Cold Air Intake

[psychoticmurse98]

I just got my 24' 392 and am thinking about getting a K&N intake filter to replace the factory's. Is it worth it? I live out in the country so its very dusty and plan to take it to the mountains throughout the year. Thoughts?

 

[Leftfield]

I used to work in the filter division of AC Delco. Testing of air flow and measuring filtration efficiency of OEM air filters left me convinced of their superiority. A search of BITOG or other sources will show references to some third party professional lab comparative test data.
There are some small gains in flow with a K&N filter but there is a huge reason they do not publish their filtration efficiency. If its track day however, any flow improvement helps.

LF

 

[jeepguru]

Go with S&B, hands down!! It's the only brand we install in every kind of truck & SUV. DM me for a deal with free shipping! Here it is in my 392.

 

[psychoticmurse98]

Go with S&B, hands down!! It's the only brand we install in every kind of truck & SUV. DM me for a deal with free shipping! Here it is in my 392.

View attachment 50651

DM'd!

 

[Excaliburitto]

See first response to your post. Stick with OEM for dusty environments.

 

[jeepguru]

I used to work in the filter division of AC Delco. Testing of air flow and measuring filtration efficiency of OEM air filters left me convinced of their superiority. A search of BITOG or other sources will show references to some third party professional lab comparative test data.
There are some small gains in flow with a K&N filter but there is a huge reason they do not publish their filtration efficiency. If its track day however, any flow improvement helps.

LF

See first response to your post. Stick with OEM for dusty environments.

Guys, maybe back in the day OEM was marginally better than aftermarket, but that isn't the case in today's world. S&B Filters DOES publish their airflow efficiency and it is better than OEM, as tested in accordance to the ISO 5011 standard (which is the International standard for the performance testing of air cleaners used in internal combustion engines). This is why we only sell S&B.

Here is a link to their data for the S&B Jeep 6.4L 392 filter so you can see for yourself....

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1msV7FQ5jxdcA5jf1UnFSqW09Qc1sp3o-/view?pli=1

Dave

 

[Excaliburitto]

Thanks for sharing the doc Dave. According to that PDF the OEM still filters better than the S&B; granted not order of magnitude:

I have no experience with the S&B, just with K&N (the cleanable, oiled version), which let in a lot of dust in. In addition to better filtration, the OEM is also much cheaper and easier to maintain. An improperly cleaned or oiled filter can lead to a lot less filtration. I also have very little trust in vendor tests - I'd rather trust an industry lab.

It would be interesting to see actual HP/Torque improvement that S&B provides as compared with the OEM. K&N always liked to post that, but alas, IMO at a major cost: dust filtration. That might be OK though for highway and track racing, but not dusty ones.

As a side note, even MOPAR's own CF filter (for the JK, not sure there is one for the JL) clearly stated that it was NOT to be used under dusty conditions. Unfortunately, that was printed on a notice that came with the filter (meaning I had to buy the filter to find out it was useless for my use case), and not on the product description.

 

[Excaliburitto]

According to AI, Dave might be right after all. I hope is not the same "Dave" from 2001: A Space Odyssey :

Funny how AI creates circular references, like using forums as authoritative sources. Oh well, we got impeachments based on same things so use your discretion ...

 

[jeepguru]

Thanks for sharing the doc Dave. According to that PDF the OEM still filters better than the S&B; granted not order of magnitude:

View attachment 50659

I have no experience with the S&B, just with K&N (the cleanable, oiled version), which let in a lot of dust in. In addition to better filtration, the OEM is also much cheaper and easier to maintain. An improperly cleaned or oiled filter can lead to a lot less filtration. I also have very little trust in vendor tests - I'd rather trust an industry lab.

It would be interesting to see actual HP/Torque improvement that S&B provides as compared with the OEM. K&N always liked to post that, but alas, IMO at a major cost: dust filtration. That might be OK though for highway and track racing, but not dusty ones.

As a side note, even MOPAR's own CF filter (for the JK, not sure there is one for the JL) clearly stated that it was NOT to be used under dusty conditions. Unfortunately, that was printed on a notice that came with the filter (meaning I had to buy the filter to find out it was useless for my use case), and not on the product description.

It seems counterintuitive but while stock is super efficient next to the S&B from a "keep dirt out" perspective (your chart above), the other stat of airflow (below) shows the S&B allows more airflow into the engine vs OEM. And more air should also mean more power, though filter companies still don't publish those stats.

 

[Excaliburitto]

It seems counterintuitive but while stock is super efficient next to the S&B from a "keep dirt out" perspective (your chart above), the other stat of airflow (below) shows the S&B allows more airflow into the engine vs OEM. And more air should also mean more power, though filter companies still don't publish those stats.

View attachment 50669

Hard to agree or disagree since I don't know what the engine actually needs. If it's starved for air, more CFM will help, but otherwise better cleaning would be better. Neither of the filters forces air down the intake, so it's up to the engine to inhale it.

If I'd be a manufacturer and my air filter would increase HPs, I would definitely advertise that. Just my 2 cents.

 

[hardhat]

What does it mean flowed better if they tested at 580 cfm (fixed flow rate)? Perhaps they should say less pressure drop at given flow rate? But how can you say it flows better if you are testing at a specific flow rate. I could flows better at 0.5psi pressure drop or whatever or less pressure drop at given flow rate.....Quite ambiguous.

Having said that...I bought one a while back and like it. Looks cool and you can see the filter to do a visual inspection of dirtiness. I don't live in a dusty environment so not too worried about it. Plus when my engine dies I'm gonna build something ridiculous....so maybe I should run no air filter to speed that process up .


Also the tazer gives a way to measure air filter obstruction by looking at vacuum under full load. As filter gets stopped up, should see higher vacuum numbers at wide open throttle. I did not see a real drop in vacuum at WOT changing to s&B from stock. Still reads about 0.5-1 in Hg at high rpm WOT IIRC.

 

[station378]

If you live out in the country and expect dust, I’d be cautious. A performance oriented filter like a K&N can help with airflow and maybe a little extra responsiveness but it also tends to collect more dust and oil, which could clog faster or let more dust pass through. On dusty mountain roads, you’ll be changing/cleaning it a lot. For heavy dust use, it might be worth sticking with the factory filter or going with a high quality disposable filter designed for dusty conditions. If you decide to run K&N, make sure to inspect and clean it very regularly so it doesn’t do more harm than good.