I dont get it, air is air right?

[KONG]

I know the difference in quality between air filters but what is the difference between an expensive (2-3 hundred dollars) air intake and those intake systems you find on ebay for about 60 dollars shipped? I bought a no name brand from ebay for my dodge ram and it worked well. But I never have tried the expensive way to notice the difference. You would think that better air flow would increase HP but why the big difference in price just to have the name.

Who has the ebay 60 dollar air intake system and who has the 300 dollar system? Can you justify the cost when you can get basically the same set up for about third of cost?

Please help the confused to make a decision

[MotorsportsAuthority aka Dragon]

Cost of Materials are higher and the more expensive brands actually do R&D to optimize their filters, whereas the cheaper ones are the same filter made in whatever design. Some of the cheaper ones are sponges. Most upper brand filters are rechargeable, and therefore have multiple uses, whereas the cheaper ones...once they're dirty, it's time to replace. There's no telling to say that the cheaper ones are going to perform better or worse than the upper systems, since the cheaper ones are tested.

[KONG]

I wonder if you can save about a 100 bills by replacing the cheap filter on the system with a name brand? But what about the pipe between the filter and the engine? wont it get hot from engine heat? and I wonder what the difference in material is between say aem brute force pipe and no name pipe. they look the same to me.

[mdoyle]

I used to be gung ho on using K&N filters and bought into the hype about their increased flow. The truth is the stock H2 filter does a better job than any aftermarket filter at filtering harmful fines like silica (sand) out and should not be replaced with a lesser micron filter.

The stock intake tube also includes a splash container to partition any water away from the intake that makes it past the MAF. You don't get that with the aftermarket tubes.

At the strip or for a street car, K&N is fine, off road severe duty conditions, your stock filter is your friend. Don't bother posting about the Baja 500, those engines aren't expected to go 100,000 miles.

[Captain of the Titanic]

Originally Posted by mdoyle

I used to be gung ho on using K&N filters and bought into the hype about their increased flow. The truth is the stock H2 filter does a better job than any aftermarket filter at filtering harmful fines like silica (sand) out and should not be replaced with a lesser micron filter.

The stock intake tube also includes a splash container to partition any water away from the intake that makes it past the MAF. You don't get that with the aftermarket tubes.

At the strip or for a street car, K&N is fine, off road severe duty conditions, your stock filter is your friend. Don't bother posting about the Baja 500, those engines aren't expected to go 100,000 miles.

Now that makes sense! I was considering the K&N myself, but I think I'll stick with stock!

Thanks for the info...

[mdoyle]

I was searching for that old post that showed filter performance for the stock H2 filter, but can't find it.

There were plenty of post about good stock filter performance based upon oil analysis and you'll find many post about vibration, noise, and no change in mpg when using aftermarket filters and filter + tube combos.

[finbox]

I had a "stright pipe" and K&N cone filter on my Camero a long time ago.

It took out the box that had the water baffels ect.

The mass air had rust all over the springs that held the wires and F'ed it up...no telling how long it was running rich or lean....

[KONG]

So would it be better to run stock air filter with aftermarket exhaust and a programmer then with an air intake?

[Big Z]

Originally Posted by mdoyle

I used to be gung ho on using K&N filters and bought into the hype about their increased flow. The truth is the stock H2 filter does a better job than any aftermarket filter at filtering harmful fines like silica (sand) out and should not be replaced with a lesser micron filter.

The stock intake tube also includes a splash container to partition any water away from the intake that makes it past the MAF. You don't get that with the aftermarket tubes.

At the strip or for a street car, K&N is fine, off road severe duty conditions, your stock filter is your friend. Don't bother posting about the Baja 500, those engines aren't expected to go 100,000 miles.

X2! Ditched the Extreme Flow (K&N) filter the first year. Stick with Stock!...A Much better set-up...imo&e!