Early K&N vs OEM Filter Results

[kjanracing]

There is a lot to be said about that.

[ghammerly]

I don't think it will help with fuel economy but it may help a little with power.
This is my experience with performance air filters:
I have a 2008 smart and compared the OEM paper filter against a BPP performance drop-in filter at the 1/4 mile. (BPP is very similar to the K&N version)(Both filters where clean and new the day of the test)
I swapped back and forth several times and the BPP helped reduce the 1/4 mile elapsed time by .2 seconds after I averaged the times for all runs.
I still have the car and never could tell if it helped with fuel economy.
Keep in mind that the filters for the smart and g1 Insight are very similar in size and they both produce about 70hp on one liter 3's. Gerbil power!

[kjanracing]

So 30.2 seconds stock and 30 seconds with the hi performance air filter. That is like a 1% gain. How smart is that?!

[freezin4]

Originally Posted by popennell

There are just entirely too many variables to attribute any fuel economy increases to the air filter alone.

+1

Originally Posted by kjanracing

Really no difference is power or mileage. The one concern I had is that there was always a coating of really light dust in the lid of the air box and into the air mass meter with the K&N. Not there with the OE filter.

+1

Originally Posted by lat.ch.

He said he had proof that it wasn't good enough at actually performing its primary role, that of filtering air. He also questioned why I would think they could design the part better than BMW.

+1

No two trips will be identical, and so it will be very difficult to measure any meaningful differences. The K&N filter's ping-pong ball test display looks convincing on the countertop at the parts store though!

Another suspect mileage improvement gadget to me is the radiator block. Many people swear by "10% or more MPG gains". I have not seen it - but YMMV

One great MPG test was posted about the Re92 Gen 1 OEM tires vs Ecopia (?) tires performed back to back on same stretch of road at same speeds/rpm with careful weather/wind condition measurements also reported. (With surprising results.)

[Roger B.]

here is a interesting link. Filtration Testing for Amsoil, K&N, Napa, Jackson Racing, Baldwin, and Mazda air filters on a Miata

[retepsnikrep]

The swearing post has been removed and so have the follow ups, as without the offensive original post they make no sense. Peter

Edit Viper login Banned

[firsthonda]

Seriously, why don't you find another site to troll?

[kjanracing]

Congratulations, a completely sentence. You left the apostrophe out of the " you are" contraction. At least you used the correct heteronym.