What air filter do you guys prefer?

[3 at 8]

For 2005 5.4 3v Triton. OEM is about $16.00 on Amazon. K&N has one thats supposed to be washable for about $35.00 Is it really washable or is that BS? Do you get the cheap ones more frequently or do you like something like the K&N? I've got about 40K on it. I've blown the original filter out a couple of times but this is the first replacement for the original. Its slightly overdue from the looks I quess. I do about 50/50 freeway/city driving. Thanks.



K&N washable: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00068OL1U/?tag=atomicindus08-20

OEM Motorcraft:http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00130FXO4/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[Mike_C]

I always like to stick with OEM.

 

[BrokewrenchLS1]

I run Purolator paper in all of my cars. If you want a washable-type filter, go with an Amsoil or AEM (I believe both make reusable, non-oiled filters). Oiled filters can play hell with electronics downstream, like MAF sensors, and they don't filter as well, either (highly-increased silicate levels in UOAs from vehicles running oiled cotton gauze-style filters, vs normal paper).

I normally change my air filter every other oil change - roughly 15,000 miles.

 

[Bennie]

I've got K&N filters in everything in my sig. I've heard of oiled filters causing issues with MAF sensors but never had a problem myself. Should be noted the Prizms don't have MAF sensors and the Yamaha has carbs.

They clean up nice and have held up great. I have over 100K miles on a couple of them, still look like new after a good cleaning.

 

[malibu101]

I'm not trying to be a smart@ss or or cause a fight here-Just saying......
I am a ******** GM man. I always used AC filters but they have been getting hard to find around my area. Other than buying them at the dealer with for a pretty hefty price.
Basically I agree with the OP that using OEM stuff is the way I prefer to fly also.
I have heard all good about NAPA Gold filters, both oil and air. I've been using NAPA Gold's for awhile now and probably will continue.
FWIW- The NAPA filters are made by Wix. It says that right on the boxes.
That's my $.02.

 

[Agent1320]

K&N on anything non-turbo. Never use a K&N or similar cotton filter on a turbo vehicle. I've rebuilt more turbos than I can count with cotton stuck in the inducer. All my turbo vehicles have had paper elements.

 

[bochnak]

I buy WIX from rockauto.

 

[glntom]

Wix on my drivers, K&N on the race car

 

[King Caspian]

Amsoil!!! Unlike the rest, it's the best...

 

[ajchien]

Whatever's on sale.

 

[King Caspian]

Amsoil!!

 

[W650Mike]

Wix for all of my filters.

 

[petee_c]

I have FRAM and K&N and OEM in my vehicles.

Just food for thought....

Unless u are WOT, I doubt you will notice a performance increase or increased fuel economy between filters, clean or dirty. (unless really, really clogged).

Most ECU will adjust to airflow anyways, and open the throttle more to compensate, and can do so in all situations except WOT.

I have not noticed an increase in fuel economy from before or after cleaning/replacing a filter.

P

 

[BigAl62]

I use K&N. I've used the same filter on 5 different cars! I pull it out and install it in the new car (luckily all 5 use the same filter). Yes, you just wash it out with their cleaner or I've used Castrol Super Clean, let it air dry (DO NOT USE COMPRESSED AIR!), re-oil with K&N's oil (follow their directions and don't over oil) and you're ready to go. Biggest difference between K&N and regular paper filters is re-usability, saves money in the long run. As I stated before, I've re-used mine on multiple vehicles and have had it since 2000, it is still in good condition.

 

[SUPERFORD]

OEM (Ford Motorcraft)

I also like Purolator.

Fram is GARBAGE.

K&N is fine, just realize that in most cases you do not need to clean/oil the filter but once every 5 years or so (unless operating in extreme dirty/dusty conditions).

many oiled cotton filter people clean their filters far too often and this opens the opportunity to over oil. While it seems like an quick/easy/fun Sunday afternoon project, it's usually simply not necessary. The process when done correctly can easily take a full day. By k&n's old instructions, 2 days. Do it in 30 minutes and you are likely to over oil.

Over oiling can cause MAF & other problems.

I've had customers come in with oil literally dripping out of and puddling under their air cleaner box due to over oiling.

 

[Gary S]

Hastings, Baldwin, Purolator, or Wix.

OEM AC Delco aren't what they used to be.

 

[Falcon67]

Wix on my drivers, K&N on the race car

X2 here.

 

[BrokewrenchLS1]

I have FRAM and K&N and OEM in my vehicles.

Just food for thought....

