Performance Air Filters .. Which brand is the best?
 

I recently bought a 1985 305 V8 5.0 L Camaro and I am about to replace the air filter it has now and put in a new performance air filter. I have come across several companies. One company that seemed to catch my eyes was Green Performance Air Filter. I was wondering if anyone had any advice on which company has high quality performance air filters for my type of car.

I just use a normal paper filter....

If you have a single snorkle intake (LG4), I would look to a dual snorkle design like the L69 (305 HO). The single snorkles are like drinking a soda with a coffee stir straw.

K&N's are still the old stand by, but keep in mind, increased flow means less filtration.

I've heard a lot of good things about the Fram Air-hogs, but at the moment I still use paper.

Foam filters are the best compromise with flow and filtration. Paper is ok as long as you replace it when it gets dirty. Paper only catches dirt on the outer surface, once it's filled you're done. Foam catches throughout it's thickness, and unlike gauze based filters like K&N, foam actually does catch the dirt.

Single snorkle, dual snorkle, if you have the ability, go open element and funnel some cool air in from the front of the car or via a special hood like a cowl hood. That's your best bet with a intake that opens on the top.

Just dont use the crappy air filters (like the edelbrock pro-form) that cover the carb with a piece of foam. The come apart, and the foam ends up in the carb. Likewise, a good backfire, and it goes up in flame. Thats bad for two reasons. One, fire is never good under the hood. Two, it will suck the melted pieces of filter into your carb, and at best you are looking at a disassemble and clean, more than likely a rebuild.

the foam filters i was referring to were built up much the same way as K&N and friends gauze filters are, they just have foam either built into the filter or wrapped around it.

Why you would put anything flammable on a carb/TB is beyond me. You might as well drive the car into a tree and save yourself some time.

foam filters are the way to go..amsoil offers a 2-stage filter that is made of foam..plus they are lifetime filters, offer better flow rates, and cost the same as stock filter if not less...

i will provide flow rates to any who ask about amsoil vs. k&N filters

even ask k& n and they will tell you taht over time the cotton gauze will move and end up restricting flow..plus they dont really filter that good once they are not new...

i mean look at the cost of k&n's i mean you cant hardy touch one for under 60 bucks..and the amsoil's most expensive one retails for like 70 bucks...

let me know if interested...

Five7 has dibs. :p

I have a 3x14" K&N Xstream kit.. i love it. Huge difference from my paper open element.

I'd be interested in seeing your numbers. I have David Vizard's indepedent test he did on 12"X3 1/2" filters comparing flow rates in 1995. Unless Amsoil has changed since then, they flowed worse than any other, even Kmart!

Highest flowing: K&N ~900 CFM
2nd Highest: Motorcraft ~520 CFM
Lowest: Amsoil ~400 CFM
(How to Build Horsepower Vol.2 p.6)

Now I have recently began to question how well a K&N does keeping dirt out, but I have seen lots of numbers supporting K&Ns higher flow rates. If you have different numbers it would be great to post them so others can be better informed. Just my $0.02

k&n's actually filter better the dirtier they get, till you need to clean them

with any filter the difference you gain just based upon the media itself is VERY SMALL almost not even worth worrying about


think the biggest gain from one filter to the next was something like 1inch of water which is like .1psi difference or so there abouts which is almost no power increase just from filter change


as far as the foam style filters never have been a fan of them being I have watched af ew of them just fall apart

and check this out
http://www.mkiv.com/techarticles/filters_test/2/

ok i have asked amsoil for some actual test results that show flow rates and they will be getting that to me hopefully by tomorrow...

and just a few things..this is the basic information that i have got for me being a dealer just that this website is the best plcae i found that shows the information..
http://www.bestsyntheticoil.com/amso...rfilters.shtml

ok and another note..im in the process of my own test..its nothing scientific by all means..im going ot be changing my daily driver car over to a 2-stage filter by amsoil..
and right now im hooked up to my scan tool and watching flow rates and all the data the computer is reading..
its a 97 grand am gt 3.1 engine

right now there is a k&n filter from a previous owner..and that is what im "testing" now..im looking at the engine rpm's,map, intake tempurature, vehicle speed, and air flow rate.
im taking the readings when first started in the morning before work at idle, 10 mins into my drive at hwy speed (60-ish),and when i get to work at idle
im goin look at mileage too..i have a record of what my pmg has been since i have owned the car..

