AFE or K&N
 

AFE or K&N Panel Filters......Chime in

I just (as in an hour ago) installed the oil free AFE's. I like them and would suggest getting them.

Bought mine for $88 shipped (made an offer) from some company on eBay.

Technology

Compare their Pro5 (oiled cotton) to their Pro Dry and decide for yourself.

The K&N should perform as well as the oiled cotton AFE...

From what I was able to find, when measured the same way (same vacuum) they flowed about the same but the oil free did a little bit better in terms of filtration and didn't require re-oiling of course.

^^^ truthfully, its an exercise in hairsplitting, but I've personally seen more documented evidence of oiled filters flowing marginally better than dry ones (other folks on here have argued the other way...).

Still, both outperform the paper, so you really can't go wrong.

flip a coin, its just that simple.

Can anyone tell me if the afe sell the same size as the stillen g3 k & n filter?

i love my AFE...

Suscribed

I don't know about AFE dry vs K&N oiled (although they claim their oiled performs better than their dry), but I always found this old graph AEM used to post very interesting.

http://www.the370z.com/members/jordo...aem-vs-k-n.jpg

Basically it shows that K&N filters flow the best unitl they are litterally caked with dirt (where it drops off is like a measuring cup of dirt!), afterwhich the AEM dryflow performs better.

I don't think AEM has this on their site anymore... still, it shows that K&N is a pretty good filter (best clean flow of the lot!) ;)

Hmm... Actually, the AFE pro dry (and one other -- is that the oiled one?) is on there... neither of them doing too well either... :ugh:

Again, these results are from AEM, and considering their filter isn't even shown to offer the best flow when clean (which is probably why they pulled it -- bad adverstising!), my guess is that it's reasonably reliable and objective info to use in deciding on an airfilter.

Actually, they all flow about the same until you hit 20 grams of dirt.

That's a lot of dirt!

Just keep your filter clean and it will flow just fine and the dry ones do filter better if you are to believe AFE.

That's an incredibly good point!

So... yep... back to the exercise in hairsplitting :icon17:

right on, it'd take a long time or a lot of dirt roads to collect 20 grams of dirt.

hey does anyone have a link or can pm one on where they got their k@N's. im having a hard time finding some that are available for cheap. thanks guys

hey are you guys getting any cool sounds of the engine by using panel filters?

"cool" sounds? Like what kind of cool sounds do you mean?

You need good ears to hear a difference. I suppose it gets a little bit louder above 5k rpms (I have K&N drop-ins).

haha my car is too quiet, its driving me crazy, it needs some sound action coming from the engine but not too much!
I guess I'll just have to get the exhaust.

^ get some HFC or TPs!

I got to reading this thread after searching for information on the often debated CAI, SRI, filter gains topics. I also got to reading an old article (with interesting data) on NICO see: K&N Air Filter Review - Debunking the Myths (and why OEM is better) for the original.

Useful data (I think), more empirical than most comparisons, but I'm not sure I agree with the conclusions. So, I'm posting and possibly throwing gasoline on the campfire, but I am interested in what others thinks about the data and conclusions.

To be clear: air filters were being tested, not 370Z performance with various filters. I think this matters (in part), but doesn't change our abilities to draw conclusions; we simply need to consider how the differences in vehicles might affect what we can or cannot conclude. Here are the details:

"SCOPE:
This report presents the results of an ISO 5011 test of several air filters designed for the GM Duramax Diesel. The test was independently performed under controlled conditions using a $285,000 machine at Testand Corp of Rhode Island (manufacturer of the machine)."

Below are some of the relevant data:

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/11/28/tygete2u.jpg



http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/11/28/jadureda.jpg



http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/11/28/egy9y8e7.jpg



http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/11/28/buvytaqy.jpg



http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/11/28/yve2e6ed.jpg



http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/11/28/byduzy2y.jpg

Here is a sort of synopsis of the author's conclusions:

'The reason I started this crusade was that I was seeing people spend a lot of money on aftermarket filters based on the word of a salesperson or based on the misleading, incomplete or outright deceiving information printed on boxes and in sales literature. Gentlemen and Ladies, marketing and the lure of profit is VERY POWERFUL! It is amazing how many people believe that better airflow = more power! Unless you have modifications out the wazoo, a more porous filter will just dirty your oil! Some will say, I have used aftermarket brand X for XXX # years with no problems. The PROBLEM is you spent a chunk of change on a product that not only DID NOT increase your horsepower, but also let in a lot of dirt while doing it! Now how much is a lot? ANY MORE THAN NECESSARY is TOO MUCH!

Others are persuaded by the claims of aftermarket manufacturers that their filters filter dirt “better than any other filter on the market.” Sounds very enticing. To small timers like you and me, spending $1500 to test a filter sounds like a lot. But if you were a filter manufacturer and you believed your filter could filter dirt better than any other media on the market, wouldn’t you want to prove it? Guess what. Test your filter vs. the OE paper. It will cost you $3000 and for that price you will have the data that you can use in your advertisements. Your investment will be returned a thousand fold! EASIER than shooting fish in a barrel! So why don’t these manufacturers do this? Hmmm? Probably not because they would feel guilty about taking more market share.

Now I am not saying that ALL aftermarket filters are useless. A paper filter does not do well if directly wetted or muddy. It may collapse. This is why many off-road filters are foam. It is a compromise between filtering efficiency and protection from a collapsed filter. Now how many of our vehicles collapse their filters from mud and water?

However, if a filter is using “better airflow” as their marketing tool, remember this….Does it flow better? At very high airflow volumes, probably. BUT, our engines CAN’T flow that much air unless super-modified, so what is the point? The stock filter will flow MORE THAN ENOUGH AIR to give you ALL THE HORSEPOWER the engine has to give. And this remains true until the filter is dirty enough to be recognizeable. At that point performance will decline somewhat. Replace the filter and get on with it.

Hopefully the results of this test will do 2 things. Shed some light on the misleading marketing claims of some aftermarket manufacturers and/or give us new insight on products already on the market that are superior to our OE filter.'

Off topic ish but does anyone know the part # for the AFE conical filter that's equivalent to the K&N filters used on the Stillen G3?