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CAI / Gauze filters and damaging oil contaminants

 
Old Apr 15, 2004 | 02:51 PM
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Default CAI / Gauze filters and damaging oil contaminants

I've been reading on other sites from various car and truck owners that the K&N and other gauze type filters should not be used. Rationale is that from oil analysis these filters do not filter well and too many contaminants get thru the intake which could shorten engine life. It's hard to read thru the B.S. and get an unbiased opinion. Several of us Ram owners have CAI systems and I would like to know if anyone has first hand knowledge if we are putting ourselves at risk for potential damage. If we are, than I could possibly see Dodge not honoring the warranty if they can prove the gauze type filter caused the damage, etc......I have always had a K&N in every other vehicle I've owned and never experienced a problem.......Anyone else shed some light.
 
Old Apr 15, 2004 | 02:58 PM
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Default RE: CAI / Gauze filters and damaging oil contaminants

I have heard that one ther time on a post. I have used them many times with no problems. If you look @ the Mopar Parts catalog it has a CAI that uses the same type filter.
 
Old Apr 15, 2004 | 04:13 PM
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Default RE: CAI / Gauze filters and damaging oil contaminants

I've used K&N filters on every car I've owned since the early 90's including a Dodge Neon that had 110K mi. on it's good running engine when I sold it. I've never had a single problem with any engine I ran the filter on. I beleive the K&N does filter better than the paper filters and is a much better choice from an environmental standpoint.
 
Old Apr 15, 2004 | 04:20 PM
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Default RE: CAI / Gauze filters and damaging oil contaminants

If they were bad for your vehicle, I doubt Mopar would offer them as an option. I have a Mopar "high performance" air filter that is a perfect clone of the K&N filter in my SRT-4. I also drove a Mazda pickup for 6 years with a K&N air filter on it and the truck never saw the inside of a shop...[sm=smiley4.gif]
 
Old Apr 15, 2004 | 04:56 PM
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Default RE: CAI / Gauze filters and damaging oil contaminants

ORIGINAL: MAYOR

I've been reading on other sites from various car and truck owners that the K&N and other gauze type filters should not be used. Rationale is that from oil analysis these filters do not filter well and too many contaminants get thru the intake which could shorten engine life. It's hard to read thru the B.S. and get an unbiased opinion. Several of us Ram owners have CAI systems and I would like to know if anyone has first hand knowledge if we are putting ourselves at risk for potential damage. If we are, than I could possibly see Dodge not honoring the warranty if they can prove the gauze type filter caused the damage, etc......I have always had a K&N in every other vehicle I've owned and never experienced a problem.......Anyone else shed some light.
From my experience, I had a K&N on my '99 TA, and on my supercharged I30. I only ran synthetics and did oil analysis with every change. I think the complaints about K&N are well founded. I will not use K&N anymore. A buddy of mine buys and sells Grand Nationals. He won't use or buy cars with K&N filters. That's good enough for me.

Rat
 
Old Apr 15, 2004 | 05:57 PM
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Default RE: CAI / Gauze filters and damaging oil contaminants

What did you find in the oil that turned you away from the K&N?
 
Old Apr 15, 2004 | 06:50 PM
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Default RE: CAI / Gauze filters and damaging oil contaminants

Repeated high silicon levels in both vehicles. The only thing that I could pin point was the filter. I thought the first time I had the test that I had a hole in the thing [:@] My buddy (the one that buys/sells GNs, told me that guys running K&N filters have more wear internally than cars without).

There was no hole. So I started researching K&N. Take a look at this website: http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/airfilter/airtest3.htm.
 
Old Apr 16, 2004 | 01:15 AM
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Default RE: CAI / Gauze filters and damaging oil contaminants

Thanks for the link. I read the filter test and would only take these results with a grain of salt. He admittedly said his tests were real world tests and not run in a controlled environment as should have been done. His filtration test is not very good. In order to properly compare the filtration capability of the filters, a know amount of filterable particles must be exposed to the filter, and the amount passed through measured. This would be one method. Going on the color of the secondary filter media is subjective at best, and certainly not good science.
 
Old Apr 16, 2004 | 01:23 AM
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Default RE: CAI / Gauze filters and damaging oil contaminants

and there's always the possibility of conflict of interest...e.g., someone who works for another filter company....Anybody can post "facts" on the internet, does that make it official??[:@]
 
Old Apr 16, 2004 | 01:38 AM
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Default RE: CAI / Gauze filters and damaging oil contaminants

I had a 02 Maxima 6 speed that would do about 13.3. I ran a K&N but the oil from the filter messed up the MAF sensor. Since there is no MAF on my Ram I put it on cuz the performance is great.
 

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