and will do the same test when i switch the filter this weekend..and then show them and average them out and see the change for myself in my own daily driver.

just a few more pages on the air filters that is the same literature i have on paper here at work from amsoil..
http://www.bestsyntheticoil.com/amsoil/airfilters.shtml
http://www.bestsyntheticoil.com/amso...echnical.shtml

i've had a air hog for like 4 months and i have had no problems it dose the job.

Those are bold claims in light of what I have read. They are straight from Amsoil so it would be expected that they would claim that they have the best (otherwise why bother selling it?). I imagine if you looked on K&N's site that you'd find that they show that they are on top too. With a lot of different brands of air filters these days I'd like to find out how some of the others compare. I am not a die hard K&N nut, but they seem to do a decent job. I'll be interested to hear how your test turns out. I'm not trying to put any product down, but for those who are following this I just want them to take all info with a grain of salt.

You can likely run 4 months, even a year with no air filter and provided you dont drive through a lot of dirty air, you wouldn't notice any problems. The damage done by dirty air accumulates over a very long time. It's also Massively overshadowed by the damage done on cold starts. Cold starting an engine accounts for over 80% of engine wear. Yet it accounts for a fraction of actual engine use. That being said, there are standard tests for air filters, getting companies to actually adhere to them and report their findings accurately is another.

See, when the oil analysis comes back on all those high flowing filters' engines, I get anal about the results. This is why I generally stick to paper filters. :shrug:

While they perform beautifally out of the box, it is difficult for most to hit the proper cleaning and oiling on a K&N. If that happens too much gets past, or it becomes restrictive and sheds oil. I got tired of the whole cleaning and oiling thing long ago. Stilll have about a half dozen of the bloody things sitting around too. I can say that they are built durably as one is just about a decade old. :D

I disagree. Until you take a look at some other things. [i]Then[i] you see what's really going on.

oh either am i really i just dont see the need for k&n's to cost so much when there are other alternatives out there that will do as good.im thinking about buying a filter test machine that is around through napa..and see what that says about flow rates and dirt entrapment rates..altho that would cost alot i think my cost on it was close to 500 bucks..but i will definatly put up my results next week

yes there are standardized test that should be done by any company..and i know amsoil usually uses them or at least i know for sure on the filter cause i had a friend of mine who works for melroe-bobcat test their by-pass filter and see if their claims were accurate..im not saying they are the only ones who do but i do know they will say what test they use in thier results..

Getting flow or comparison figures from someone who manufacturers the filters is like asking a Vice Presidential candidate if his Presidential candidate is the best choice. If there is no comparative information done independantly, there is no point in the discussion. I can continue to do tests of competing brands, and by changing the test variables, will eventually get the "right" filter to win the contest.

The car magazines are very reluctant to do head to head tests, because there will be one happy winner, and a lot of pissed off loosers who will threaten to pull all their advertising.

Me, personally, I have experience with both K&N and Foam (high flow) on dirt bikes. Foam filters always left traces of dirt particles in the carburetor. K&N was far better for filtering. The paper filters are the best. If you think that you can get away with not filtering your air, we ran a roadracer with no filters, and it needed to be re-ringed and needed valve jobs every 3 races (about 200 miles) We went with K&N, and ran a whole season without doing either, and the oil was much cleaner at changes. It's pretty simple, more airflow and more dirtflow. You need to decide what your priorities are.

Every manufacturer of internal combustion engines provides and air cleaner in their engines for a reason. Startup causes more wear? I cannot possibly disagree more. But I only have 30 years experience with all manner of race and street engines, so I could just be another internet know it all...

