All right! I've been monitoring this K&N filter stuff and have read
enough to throw my $0.02 in!
Why do you think Dodge motors are known for high levels of silicone in
their oil in new engines? (This was stated by the guy testing the oil
to be normal for a new Dodge V8) Would it be because Dodge uses
silicone RTV (also known as Permatex) to seal their intake to the block
on the end rails. Come on now, silicone doesnt float around in the air
and get sucked into your engine and end up getting past the rings and
into the oil. It is there because oils used today are detergents and
the oil sloshes around and gets on the end seals (which like to leak
after 50,000 miles anyway) and picks up silicone that way. So, dont
blame the silicone problem (if it really is causing a problem) on the
K&N or any other filter for that matter. I would like to see a test
done with a stock air filter. I'd bet my truck you get the same
readings. Common sense.
The dirt in oil can come from a poor crankcase ventilation system. I
seriously doubt that there is something wrong with the PCV valve in the
low miles on the part. New engines do have slight amounts of blow by as
the rings are seating, and fuel will be found in trace amounts, and oil
consumption in small amounts is considered normal. Any silicone in
trace amounts as well as combustion gases etc. floating as vapors in the
crankcase should be pulled back into the motor through the pcv and
reburned, hence him asking about your venitlation...
Now, on to the lead...Lead (as he noted from the bearings) should also
be considered normal on a low mileage engine due to the seating in of
the bearings to the crank and rod and cam journals. This is a fact of
life, and as the parts seat to each other, the minute amount of material
removed ends up in the oil filter or floating around in the oil.
Nothing you can do about this, and also not the fault of the K&N.
I do believed that just about anything that can get past any air
filter will in most cases get burnt up in combustion. Shoot, combustion
temperatures approach that needed to melt rock anyway, so why would
anything not burn up, but then also get past the rings that are
literally scraping the cylinder bores. It would have to put a severe
gash in the cylinder to get past any ring. The only time I have ever
heard of damage to an engine from something getting sucked down the
intake was when a bolt got lost and it was in the manifold, and also a
tech left a shop manual on the throttle body of a diesel and when the
truck got fired up, it literally sucked the pages out of the book and
into the intake. Believe me, neither the bolt nor the shop manual made
it through the pores of the air filter.
The air filters job is to clean the air going into the motor. And
yes, dirt will get past any filter, depending on the size in microns of
the dirt vs. the micron filtering capability of the filter. Known facts
are that felt and paper have different flow characteristics, and also
filter to different microns. So, it really could be seen as a personal
preference to use one type over the other. In my opinion, whatever
flows the most should be used, regardless of the type.
In evidence of this- a guy from a parts store was trying to get me to
buy his private brand oil filters. He cut one of his apart and cut a
Fram apart and showed me how much more element was in the private label
than the Fram. He was sure that his filtered more dirt. Then I asked
him to give me a comparison of the micron filtering capability of each
filter. He wanted to know why. I told him that if his filter worked to
8 microns and had double the filter element of a Fram but the Fram
filtered at 2 microns, then I'd still buy the Fram. More is not always
better, it is the quality.
Now, oil filters and air filters are different but also alike. They
are both expected to filter, but the oil filter is never penalized for
reducing oil flow but an air filter is penalized for restricting air
flow. So, do you want more flow, and possibly less filtering-and is the
particles getting by really doing any damage to your engine? Or would
you like less flow, and hopefully maybe some assurance that those nasty
little dirt particles got trapped?
If you're conscienscious about changing your oil at regular intervals
and using a high quality oil and filter, I dont think that you can go
wrong with a high flow type such as the K&N.
Just my 2 cents, and I'm sure there are some who disagree. If you do,
let's here about it!
Patrick
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:11:21 EDT