Please read carefully before responding.
http://www.bmwe34.net/E34main/Upgrade/Air_filter.htm

Funny how K&N doesn't understand percents or read the guys article along with comparing to foam, what car uses foam?? the test PROVES that K&N lets in more dirt.

K&N says
Isn't that the point of an air filter?

Believe whatever you want but I want my engine in tip top shape.

 

I've been using K & N filters for over 15 years.
All on street, road cold/fresh air set-ups (is there any other way?)
I have used the lifetime 1,000,000 mile warranty twice.
Last time, I literally picked up the phone & they sent me a new one, by UPS. And was allowed to keep my old one (which I use in the 1968 Camaro 6 cylinder Fresh/Cold air set up).
My engines have lasted very long periods of road abuse.
This theory may be true. I've never tested as has this person.
In my Blazer instance, there was "dirt" in the Blazer carb, after 130,000 miles since previous carb rebuild.
YET, for what I put my rides thru in real world,
I highly endorse obtaining a K & N air filter.
Atleast 15 years of better engine performance due to this air filter stand behind my endorsement of this product.
When it gets dirty, I clean it.
No true big deal.
My K & N's catch/stop bugs, very well, too.
I have used the foam air filters.
They work well, until foam filter decomposes & fall into carb. The foam "melts" in the combustion chamber, no true residue.

What options offered?

 

Hot Rod March 2003 pg. 78

The thing that saves you is the test is a short period of time with large amounts and you have an oil filter.

 

I've run K&N since '96, except for the last year when I put my intake back to "stock" for my emissions test and never got around to putting my cold air back in. My engine's still running, so I'm not going to worry about it. It's probably less of an impact then running with no air filter!

Plus, people say that if you use a K&N, the oil from the air filter gets into the motor... again, no problems here.

 

I do find the K&N guy's initial response to this statement pretty funny:

"If we used the new K&N filter we get 14.8 grams of dust. That's 224% more"

"It is incorrect. The difference between 99.2% and 98.1% (his results) is 1.1% not 224% as he states!!!"

Obviously mixing up the guy's efficiency and dust flow math...

I can't say whether I noticed a difference with a K&N or not. On my Camaro, I noticed a difference with the drop in replacement, BUT the previous filter, I discovered, was a K&N too, just barely recognizable because it was SO clogged! I CAN say this about drop-in replacements though. I ran a new paper filter at the drag strip. Then did a successive run with NO FILTER WHATSOEVER. Running without an air filter gave me about .75 mph increase...barely noticeable and definitely not enough to justify doing it again.

 

What does that translate into seconds? like .001?
Did you run with out the tube too?

 

Well considering I'm not a PERFECTLY CONSISTENT driver.....lol. Thats why I gave mph and not ET. Mph will remain close to the same. My ET went down by a tenth because I was learning to launch the car better..unfortunately, I only got those two runs...crashes slowed the track down big time. I've only run the car twice.

This was in my Mustang, by the way. I left the stock intake assembly and all, just removed the air filter completely. Stock intake pulls air in from the fender, but it pulls it through a hole about 5 inches wide and maybe 3 inches tall. So if a low 14 second car with a 302 in it only sees that little increase from removing the filter...imagine how minute it would be on one of these V6's. Not worth it...