I noticed that my K&N cone is dirt caked with sand and crap from this lovely Boston winter. Is the K&N kit the way to go, or is there a home remedy to cleaning this baby? Thanks for the help.

 

The oil and cleaner were designed to be used for this application on the materials K&N used to design the filters. Why risk using anything else?

Thanks for the reminder...it might be time for me to check the status of my filter too.

 

A friend of mine said not to use the oil because he did that and it messed up his throttle body or something...I don't think he let it dry long enough before reinstalling it and driving but I don't to ruin anything.

 

Ahhhh! Your friend is going to ruin his engine if he doesn't use the oil!!

Okay only use the K&N cleaner and re-oil products. Lightly tap off all the loose dirt. Spray the cleaner on and let it sit for 10 minutes or so. Only use low pressure tap water. And ONLY rinse from the inside out! Do not rinse from the outside in and do not use high pressure, it WILL damage the cotton guaze. Let is dry overnight if possible but 4-6 hourse might be okay also.

When reoiling, spray along the pleats and only use ONE pass! Let it sit for 10 minutes and then retouch any white spots w/ the spray. Spray speed should be as if you were painting something w/ a spray can.

 

Make sure you do not overoil. Just spray enough oil to cover the white cotton and that's all you need. Some people think that saturating the filter with oil until it is dripping wet will help it to filter more dust and dirt out, but I don't think that's true.

Oh, and take Jeff92SE's advice. Wash only from the inside out, never spray water on it such that it drives the dirt further into the cotton gauze.

 

Good advice, thanks!

 

I think those same dudes work at the tire shop where they think torquing the rims to 130 ft-lbs is better than 90! No doubt I even only oil the outside, not both sides. I found that too much oil causes mpgs to be low, as if the filter were clogged.