K&N Air Filter....interesting

Well, im far from wanting to try any of the CAI, reason number 1...90% of them do not draw true cold air...the stock system does an excellent job from keeping dirt and moisture out of my intake...

I was browsing amazon, and i saw our K&N Air filter (not the CAI, just the filter) for 41 dollars....i got it shipped to my door in 3 days (basically had it for the past 2 weeks).

I still have my old OEM air filter, and i still have the K&N filter box and all essentials to return it...but after todays run (high speed trails) and a long distance ride to and from Colorado Springs CO..im quite impressed.

I will start off saying i feel absolutely no power gains...However, i did notice a decent increase in MPG's..

I tested this theory on both E85 and 87, as i tested my MPG's previously on more than one occasion...

before, on 87, i would get 13.5 from a full tank of gas till empty (mixed city and hwy driving)...now im getting dead near 15 MPG's...thats with about 20 miles on offroad mode and heavy throttle. Strictly hwy use...i use to get 14.5, now i actually saw 17Mpg,,which i have yet to see in this altitude! but it averaged out on the highway at about 16.

I also tested my E85 of course...as this is my preferred choice of fuel..

from a full tank of gas to just about empty,,i was getting about 11.5 on average (mixed city and hwy with heavy throttle)..now im getting 12.5, thats with some offroading as well.

strictly hwy, 14.5 (from a full 2 hour drive) at times i saw 15 easily...but it could also lead to elevation change so im going strictly by time as i commute to the springs often.

so all in all, im not so impressed with performance, but i am impressed with the increase in MPG..i only got 500 miles on it, so i will continue to keep track of its gains...if it does decrease in a few thousand miles or so....

I cleaned a CAI before in the past...but i never dealt with a drop in K&N...but im liking this cause its kinda like the best of both worlds...

But what i would like to do is keep the OEM housing, but take out the piping that goes from housing to intake...it has all those air traps to eliminate noise and so on...i can see an increase if that gets replaced as well. I actually went around to more than a few metal shops, and i cant find any with aluminum this size...cause if i did, i would get it sent out to get it anodized blue (same as shocks) and get some SVT engraving on it and slap that bitch in there...would be cool as hell.

I would get the Volant setup....but im not too sure if their housing is as good as the OEM setup...its obviously doing a great job as is,....so im trying to look for something a lot less and cooler.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000V5SP92/?tag=fordraptorforum-20

my next drop in test will be the Flowmaster Super 44 exhaust...stock piping, and some elbow grease for polished tips LOL its running me 200 total, for the cost of the muffler and install. i will take it out and do some MPG tests, or butt dyno tests, as i dont have access to a dyno...so the only accurate tests (somewhat accurate) is MPG read outs....and for cheap upgrades, i dont mind the increase in MPG's (IF i get any with the muffler)...and for the muffler, a cool sounding raptor.

Cool,

I put a drop in K&N in both my Tahoe and Harley truck and saw noticeable difference in MPG as well. So who knows, I may try it in the Raptor.

Hey thats some good info. Thanks Jesse!

Hmm....

Thanks Big J, it was your post about the K&N filter on amazon that struck my interest...once i saw i can send it back within 30 days (from auto anything) i figured why not...as i travel constantly...im probably more in my truck than in my own house LOL

but yea, so far im impressed. not bad for 41 dollars....and i still have the stock air filter for when this one under goes a cleaning in the next 5k to 7k miles or so.

Jesse said:

but yea, so far im impressed. not bad for 41 dollars....and i still have the stock air filter for when this one under goes a cleaning in the next 5k to 7k miles or so.

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I always keep a stock filter, I like to let my K&N filters dry a little over night before installing after I clean one. So in the mean time I install a regular paper filter.

I agree, thats basically my plan. I remember with my older car that had a CAI...i couldnt just drop in the OEM housing and so on to clean the filterl....i was even debating at that point to buy another so i can just clean and swap...but this just seems to work out all around. Again, i would like to try and find some replaceable intake pipe, get rid of all the other noise reduction traps....as the sensor is attached to the housing...so really it will be an easy swap.

Jesse said:

I agree, thats basically my plan. I remember with my older car that had a CAI...i couldnt just drop in the OEM housing and so on to clean the filterl....i was even debating at that point to buy another so i can just clean and swap...but this just seems to work out all around. Again, i would like to try and find some replaceable intake pipe, get rid of all the other noise reduction traps....as the sensor is attached to the housing...so really it will be an easy swap.

Click to expand...

Ya, I switched from a K&N drop in filter for a CAI which used a complete different shaped air filter. It was a PITA to clean and you couldn't use a factory filter either. So I would just clean it at night before I went to bed and reinstall it the next morning.

thats what i ended up doing, which ended up being a PITA! lol

Jesse said:

thats what i ended up doing, which ended up being a PITA! lol

Click to expand...

Yes sir, it drove me crazy lol

So now all I'm willing to try is maybe a drop in K&N replacement filter.