K&N Panel Air Filter vs Paper Air Filter Vs Cone (Cold Air)

[Peterk]

Got my 95 in 1999, and it came with a K&N. Still has the same one in it. I wash it, let it dry, and oil it, using the K&N kit. All it takes is a light oiling, NOT so that the oil drips off. I don't find the MAF getting oily or dirty, but I clean it from both sides anyway. That's about 15 years and that's a lot of filters I didn't have to buy. I bought a washable FRAM filter for my truck, but never used it. I installed a K&N cone setup on it. I remember when the filters were only oil. Boy I'm old.

Yep ... I had the oil bath air cleaner way back in my 56 Ford.

 

[xtriggerman]

The K & N filter media used to be junk back as far as I know in the early 2000's. I bought one for a 6.5 Tahoe diesel I had and then read a vacuum test done on a variety of filters sucking a number of different air dust, dirt and ash threw the filters and then threw a white catch material. The K&N paper type filter media did the worst job of filtering out of all the filter but did flow the most air. A basic test is look threw the filter at the sun and see if any bright dots are visible. I took the filter out of the truck and did than and by God, ALOT of sun was coming threw my expensive K&N! Got rid of it. As mentioned, the best filters were oiled foam for keeping dirt out but as they get loaded, their flow was not the best of course.