Just curious: what was your gas mileage before and after?

Have you run a 1/4 after the switch?

 

I put my cleaned & reoiled K&N back in on Mon. And, as luck would have it, I'm driving to the coast on Sat. This is bizarre, gas is flirting with a high the way it is, and I'm driving all over the place. But I'll be able to check the mileage for the 3rd straight week. Last weekend was 29.5 on the used OEM, 1st week was 30.5. I think this weekend will be no different. Again, remember the validity when we do stats. If my mileage is out of a normal variance this Sat., it has nothing to do with the K&N, could be headwind, brake calipers seized, heavy foot, etc. But I'm confident I'll nail the 28-30 range even with a reoiled K&N in there. If you've already bought a K&N might as well use it. But if we can save somebody who hasn't wasted their money the $$45 plus the cleaning kit, it's a good thing.

 

A better test would be to NOT tell you filters have been changed. My guess would be if you used OEM (brand new) and K&N (brand new) and you remove the "butt dyno" crap....I bet "you" (generic term) wont be able to tell the difference.

Another note that is NOT being brought up is the increase in the silicates that a KN brings. Anybody do the oil testing while using a KN? I am not anti KN, but I also use my brain a tad.

 

I agree with Dr-RJP, just because more air is entering the engine doesn't immediately mean that more fuel is being used. It could mean that the engine is working more efficiently because it does not work as hard to suck in air.
So you're saying that restrictive filters increase gas mileage? Why does everyone change their dirty air filters? Because it's restrictive and uses more gas, leading to poor mileage. Think about what you say before you say it. If that's not what you meant, then phrase it more carefully to avoid confusion.
Also I put a cone filter on which sucks in a lot more air than the stock one, and with normal driving, I noticed about 1-2 mpg increase.

 

It depends what kind of engine you have, what kind of air filter you got and the way you drive. A K&N can even give you 5mpg improvement if your old filter was so dirty that it barely let in any air.

 

The point that seems to be skipped as this discussion goes around and around:

New K&N better than new OEM

Cleaned and reoiled K&N worse than new OEM

You want the airflow from a new K&N, then buy a new K&N every 10 or whatever interval you change your filter. It's dumb, but it's life--you have to pay a lot to get a little, called diminishing returns. One of the partners in our office puts a new K&N in every 15k. He was throwing away the old ones until I told him about the bogus 1 million mile claim. He still changes it every 15k, but keeps the one he takes out. We all knows what he does is foolish, but he spends $45 on his lunch bill every day, what's one new $45 filter every year or so?

For the rest of us, a new OEM at the right intervals makes the most sense. It's simply bizarre to not acknowledge that a cleaned & reoiled K&N has less airflow than a new OEM--it was on the K&N website 8 years ago.

 

If this is true, I'm going to put my cone filter back on and not worry about panel fiters.

 

Did you ever consider the possibility that there is but ONE RIGHT way and MANY WRONG ways to clean & re-oil the filter? If you do not know the proper way to do it, then I suggest you stick to paper and never buy a reusable one because you can really screw up things on your car, like your MAF, for instance.

AND, I will be happy to demonstrate to anyone who thinks otherwise that my cleaned and re-oiled K&N filter allows the same volume of air to pass through it as a brand new one.

 

Cleaning and reoiling is not rocket science. One simply follows the instructions that comes with the kit, and common sense says do not over oil.

K&N, the people who mfg. this reusable filter, differentiate between a brand new K&N and one that has been cleaned and reoiled. They also differentiated between cleaned and reoiled and new OEM. Nobody needs your demonstration as we don't know each other and we're all going to be leasing Ferraris one day anyway.

 

OK, say it is true that a new paper filter flows better than freshly re-oiled K&N panel, how long does it take for the paper filter to be worse than re-oiled K&N?

What is it in re-oiled K&N that kills its flow? Is it that the cloth gets compressed? Anyone have any flow data to share on it?