I just researched where i got the numbers from for startup wear and it was from Slick 50, which got taken to court by the FTC for those claims. So they're definitely not very accurate.

single stage foam filters, of course, at best only match K&N filtration, two stage do a bit better. Paper filters really dont inhibit flow that much unless you're dealing with a race car. bobistheoilguy did a test on his mazda at 6500rpms and showed only a .01-.02 psi difference from paper to K&N. But paper filtered visibly better even after as little as 500 miles than K&N, foam was in between. I use paper, I'd have to own a single K&N filter for years before the prices even approached eachother for replacement paper ones. I dont race laps with my camaro, and most people dont, so flowrate isn't really a factor.

Car magazines rarely do anything but spread eye candy and sell things. Subscriptions and newstand cost should offset the need to rely on pandering to advertisers, instead of providing useful information to enthusiasts. There has to be some place to rely on the accuracy and integrity of information about automobiles but it only takes a glance at magazines, tv and a trip to a shop to see that there is MUCH to be desired. There is a HUGE niche to fill here for a magazine that makes it a point to not care who they piss off in the process of tearing apart the pseudoscience and advertising BS. How could you not think such a magazine would get so many readers that it would have no problem staying afloat? A magazine that held itself to higher standards, didn't let advertisements run in it to make outrageous claims. And for the love of all that is sacred, did not have that stupid g*damn Tornado apple slicer advertised. Seriously though, a magazine that made it's reputation off of holding itself to higher standards and tested products claims to see if it held any water would definitely get my subscription. Such a magazine doesn't exist though. Mostly because all your different magazines are actually owned by the same companies.

safemode: That is some good magazine bashing...I couldn't agree more :thumbsup:

About the only info I have seen in recent years that I have any trust in, and it even fits with the subject, was Car Craft's test of different sized air filters on an engine. It really defied conventional wisdom on what size air filter is needed. Since all tests were with K&N's they couldn't offend any advertisers (the guys that hold the strings) so I don't have reason to suspect any fudging of numbers. Magazine BS is a reason why I enjoy David Vizard's books. He has dynos he runs and as far as I can tell he doesn't answer to any advertisers. Seems to be the most impartial head to head tests I have seen. I could be wrong but that is my impression. Not to mention when you read his stuff you sometimes wonder if you have slipped into a mechanical engineering text. The guy knows his stuff, you won't find magazine writers with a handle on the theory like he does (despite the fact that he did work for Hot Rod years ago). Anyway, end of rant. Magazines bad, Vizard's books good. :D

Maybe most of us at the track are just lucky, I've personally tried K&N from 3" to 6" tall-no gain with any heigth, no air filter at all, and my(and alot of others at the track with the same result) favorite $3 paper filter of the generic variety. Keep in mind I have the base plate sealed to the bottom side of the hood so it draws in only cooler ambient air through the cowl as well as the other guys with the same set-up and aeroscoops.

I have not been able to pick up any mph or et anywhere on the track experimenting with the open/no air cleaner- to the many K&N's. I even went and borrowed the K&N lid for the breatherassembly so it was all K&N-only ran that experiment with the 4" and 6" K&N elements and again, no different than the 4" paper I usually run. I'll stick with the cheapy's LOL

I had one crappy little paper filter on my car before i put on K&N on.. We would tune the carb without the filter (paper) and then place the filter on and we could hear the engine bog down some.. that filter sucked ***

Rabbitt

ok amsoil got back to me today when i was at work..Dan Doran the "techie" for amsoil filtration said that they havent done new tests yet on the filters one because the SAE standard change this last year and he said just before the beginning of the year amsoil change the media construction of the filters..
he said that it should be around 3micron filtration at 97% efficancy..now thats beta ratings and not flow rates..they will be conducting test this winter and will send them to all dealers once finished..

but as for my test in my own car...i have finished a weeks testing on the k&n thats in the car now..tomorrow i am installing the cool blue filter that accel makes..then after that im doing amsoil's 2-stage then both napa proselect adn gold filters..will put it all in a spreadsheet for comparision..

ok im almost done testing these different filters..i myself are some what impressed with a certain filter throughout this test..

i should be able to post these all by mid week..