K&N Filter - Worth it ?

J

JR Ewing III

Guest
Anyone put one in there DI or DII? Did it improve anything? Were there any adverse side affects to having one. :confused:

I know a DII owner who claims that his K&N messed with his MAF, so he took it out.

I was just thinking about getting one for my Disco and was wondering if it is worth it. I put one in my pickup, and I noticed a slight improvement in throttle response and a very slight improvement in mpg. It was worth it for the pickup. But, my Disco is much more complicated than my little truck.
 
C

cmondieyoung

Guest
Which one are you referring to?

Just the drop in? Or the cone?

The cone filter requires a bit of fabbin'.

I put a drop-in filter in my D1 for the hell of it (they're not expensive), and haven't noticed anything either way.
 

curtis

Well-known member
Apr 20, 2004
1,545
0
Salt Lake City, UT
Just my opinion: Use the stock filter and be happy and satisfied that it was actually designed for your motor. Although Timmy thinks there is a financial advantage consider this: Improving the flow of your intake does nothing unless you improve the flow of the exhaust (and vice-versa). Even this is a very calculated measurement to get right that most shadetree mechanics are not equipped to perform.

Now - that being said, then only way to improve airflow through a filter is to decrease the amount of resistance. The K&N does this by making a stronger but very thin filter element. This works fine initially, but given time, the possibility of creating little holes in the element becomes much greater (even K&N will warn you about this). The end result is that these little holes make room for a lot of dirt.

K&N filters are crap. They are not worth near what you pay for them and the consequences of the issues they could cause may be much more expensive in the long run.
 

Tom in MD

Well-known member
Apr 20, 2004
149
0
Sarasota, USA
Maybe not crap...

Well, I wouldn't go so far as to say K&N is crap. :) IMO the K&N seemed to be no better/worse than the paper. You do have to be thorough in caring for it at cleaning time. The fact is they will be cheaper over time if properly maintained. I've read about MAF problems but never experianced that scenario. In the end,I got tired of dealing with it and went back to paper. I change these more often than I need to, but that's just me. Small price to pay. If money is your motivating factor, you're driving the wrong truck !
 

Axel

1
Staff member
Apr 1, 2004
1,857
11
Quebec, Canada
www.discoweb.org
Stick with paper. You are driving a brick with wheels, and a K&N will not give you any noticeable performance gains, nor is it worth the potential risk of damaging your MAF.

I had one for a while, but went back to paper.
 

kellymoe

Banned
Apr 23, 2004
1,282
1
Burbank
I do alot of desert driving and as a result I tend to go through filters pretty fast. I switched to K&N because I can clean it on a daily basis if needed. Paper filters work fine and you probably won't notice any change with the K&N. My filter has paid for itself several times over because I used to go through paper filters so for me the change is worth it. I have experienced NO MAF problems.
 

utahdog2003

Well-known member
Apr 20, 2004
1,842
0
North Florida
Axel said:
Stick with paper. You are driving a brick with wheels, and a K&N will not give you any noticeable performance gains, nor is it worth the potential risk of damaging your MAF.

I had one for a while, but went back to paper.

agree, stick with paper. the best part about the paper is the whole thing gets chucked in the trash and saves me the hassle of prepping the K&N for another go-around.
 
J

JR Ewing III

Guest
Thanks for the good responses, guys. I guess I'll go ahead and cross the K&N filter off my "buy" list.
 

asurover

Well-known member
Jul 19, 2004
157
0
jonesville, nc
i would go for the k&n, i've got them in my other cars and as soon as my filter gets dirty i'm putting one in my disco. i've got one with around 70,000 miles on it and the other with around 50,000 miles on it. never had a problem with either.