehicle with the stock intake on it and runit to get the engine nice andhot then they will put it on a dyno and use that #; then they get there CAI or drop in filter and put it on the vehicle and let it sit overnight so the engine cools down completely. The next day they put a cold engine on the dyno and use that #. A cool engine will make more power than a hot one will, which is why you see the BIG power increase they advertise; dont get me wrong there is added power but its not the 15-20-or even 25 HP they say they gain.

my current intake.... http://rumblebee.org/album_thumbnail.php?pic_id=1453

 

I feel the need to chime in on this one. I have a 2003 Ram 1500 with the 4.7 liter engine. I bought the truck with about 6000 miles on it (it was a demo truck). I installed a K&N CAI kit in March of 2005 with 42,400 miles on my truck. I have cleaned the filter once. My truck now has about 127,000 miles on it. That's a little over 84,000 miles on the filter, which reminds me, it's due for another cleaning. I spent about $200 on the kit if I remember correctly. The kit came with a dyno sheet from a similar vehicle with the same engine that claimed an 8 HP increase. No, I don't notice that. As far as gas mileage increase, I wouldn't notice that, either. It varies too much and there are too many variables that affect gas mileage including the weather, tire pressure, driving style (which can vary on a daily basis), traffic and gas quality, among other things. What I do notice is that I only have to worry about my air filter about once every two years rather than once every 10,000-15,000 miles, which for me would be about 2-3 times a year. Without the K&N, I would have purchased about 8 regular filters at about $10 each (I'm guessing). I also noticed that my truck sounds a LOT better with the CAI kit, which for me is worth it. I love the sound of the engine when I stomp on the gas pedal. To me, that sound is worth the money I spent on the kit. As far as filtering capabilities, I know that it's not going to filter quite as well as the stock filter. I change my oil about every 2,000 miles. This will help alleviate the extra contamination getting into the engine. The reason I change my oil at that interval isn't because of the air filter. It's because I enjoy doing it and I drive a lot, so this vehicle needs to last a long time. I'm hoping to keep it until it has at least 300,000 miles on it and I don't want to replace or repair the engine. I already have almost 127,000 miles on it and it's not even paid for yet. The bottom line is a CAI will probably get you about 5-10 HP, but you probably won't notice it. It might give you 0.1 MPG better gas mileage, but don't count on it. It'll probably make your engine sound better, which will make it more difficult to keep your foot off the gas. It's not going to filter as well, so you'll be getting more contamination in your engine. How much more? I don't know.