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Whats the difference in air filters from a generic brand you get with one of the ones on a generic intake from Ebay and a K&N from say an INjen or AEM?
Air filters come in various types of elements, sizes, filtering areas, shapes.
The stock one is pleated paper and it works quite well but needs to be replaced.
The K&N is a cotton gauze element that is oiled. These work better at filtering when they are a bit dirty. Don't filter too well when they are clean.
Then there are the foam filters. These are also oiled and do a reasonably good job of filtering but they get dirty quite fast and then they don't flow too well.
If you have a small filtering area, you had better have good flow but then, you might have poor filtering. I tend to prefer a large area, high flow, good filtering, but then, this might be somewhat elusive.
So, which one is better? That's a matter of personal preference and interpretation of the benefits and detriment of each.
So .......................
Replaced my stock filter with a K&N 2 years ago, there was allmost no noticable difference, if anything I had the impression that acceleration was slightly less with the K&N.
ITG Foam airfilters have massive dirt holding capacity...they use a triple layer construction of varying foam densities. Dunno if they make an exact S2K filter or not or if you'd have to adapt.
Dyno tests have shown that some vehicles respond adversely to filters like K&N and the others, while the OEM provided better numbers. This has been the case with some two-wheeled cousins from Honda.
engine longevity is more important than 1-2hp in my opinion. The oiled cotton type filters are shown through oil analysis to let more dirt in. If you want your engine to last a bit longer the stock paper cone is the best way to go. The paper cone has a massive surface area to start with already so their is your flow.
04-26-2003, 09:28 AM
Difference in Air filters
