Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 23:40:37 -0400
Reply-To: John Anderson <vwbus@MINDSPRING.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: John Anderson <vwbus@MINDSPRING.COM>
Subject: Re: K&N filters (Dyno'ed '71 911 +4hp)
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>I'm sure they would not be so hooked on them, from Baja racers to
>formula cars, if they felt they would pass any size particulates (silica
>or whatever) that would scuff their rings/barrels to any signifacant
>measure.
You will be hard pressed to find an informed person with a turbocharged
vehicle running a K&N on a normal streetable vehicle, particularly one who
wants over 100k out of the turbo (no reason why 200k isn't possible even on
something like an early air cooled Audi turbo with regular oil and air
filter changes). Remember engines (bearings) are a lot more durable than
turbos, this basically is all I said. IMHO no way you are getting the
filtration of quality German OEM pleated filter, but it probably isn't even
an order of magnitude difference so the potential trade is up to the
individual, a few barely percieved hp, the kind of thing you might simply
get from say warm day to cool day or doing the damndest to prolong the life
of expensive hardware. I'll note even K&N's literature made no superior
filtration claims when last I looked extensively (4 years ago with the G60.)
Sure racers, nearly every NASCAR car running, and the like use em daily, and
rebuild often for other reasons. And in admission I use one on the Scirocco
and have on most of my normally aspirated inline 4 VW's, but those are cheap
engines, and frankly I'm probably not seeing much increase in performance,
I've been meaning to run some comparisons on a friends chassis dyno but have
never found the time. I guess that is where it sort of boils down, VW
engines are durable, real durable and when normally aspirated probably
capable of runing extreme times with even totally inadequate filtration, but
it comes down to your call, on the G60 I was anal, on a normal 1.7 I'm not,
but I likely imagine any improvement. And still on 911 engine if I were
paying $1500 or more for a set of pistons and liners, and being air/oil
cooled, I'd run the best damn filtration available every day and the hell
with a few hp, the way I drive more track time would be a better benefit
than a bit more power.
John
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