High Flow Washable Air Filter Brands?

[trebuchet03]

The aforementioned autospeed article

Don't Bother Changing the Factory Filter

To put it as simply as possible, there’s no problem with the flow of the factory filter – even when it’s dirty.

And we’ve seen the same story on everything from an Audi S4 to a Subaru Liberty RS to a Nissan Maxima V6 Turbo to a Commodore VL Turbo to a....

In nearly all cases it’s not the factory filter element which is causing the restriction. Instead, it’s likely to be the snorkel going into the airbox, or even the shape of the airbox itself.

Which is why I don't bother changing my old air filter.... It's flowing fine and lab testing shows its filtering

[theunchosen]

Oh, I had actually never thought of just replacing the filter.

If you were looking to add HP it defeats the purpose of Cold air intake anyway. The point of CAI is to get the filter as far from the engine as possible. The filter can work as a heat exchanger rather effectively. So moving the filter away from the engine(towards an air port on your car(AWAY FROM WATER)) means the filter will only get as warm as the air temperature and therefore not pre-heat the air leading to less available HP. It's the same reason tunres avoid TMIC(Top-Mounted Inter-Coolers(which ought to be Pre-Cooler)) because it "soaks" in the heat emitted from the engine and defeats some of the effectiveness of the intercooler.

What the above website did suggest is the airbox itself is likely the problem.

I can agree there. The stock piping for my Del Sol was much narrower than the carbon fiber tube that leads directly to a decent gap in the engine bay that is protected from water by the front bumper, hood, and the plastic in the wheel well(that keeps mud from being thrown all over the inside of your bumper). The new filter has a much larger surface than the old box, much finer thread count(pumped water across both for testing), and much less restrictive piping.

Changing just the air filter is not worth it, that seems somewhat apparent(it can't possibly be much bigger if it goes in the same box and its still going to heat soak)

So yeah I would look for a full CAI drop in, although I am not in any way sure of how this will influece your MPG. More air might boost, but the air is not going to recieve any pre-heating.

[trebuchet03]

Originally Posted by theunchosen

Oh, I had actually never thought of just replacing the filter.

I thought that's what the OP was talking about - he never mentioned anything about cold air

I'm curious, however, of what the temperature rise is through a stock heat soaked intake system.... Most parts nowadays are plastic - so there's low heat transfer coefficients and thermal mass... Except for the manifold and TB - where airflow is really fast offering little time for heat up. I guess I'll add that to the list of experiments (maybe a good reason to upgrade multimeters to one that can accept a thermocouple )

[theunchosen]

[QUOTE=trebuchet03;76999]I thought that's what the OP was talking about - he never mentioned anything about cold air

QUOTE]
Oh no, looking at it now thats what he meant I think. I just had never considered it because the very first time I saw anyone do it it was CAI. That person then proceeded to do CCAI(Complete Cold Air Intake) using exhaust heat to run a small compressor alongside his supercharger. He used the turbine fins to power the compressor and supercharged off the block.

It was a 42. . .428 Cobra engine in a Ford Torino. It might have been a 427. . . he has two and both motors. Thats kind of outside the realm of normal though because he had everything built custom to be able to take the chilled air and increased compression. I will say the car can pin you to your seat if you give the compressor a minute or so to start cooling. Can't run it for more than a few minutes full out otherwise the oil doesn't drip down fast enough to get back in the engine ^_^(with an expanded oil pan).

It's not FE. I'm not even going to pretend it is lol

[Daox]

Originally Posted by trebuchet03

I'm curious, however, of what the temperature rise is through a stock heat soaked intake system.... Most parts nowadays are plastic - so there's low heat transfer coefficients and thermal mass... Except for the manifold and TB - where airflow is really fast offering little time for heat up. I guess I'll add that to the list of experiments (maybe a good reason to upgrade multimeters to one that can accept a thermocouple )

I can't tell you exact temperatures, but a few years back I did some testing with phenolic insulators to block heat from the head getting into the manifold. It was a performance modification and a successful one. But, the testing showed some very interesting info. You can see it here:

Intake Manifold Insulators

[theunchosen]

Wow that is interesting Daox!

Just by switching out for insulation that thin made a rather drastic difference.

I assumed using carbon fiber over anything else would provide an advantage since you can feel the heat soak through the hood. . . Obviously for performance sake it would be wise to extend the small heat shield engine-side of my air intake all the way to the manifold

[gto78]

Ok so to better understand what I'm looking for, I'll explain my original post a little differently. First and foremost I want a reusable, washable air filter. Various reasons include: 1) not ever having to buy another filter unless it's physically damaged, 2) I can clean the filter at every oil change or even more frequently if I choose to, 3) I won't be throwing away air filters into the public landfills every 10,000 miles, 4) Manufacturers won't waste tons of energy making these filters because I won't be replacing them, 5) in my area there is a lot of road construction which causes my filter to get dirty very often.

Now again, without DEBATING whether you would like to install a washable air filter on YOUR vehicle, does anyone know who makes them besides K&N, AFE, AEM, and Green Filter? Because I'd like to install one on my vehicle. My vehicle is kind of new and hard to find parts like this for right now.

THEUNCHOSEN brought up a great point that I had never heard of, which is that some filters use a powder instead of oil. That's really interesting, I've never heard of this. Do you know what brands? I'm thinking the powder plugs all the larger holes first and probably makes the filter a little easier to clean since the dirt rests on top of the powder.

I absolutely do NOT want anything to do with a "cold air intake" period. That will instantly lower the gas mileage not only in theory by needing more fuel to meet the more dense air charge, but also by seeing it first hand on several vehicles of my own. Cold air is more dense period. On my explorer I modified the stock airbox and put the factory inlet tube on the hot engine side and blocked the cold air side. The IAT sensor is showing about a 30 degree higher temp on average but gets even higher at low speeds. As a result the truck uses less fuel, and has a lower fuel flow to match the less dense air. I'm designing an on-demand blend valve that switches from hot to cold intake for when I'm towing and pulling onto the interstate.

[trebuchet03]

Originally Posted by Daox

I can't tell you exact temperatures, but a few years back I did some testing with phenolic insulators to block heat from the head getting into the manifold. It was a performance modification and a successful one. But, the testing showed some very interesting info. You can see it here:

Intake Manifold Insulators

Not to diverge too far off topic... But how did you test HP? Awesome documentation though

[theunchosen]

Originally Posted by gto78

THEUNCHOSEN brought up a great point that I had never heard of, which is that some filters use a powder instead of oil. That's really interesting, I've never heard of this. Do you know what brands? I'm thinking the powder plugs all the larger holes first and probably makes the filter a little easier to clean since the dirt rests on top of the powder.

well I found this company

ITG Air Filters US Distributor - Profilters, Maxogen and Megaflow Air Filters : ITG Profilters

No oil needed for the profilter version. No user experience and not sure what car model we are talking about so I can't tell you if they have your car.

Oh, sorry I was not suggesting installing a cold air intake. It brought to mind maybe using wide diameter steel tubing leading to your air box so the engine doesn't have to fight to pull the air. That said I don't know what your current piping looks like so it might not matter.