K&N air filters experience

I have used them and had one shrink and they sent me a new one no questions asked. I live in not a dusty area and dont take the car out in windy conditions. My experience has been very noticeable, especially with the tubi.

 

sorry , but I don't remember anyone saying that higher flow rates equals
poorer filtration.

thats why when they tested those bunch of filters , filtration and flow rates
were separate parameters.

cheers.

 

That would be correct on carbs.

On Fuel Injection the Mass Flow Sensor and Manifold Absolute Pressure Sensor correct the fuel mixture in real time.

So better airflow = more power

 

Nope, I totally disagree with this entire premise. There are more design constraints I can point at that make the motor produce less power than it safely or reliably could have. Ferrari quoted 255 HP for the euro car, a figure that no one was EVER able to extract to my knowledge from ANY stock 308 motor in ANY guise. Best was about 240. Why? Because to actually get 255 you have to correct quite a few built in obstacles that Ferrari, IMO, placed in our path with the intent to limit its power.

It is my opinion Ferrari built these cars with an open eye hoping they might be raced. If anything had come along, stock rules may have applied as far as pistons, displacement, CR, valve sizes, etc. By placing obstacles in our path, Ferrari, or someone they sponsored would have had an advantage by "knowing" these obstacles. Several have claimed the head ports flow very poorly. The ports are very misaligned between carb to intake, intake to head, head to exhaust manifold port. Mine are "off" over 1/8" inch. You think that helps HP? The Block needs to be decked to run the stock pistons and ever hope to get close to quoted CR. Sorry but 7:1 is closer to reality than 8.8:1. And to be real honest, the headers are a joke. Both pairs of mine are crude, IMO. And if you think Ferrari put great thought into the air cleaner to make power, I think they just tried to make it all fit under the deck lid and then stuffed it full of fiberglass and mesh sheet metal for sound deadening. And at that, they only left enough air cleaner area for a large chain saw to pull through, leaving over 80% of the air cleaner element totally unuseable.

 

yesterday i installed some K&N filters on a 360, fit is PERFECT and the car does rev faster! and they look nicer, the owner is out of town, as soon as he drives it and gives me feedback i'll let you know!, downside of living here in Costa Rica is that filters bought here thru a store where $60 a pop! but still cheap

 

i love the K&Ns put them on my Jeep, muscle cars, all three ferraris, and both Lambos. my 2002 p/up truck has one too. love em. on F/I vehicles i make sure to clean oout my plemun and throttle plate every other oil change and do a visual inspection of the filter. no problems or issues.

 

Ah, the conspiracy theory! I can't dispute that, and it's very intersting indeed. So you contend it's not 'accidently' shoddy workmanship, but a known thing for racers to get an advantage by fixing the problems. I am surpised; I know people always say how bad the workmanship is on (older) Ferraris but I always assumed it was more trim stuff than powertrain stuff.

I can't say I buy the reasoning for it, but intentional or not, it has the effect you say.

Ken

 

One day I'll subject the poor Mondi to the dyno again with the K&N in place and post more graphs.

I MIGHT be getting more kick as I move past 5000rpm but here are two definites:
1. I now have a whistling sound from the side air intake (driver's side) at WOT from the rush of air.
2. Idle has dropped from 1000 to 900. Idle is handled as a special case on Motronic and I don't think it seeks a certain rpm.

 

I have an 85 308 and had it on a dyno where I took the opportunity to compare a new K&N with an new Fram paper filter. We ran the full rev range with both filters and ran 3 tests letting the engine settle between tests.

The results indicated a slight max HP DROP when using the K&Ns, thus I have stuck with Fram ever since....

my .02,
Mark

 

if its carbed and mixture was not adjusted when swapping, then the engine may ran lean, thus the HP drop

 

This is true
When changing to a high flow (such as K&N) filter on a carbed motorcycle you must change jets and in most cases the needle to compensate for the lean condition created.
Most modern fuel injection should be able to re calibrate them selves.

Russell

 

Tommy Cosgrove and I did the same thing on the dyno with my '84 308QV comparing the K&N and a new UFI paper filter... consistently saw a 2 to 3 hp INCREASE with the K&N. Not a big number, but definitely there in the charts.

Just another data point...