2019 CT6 Blackwing, 2014 CTS-V Sport,1987 Buick Grand National,1972 Pontiac,2018 Ram megacab stick
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Is a K&N stock location filter worth it? Anyone get any gains?
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I signed up for the K&N alerts asking for a drop in filter for our cars and have yet to get a notice about the engine filter...but good news, they make a cabin air filter to fit our cars! No p/n listed on the K&N site for engine air filter, just cabin and oil. I'm guessing the gains would be minimal or none. Caddy left little low hanging fruit for the aftermarket in this one.
Its wrong, our filter is different. I really dont understand K&N. They make a filter for the bullshit versions of the car, but not the fast one. makes sense. And a cabin filter? who the F is buying a KN cabin filter.....
Where is the cabin filter located at ??
No dyno. But it's been known to suck in small babies and squirrels through the intake vent :lol:
I think they finally have one? Check: http://www.knfilters.com/search/product.aspx?prod=33-5028
That said, I would be curious to know if anyone has since bought one, and what performance improvements they've noticed (or not).
That said, I would be curious to know if anyone has since bought one, and what performance improvements they've noticed (or not).
Turbo cars generally respond well to a CAI or even K&N, but Trifecta punched out pretty early on creating a CAI for our cars stating that the Vsport is not intake restricted. Like I've said, the engineers left little low hanging fruit on this car. The down tubes are only worth 14ft.lbs over stock (both using Trifecta tune). Seems to me that unless your a 1%er (of the total pool of modders) that take things off the charts, the Trifecta Tune is a great value.
Has this been fairly well documented?
Yes!
K&N is primarily well-marketed overhyped expensive .......... stuff. We got rid of oiled air filters back in the late 50s. Their oil filters are made by Champion Labs, suppliers to at least 7 other brand names.
For real world testing you need to spend money - lay in a stock of various brand air filters. Buy a ScanGauge-II and set the unit to monitor MAP - inverse manifold vacuum. Now do a series of WOT to redline runs through the gears, swapping filters after each run. The filter that gives the lowest manifold vacuum reading way up at redline - as in: damn near NO vacuum - is the best filter for that engine. I guarantee that you will find that a "stock" pleated panel air filter is the way to go, and it makes not one iota of difference if it's a WIX, Purolator, AC Delco, PartsMaster, whatever. Any of those has a huge amount of media surface area (the pleats) and will filter down to the single digit micron level.
A ScanGauge will monitor any 4 of 12 preset "gauges" and you can create others based on what your car's data stream supports. www.scangauge.com. I use them in the car and trucks. I also happen to be partial to WIX (NAPA Gold) filters - oil and air.
For real world testing you need to spend money - lay in a stock of various brand air filters. Buy a ScanGauge-II and set the unit to monitor MAP - inverse manifold vacuum. Now do a series of WOT to redline runs through the gears, swapping filters after each run. The filter that gives the lowest manifold vacuum reading way up at redline - as in: damn near NO vacuum - is the best filter for that engine. I guarantee that you will find that a "stock" pleated panel air filter is the way to go, and it makes not one iota of difference if it's a WIX, Purolator, AC Delco, PartsMaster, whatever. Any of those has a huge amount of media surface area (the pleats) and will filter down to the single digit micron level.
A ScanGauge will monitor any 4 of 12 preset "gauges" and you can create others based on what your car's data stream supports. www.scangauge.com. I use them in the car and trucks. I also happen to be partial to WIX (NAPA Gold) filters - oil and air.
IF it does, it comes at the expense of engine longevity
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/tag/air-filter/
I usually don't keep cars more than 3 years so I guess longevity isn't an issue with me but yeah I guess if I was to keep a car long term I would think twice. I've had aftermarket air filters on every car I've ever owned and noticed improved throttle response a nice enhanced intake sound and usually better mpg also, as far as power I'm guessing on the Vsport the power gain would only be about a 1-2% gain so we aren't talking about a noticeable gain but I believe every little bit counts. All I plan on doing is a drop in k&n filter some down pipes and a tune and I'll think I'll be happy with 75+hp and 100+tq gain.CTSVsport said:
While I agree that the K&N may not filter as well as a paper filter, based on my experience I would say the practical impact on engine longevity is probably not something any of us would ever detect. I've never seen anyone try to quantify that reduced longevity. Are the piston rings going to wear out at 280,000 miles instead of 300,000? Or 200,000 instead of 500,000? Who knows? The vast majority of car owners these days don't keep cars anywhere near that long, so why should we care?
At ~140,000 miles on my Subaru, with a K&N (or similar oiled cotton filter) in use for well over 100k miles, dozens of drag strip runs, thousands of miles on road courses, and hundreds of auto-x runs, compression numbers were all rock solid. When I pulled the heads the cross-hatching was still visible on the cylinder walls. Were the cylinder walls and piston rings more worn than they would have been if I had been using a paper filter all along? Perhaps, but if it's not causing a measureable impact on the engine's performance, I'll take the couple extra horsies in exchange for added wear at the microscopic level.
At ~140,000 miles on my Subaru, with a K&N (or similar oiled cotton filter) in use for well over 100k miles, dozens of drag strip runs, thousands of miles on road courses, and hundreds of auto-x runs, compression numbers were all rock solid. When I pulled the heads the cross-hatching was still visible on the cylinder walls. Were the cylinder walls and piston rings more worn than they would have been if I had been using a paper filter all along? Perhaps, but if it's not causing a measureable impact on the engine's performance, I'll take the couple extra horsies in exchange for added wear at the microscopic level.
I would probably add a CAI to the Vsport even if the gains were modest, mainly for the turbo noise ;-) In the past I've always run a dry charger wrap over the filter. I like how AAIIIC summed it up, I'm adopting his opinion and calling it my own.
I got my drop in K&N filter today put it in and immediately noticed a difference in throttle response I noticed you can hear the turbos a little bit more. Been watching my mileage the past couple fill ups so I just filled up and reset everything and will report back with the mileage increase if any after this tank. I also noticed I'm seeing my boost gauge peak at 15psi now when WOT. Car feels like it pulls harder now but I can't say if there was really a significant increase in power but car just feels better and smoother feeling power. I say it's worth the $65 dollars just from what I've noticed so far in the 30 miles I put on the car after installing the filter earlier today. I give it a thumbs up!
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