K&N Filters

[g.forrest]

on behalf of local scurista. could someone post a link to a supplier in US that will send to Australia. THANKS in advance. Gazza.

[Greg Field]

Are you wanting individual pods or a replacement for the paper filter?

[g.forrest]

Are you wanting individual pods or a replacement for the paper filter?

 

yes thanks greg he's after replacement for the standard filter with standard air box. ciao gazza.

[Martin Barrett]

TLM (site sponsor) have agents in USA - Moto International ( Greg's place of employment) and

in AUS - A1 - obviously I've never used either but options to consider - links on the TLM page accessed from the site sponsors bar (show/hide sponsors button) near the top of the page

 

So worth checking out even if just for quotes

[Greg Field]

I (Moto Intl.) do not carry the K&N filters for the stock airbox because I do not like K&N filters. I do not believe you gain any power with them that you cannot get in other ways that do not involve letting more dirt into the engine. See fellow Aussie Phil A.'s post about opening up the snorkels in the airbox. This is what I did, and I like the results very much. This is my opinion only, but it's based on experiences I've had and I believe in it enough that I will forego the sales of these filters to those who insist on having them. (Please, save your defenses of K&Ns here; I've heard them all but choose to believe my own eyes rather than the same tired blather K&N has been spewing since the 1970s. If you want one, just get one, but don't try to convince me that it's a good idea.)

 

I do carry pod-type K&Ns for those who insist on removing the airbox for aesthetic or other reasons. Before selling even those, however, I try to talk the person into Uni filters, which I believe are better filterers of dirt than are K&Ns. At least with the pods they are visible, so you can check them often to make sure they're at least wet with oil. Sadly, though, 90 percent of them I see are dry and gray and thus completely ineffectual.

 

If your friend really wants a K&N, forum sponsor MPH Cycles may carry the filter. Just click on the little window for them in the upper left corner of the screen. FBF carries the BMC filter, which is just like a K&N. MG Cycle carries the K&N. Here are the links:

http://www.ferracci.com/

http://www.mgcycle.com/

[dlaing]

FBF carries the BMC filter, which is just like a K&N.

I wonder how much the BMC is like the K&N.

I believe Ratchet had read evidence that the BMC filters out dirt better.

Keep in mind there is allegedly a race version and a street version of the BMC. I am not sure what FBF sold me

Searching the internet, everyone discusses power, but hardly anyone discusses filtration.

I put my snorkles back on....that should keep alot of dirt out, but kill the power gains.

[Greg Field]

Dave:

 

Trust your own eyes. Hold that BMC up to a strong light. Do you see pinhead-sized holes? I have in all the K&Ns and BMCs I've examined. Dirt sees 'em, too.

 

Will it matter? Probably not in the short run. Over the long run, I believe it will, though no one to my knowledge has performed the scientific test to conclusively prove this one way or another. Your motor's bores will likely last to 100,000 miles either way. Not all 100,000-mile motors are equal, however. Some have 7 percent leakdown and function like a new motor, while others have far serious leakdown, and others are totally clapped-out piles. I want the former, and I believe paper filters are more likely to net me that result than are guaze filters. I also believe any power gain you get from gauze filters diminishes to indistinguishable after a few tens of thousand miles as ring seal is slowly degraded and piston skirts are worn by the dirt these fiters let in.

 

By snorkels, do you mean those little rubber spigots? If so, why did you put those back on? Or do you mean the airbox lid with its twin snorkels? If the latter, try Phil A.'s rick of heating and enlarging the i.d. of the snorkels and drilling a few holes in the lid. I did this a few weeks back. Works great and does not noticably increase induction roar over the stock level.

[Guest ratchethack]

I've seen lots of air filter tests, some more credible than others.

 

Leave us be careful here, Gents, lest we re-open Pandora's box.

 

I've never seen a single air filter comparison test of any kind that put the K&N consistently in the same ballpark on more than a few test parameter categories with any other air filter -- with the possible exception of UNI foam filters -- and even then there's always quite a distinction in most of the parameters tested.

 

K&N's are TRULY "out there" on their own, as shown so credibly, comprehensively, and independently in the Duramax series of tests. To recap from the infamous "WHAAAAAAT?!?!?" K&N Filter Thread and Duramax Air Filter Comparison Test imbroglio :

 

One of the studies I'd looked at previously -- and I think at least one other, if not more -- put BMC in the same grouping in testing categories with a number of more mundane, "high efficiency" filters, but I can't find this test now, and it was a few years back. I do not ever recall seeing anything about a BMC "race filter", but I am by no means doubting the existence of such.

 

The filter media of BMC air filters looks very similar and is of the same basic construction as the K&N's. I remember finding out that BMC filter media is made by the same company that makes the media for K&N filters.

 

NOTE! This DOES NOT -- repeat -- DOES NOT -- mean they are the same media! Both air and oil filter media manufacturers produce their products to a wide range of specifications. Media from a single supplier may be found in many dozens of different OEM filters (as recently noted in the Champion Labs oil filter discussion), each having entirely different properties from the next.

 

If any oil-type, re-usable gauze air filter is allowed to run loaded-up, un-serviced, and dry, far past its recommended service interval (I highly suspect this to be the case in a great majority of cases on V11's ), they WILL NOT be remotely capable of the performance for which they are both designed and tested.

 

BAA, TJM, but I well imagine YM ain't too durn likely to V.