Unless u are WOT, I doubt you will notice a performance increase or increased fuel economy between filters, clean or dirty. (unless really, really clogged).

Most ECU will adjust to airflow anyways, and open the throttle more to compensate, and can do so in all situations except WOT.

I have not noticed an increase in fuel economy from before or after cleaning/replacing a filter.

P

There's a dyno test on one of the LS1 forums where a guy tested an OEM paper filter, a K&N filter, and no filter at all. No change in the dyno numbers for any of them. Paper filters simply aren't restrictive for 99% of the cars on the road today.

Something to think about with K&N filters - if you only need to clean them once every 100,000 miles, where's all that dirt going? Paper filters should be changed every 15-20,000 miles, but if a K&N isn't getting dirty, logic dictates that it's letting the same dust the paper filters catch through into the engine. Which is what an air filter isn't supposed to do.

A paper filter for my car costs about $7. A K&N is something like $80, plus the recharge kit, which I think is about $15. I'll spend the $7 every other month and have a clean engine, rather than saving $10 over the course of a couple years, and ending up with a lot of nasty **** in my oil. K&N filters "saving money" falls into the same ******** category of "not being able to afford a car because it needs premium gas". Once you actually do the numbers, the arguments fall flat.

 

[RKA]

My $0.02. Generally I'll stick with OEM when possible for air and oil filters. A few years back I grabbed a Napa Gold air and oil filter from my local store (dealer was a 10 mile detour) and installed in an 06 TL. The car ran fine until the next scheduled service. At that time I used an OEM air filter and the first time I took it for a drive, the car felt dramatically different. The best way I can describe it is going from regular to premium fuel in a car that requires premium. Now it could have been that the old Napa filter was dirtier than it should have been, but it appeared to have a normal amount of accumulation to the eye. My best guess is it was a bit more restrictive than the OEM element. That's the first and only time I've ever noted a difference when changing air filters (when done on time).

Incidentally, the napa oil filter I installed...next time I changed the oil, I learned that it's sized every so slightly smaller than the OEM filter. So my OEM filter wrench would slip as I put some torque on it. That little nuisance pissed me off enough to keep me out of a napa store for a while.

 

[brownbagg]

I got a flow bench in my garage and one day after one of the k&n fillter flow better argument with the buddies. I prove that a stock paper filter can flow more air that the carberator can use. so it doesnt matter if one filter flows better if its unused air

 

[GirlnAgarage]

Using Fleetguard. The truck's intake has been show to be adequate for the hp. I have modified the stock intake and dropped in a good muffler.

 

[MattT]

Fram is GARBAGE.

What's wrong with their air filters? I know their spin on filters are ABSOLUTE GARBAGE but their cartridge oil filters and air filters seem OK.

Using Fleetguard. The truck's intake has been show to be adequate for the hp. I have modified the stock intake and dropped in a good muffler.

Quoted just to ask you about those leather wrench organizers in your avatar. Are they a commercial product or did you make them? They look pretty neat. Feel free to post the full size pic

 

[j-guenth]

OEM or NAPA (Wix)

 

[BrokewrenchLS1]

My $0.02. Generally I'll stick with OEM when possible for air and oil filters. A few years back I grabbed a Napa Gold air and oil filter from my local store (dealer was a 10 mile detour) and installed in an 06 TL. The car ran fine until the next scheduled service. At that time I used an OEM air filter and the first time I took it for a drive, the car felt dramatically different. The best way I can describe it is going from regular to premium fuel in a car that requires premium. Now it could have been that the old Napa filter was dirtier than it should have been, but it appeared to have a normal amount of accumulation to the eye. My best guess is it was a bit more restrictive than the OEM element. That's the first and only time I've ever noted a difference when changing air filters (when done on time).

Incidentally, the napa oil filter I installed...next time I changed the oil, I learned that it's sized every so slightly smaller than the OEM filter. So my OEM filter wrench would slip as I put some torque on it. That little nuisance pissed me off enough to keep me out of a napa store for a while.

Most OEMs are just rebadged from a major manufacturer, so an "Acura" or "Honda" air filter isn't likely to be any higher-quality than a good paper filter, like a Purolator or a Wix. It's a lot like oil filters; AC Delco aren't actually manufactured by GM.

