Oil Analysis w/ K&N

[alamovet]

Thinking about installing K&N's new intake/filter and was wondering if anyone out there has any oil analysis data before and after a K&N air filter installation?

[stretch]

quote:george morrison
Contributor
posted 04-15-2002 08:20 AM
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My standard lube engineer advisement with the K&N air filter system. To be absolutely certain that the K&N is working in your vehicle, your driving conditions, your environment, run an oil analysis. I review hundreds of oil analysis results a week and in most cases the K&N does not do a sufficient job of capturing airborn and causes very much elevated wear rates, dirt levels. And yet, in some cases the K&N works adequately.
I share this information as an advisory because of the overwhelming data indicating there are potential problems. I do not work for an air filter manufacting company, reseller, etc.
George Morrison, STLE CLS
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Posts: 40 | From: columbus, ohio | Registered: Oct 2001 | IP: Logged end quote

[george morrison]

A member over at the Tundrasolutions.com site ran an oil analysis on his K&N equipped Tundra, then switched to the OEM air filter element, ran same mileage and did another oil analysis. The paper elemented oil analysis reflected a significant drop in intake dirt levels along with a corresponding reduction in wear metals. He is continuing his personal test program having installed an Amsoil air filter. He will publish the results for the Amsoil, K&N and stock oil analysis results.
Also there is another site http://www.avlube.com/ which has some relevant data.
George Morrison, STLE CLS

[Alli-max]

My analysis should be at my house by now, but I am in FL at a conference. I will post my results early next week. It is with a REPLACEMENT filter, not the FIPK system though. But, for argument sake, it should be similar. BTW... the last time I washed and oiled the filter was approx. 7,000 miles ago (did it this way on purpose).

[HotShot]

Alamovet,

I ran a K&N in my previous truck until it developed pinholes and put a GM filter back in. With the K&N I had several wear metals that kept showing up high along with high solids. After I put in the GM filter, almost every reading made huge drops. To top it off there was no difference in fuel economy or feel in the power. If you are going to use one expect the extra wear.

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

I had a cone K&N filter (pn RE0880) on my Dodge Cummins for a while and it did not work well at all. I had it sealed very well but after a few thousand miles I could pull the intake hose off the filter and found lots of fine brown powder on the inside. I cleaned & resealed the unit and gave it another chance but again its filtering performance was totally unacceptible. My oil analysis came back around 14ppm silicates after 5000 miles. I'll never use K&N again. I went with the Amsoil filter which seems to be filtering much better, I can't wipe any dust off the intake hose after 20,000 miles. I live in a dry dusty desert climate so I need a filter that works. I don't think the Amsoil is the best filter there is as far as flow capabilites (but better than paper) and probably filters as good as or better than paper.

Dodge dealers used to sell K&N filter kits for the Cummins, but recently Cummins stated K&N was not an acceptible filter to use on their engines and the dealers no longer sell them for that application.

Vaughn

[ 04-18-2002: Message edited by: Vaughn MacKenzie ]</p>

I have had my K & N on for about 8,000 miles and GM just checked the sensors in the intake and said there were as clean as a whisle.

[george morrison]

Another site for K&N vs. OEM paper.
http://www.seansa4page.com/resource/airfilter.html

George Morrison

I have 76k miles on my 2000 PowerStroke and sent an oil sample to Blackstone Labs. I've always used the K&N, so I'm not here to say the K&N makes a huge difference, I'm only stating that they found no contaminants due to a bad air filter. In K&N's defense, my air filter gets unbelievably nasty if I forget about it for 20k miles.