Re: Got my K&N installed!

From: Rader (rlr@bbt.com)
Date: Fri Oct 24 1997 - 09:31:21 EDT


> I got a 14" Mr. Gasket chrome air cleaner at Parts America and a 14x3"
> K&N filtercharger filter.

  You're a quick one. I haven't even bothered to order my K&N element
yet, mainly because I'd like to order a rear anti-sway bar and maybe
even cat-back or muffler exhaust components at the same time, and I
haven't decided exactly what to do. So my Mr. Gasket can is sitting
on the floor at home!

  Jon, what part # did you order for the 14x3 K&N element?

> The Mr. Gasket breather valve was kind of cheezy, I'll admit. :-)

  Isn't it? I just didn't trust it at all.

> All it took was
> a little filing make the opening a little bigger.

  I was stupid and used a rotary file, and made the hole oval (man, is
that metal soft or what?). But I kludged it back with some blue RTV
gasket maker, and with the grommet in place should seal just fine.

> My craftsmanship won't win any awards, but it got the job done.

  Tell me about it. I'm embarrassed to show anyone the big oval hole
I made. Too bad I just told the entire Internet about it.

> (The metal plug in the filter was a pain to take out though!)

  Hint: go get a set of cold chisels. That makes removing knockouts
easy.

> 1/4" x 4 1/2" coarse thread bolt which was nearly identical to the stock
> hold down bolt. (At the risk of sounding completely stupid, it had that
> "square thingie" near the bolt head.)

  A carriage bolt? Hmmm, not a bad idea. I don't have easy access
to a vise, and will make an S-bolt once I can scrounge one up, but
this sounds like a good, quick stopgap. Thanks.

> I used a cardboard-like washer on top of the air cleaner so that I
> wouldn't scratch the chrome top with the butterfly nut.

  Another hint: I don't trust the wingnuts to seal that hole very well,
and any autoparts store should stock some nice rubber-bonded-to-steel
washers for the express purpose of sealing the top of your air cleaner.
I got one at a local Advance for $1.50, relatively expensive, but it
will seal the hole and also prevent scratches in the chrome.

> The 3" is a much tighter fit... I'm still not sure about how to
> measure the clearance I've got left (if I have any left at all).

  You could put some chalk or something on the top of your air cleaner
and see if it marks the hood liner. I'm more worried about the hold-
down bolt. Did you have to cut any off? I sure don't want to poke
a hole in my hood first time I close it.

> When I get on the throttle all the way, I get some mild pinging.
> I'm already using 89 octane; maybe I just got some bad gas?

  Quite possibly. I've noticed that I can get some mild ping when
getting on my bone-stock engine, loaded up on the highway at 72mph.
I think that you're just able to hear it a lot better now that you've
opened up the intake.

> The air cleaner was $23, and the K&N was $42, so my total cost
> was $65, which gets me the same results as the $120 K&N. I got
> both items at Parts America.

  Damn, I'll have to check our local one out! Hadn't even thought of
Western Auto/Parts America. The nimrods at AutoZone charged me $25
for the same cleaner can, and have limited ordering capacity. Thanks
for the tip.

  Ron



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:07:55 EDT