That said, if your car felt "dramatically different", it must have been one nasty air filter; brands aside, most paper air filters flow generally the same. May have just been the **** dyno, too.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

That I recall, K&N makes no claim to be better at filtering air. They only claim it will pass more air to "increase horsepower". As someone above noted, where does the dirt go? I ran one on my '91 Ranger 2.3L for 100,000 miles and it began to get holes in it when you held it up to the sunlight. I removed it and installed a Purolator Pure One air filter, which was difficult to find for the Ranger. Several Advance stores did not have it, finally walked into one that did, bought two of them.

Charles

 

[GirlnAgarage]

Quoted just to ask you about those leather wrench organizers in your avatar. Are they a commercial product or did you make them? They look pretty neat. Feel free to post the full size pic

Those are my 'wrench wraps' Did them today, just a quick and dirty something I came up with to keep my wrenches together until I found a place for them.

 

[crewchief888]

K&N
'00 gmc sierra replacement
'80 harley custom intake, filter wrap
'88 s-10 14x6 filter wrap
'07 saturn vue oem

 

[gabeancounter]

I have tried the K&N filters twice and both times I was not impressed. I think paper filters changed regular are the best. I really like the purolator filters.

For all the guys that like WIX filters, fleet filters has great prices. I have ordered several times from them.
http://www.fleetfilter.com/filters/wix-air-filters.html

 

[MattT]

Those are my 'wrench wraps' Did them today, just a quick and dirty something I came up with to keep my wrenches together until I found a place for them.

Neat I'm gonna steal that idea. I've got plenty of dead cow and snaps.

Is that a "brand" between the snaps?

 

[GirlnAgarage]

Neat I'm gonna steal that idea. I've got plenty of dead cow and snaps.

Is that a "brand" between the snaps?

Yeah, you can whip them up pretty quick. They'll do the job and when they wear out, you'll be out 20min and $2 if you used good leather. And that is my mark underneath the blur out

 

[Fedwrench]

OEM is OK.

Wix is good too and they make NAPA Gold and Carquest filters too.

 

[jvitez]

I had K&N on a GMC Yukon on which I also installed an Amsoil bypass filter. Every oil analysis kept saying I needed to change my air filter despite it being cleaned and reoiled regularly. Put a paper filter back on, normal oil analysis.

K&N get their better airflow by reducing filtration. Don't use them.

For paper air filters, I don't think there's much difference between brands. However, Amsoil definitely has the best filtration, and they last 4 years or 100,000 miles. They can also be cheaper depending on how much and how often you replace paper filters. But, they need to be vacuumed or blown out once a year or every 25,000 miles. I had one on my previous Dodge Ram Cummins. All my vehicles are paper now, just because it's convenient. NAPA or Wix currently. I'll probably switch to Amsoil for one of them this fall though.

 

[KermitFrog]

Wix on drivers - K&N on The Rod. AC on old my old original Chevrolet, probably time to change it - last time I put one on it was about 27 years ago.

 

[mmhouse]

I use a stock filter or a good quality aftermarket equivalent.

IMO K&N is more effective at increasing money flow out of your wallet than air flow to your engine and may cause problems in the process.

 

[Even 11]

K&N & Wix Are on everything I own. I'm not as picky on the air filters as I am the oil filters. Air filters are easy to spot the quality. Oil Filters, not so much.

Check this guy out, I though I was a filter geek!
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/air-filtration-test/

-Dane

 

[ImportTuner]

Depending on the vehicle, Wix, K&N or AEM ...

 

[e30bradley]

K&N cone filters Get the cleaning kit for about 12 bucks and probably clean em 7 or 8 times with it. I don't wory about the oil on the MAF.. just get some Maf cleaner?..

 

[c_mccann]

I have a Fram Airhog on the OP's exact motor in a '05 Expedition. I don't care much about the airflow, just the ease to clean it. Clean it every year. I checked my MAF sensor last year after 75k miles, it looked normal for the mileage, cleaned it with MAF cleaner and re-installed. I'm going to paper filters on the next car, no particular reason though..

 

[jam0o0]

i've put k&n's on my trucks until last year. after a semi dusty weekend playing around in my bronco i pulled the filter to see if it needed cleaning. it had been about 2 years since i had cleaned it. to my surprise there was DIRT in the clean side of the intake. all the way into the intake manifold. most of it wiped off with a clean finger. i can't imagine how much got into the engine. i can tell you that everything i drive got the K&N's taken out.

i've heard from the guys that get their oil checked that when using the K&N's their oil has more silicates (dirt) in it.

 

[3 at 8]

Thanks for all the informative responses.FWIW I kept it simple and went with the oem offerings for both my 05 F-150 and the wifes 07 Suburban.