K&N Drop In feedback

[NJ RTX]

I installed a K&N high volume drop in air filter 10 days ago and wanted to give some quick feed back on it. There is a ton of controversy over after market intakes so rather than debate, I'll just give you my results.

• Increase in mpg both city and hwy. Ranges between 1 and 2 mpg. I follow this with every tank full of gas and have since the day I bought the Ridge.
• Low rpm responsiveness has increased
• mid range seems more powerful.

Now I understand that these are my perceptions, and can not back the power issues up, but the mpg is definately for real. In all conditions, whether towing or not. I have been modifying cars for years and have decent knowledge of cars.
The $50 investment was a success for me.

[RTXGuy]

Just to clarify on things, do you mean the regular K&N drop in filter they sell at every auto store? I'm in due for an oil change next week, I might as well take your word on it and get me one too. I am very conscientious when it comes to mpg. I'll let you know how my results are.

[xridgelinex]

How many miles do you have on your RL?... It takes about 10,000 miles to truley break in the motor. You may be reaching this level and are starting to see the natural gains...

[arteegee]

Originally Posted by NJ RTX

The $50 investment was a success for me.

Ten days should be plenty of time to make an assessment. Buy an oe filter and spend the change on gas.

[RTXGuy]

Originally Posted by xridgelinex

How many miles do you have on your RL?... It takes about 10,000 miles to truley break in the motor. You may be reaching this level and are starting to see the natural gains...

I have 17,400 miles. My 18k oil change is coming up. $50 doesn't sound too shabby even if its a little gain in mpg. Every little bit helps!

[Andy-Montreal]

Originally Posted by NJ RTX

Increase in mpg both city and hwy. Ranges between 1 and 2 mpg. I follow this with every tank full of gas and have since the day I bought the Ridge.
The $50 investment was a success for me.

A 1-MPG increase would be very hard to document unless your engine was fully broken in, outdoor ambient temperatures and relative humidity are identical thruout the various tests, identical fuel grade and fuel purchased at the same station each time, the exact same route and elevation is used on each and every test, wind factors, type of shoes worn (believe it or not), seat position (oh yeah...), etc...

Believe me, if it was really that easy to get more mileage, extra power and/or torque, don't you think that the Honda engineers would have considered using a free-flow air filter such as the K & N from day-1?

As I posted some time ago on this subject, we had dyno-tested a club-member's Porsche V-8 with and without the K & N. The results were a negligible 2 H.P. gain @ 5500 rpm; hardly what K & N advertised.

[NJ RTX]

Originally Posted by RTXGuy

Just to clarify on things, do you mean the regular K&N drop in filter they sell at every auto store? I'm in due for an oil change next week, I might as well take your word on it and get me one too. I am very conscientious when it comes to mpg. I'll let you know how my results are.

Yes, the K&N drop in.

Originally Posted by xridgelinex

How many miles do you have on your RL?... It takes about 10,000 miles to truly break in the motor. You may be reaching this level and are starting to see the natural gains...

Only 2K and yes it is possible. However, I've run K&N's in my last three vehicles and had similar results. Both in F/I and N/A.

Originally Posted by RTXGuy

I have 17,400 miles. My 18k oil change is coming up. $50 doesn't sound too shabby even if its a little gain in mpg. Every little bit helps!

Originally Posted by Andy-Montreal

A 1-MPG increase would be very hard to document unless your engine was fully broken in, outdoor ambient temperatures and relative humidity are identical throughout the various tests, identical fuel grade and fuel purchased at the same station each time, the exact same route and elevation is used on each and every test, wind factors, type of shoes worn (believe it or not), seat position (oh yeah...), etc...

Believe me, if it was really that easy to get more mileage, extra power and/or torque, don't you think that the Honda engineers would have considered using a free-flow air filter such as the K & N from day-1?

As I posted some time ago on this subject, we had dyno-tested a club-member's Porsche V-8 with and without the K & N. The results were a negligible 2 H.P. gain @ 5500 rpm; hardly what K & N advertised.

I kinda figured that this would turn in to a hyperbolic theorem and that was not what I was going for...take my word or not. A good indicator of a change at the MAF is the fact that it took about 5 minutes to smooth out the idle immediately after replacing the filter. It is simply a free flow filter. I've logged over 100,000 miles with them in different cars, so forget about all of the what if's...as long as you maintain them properly. I don't want to sound arrogant here, but there are just some things you know from doing it long enough.

[RTXGuy]

Heck! its okay 50 bucks I'll get one on pay day. thanks for the idea

[csimo]

Originally Posted by NJ RTX

Yes, the K&N drop in.

A good indicator of a change at the MAF is the fact that it took about 5 minutes to smooth out the idle immediately after replacing the filter.

First off the Ridgeline doesn't have a MAF sensor... it uses a MAP sensor.

Secondly, if you had enough restriction in the old filter to make a difference at idle you had serious filter problems to start with. A filter change will have the least affect at idle speed and/or roughness.

Whatever the reason for your idle to "smooth out" and your fuel economy increase the filter is not the cause. It's more likely that your local gas station switched from winter to summer blend, or you changed your driving style slightly trying to justify the filter to yourself, or a hundred other things that would be more likely and logical than a filter change.

[NJ RTX]

Originally Posted by csimo

First off the Ridgeline doesn't have a MAF sensor... it uses a MAP sensor.

Secondly, if you had enough restriction in the old filter to make a difference at idle you had serious filter problems to start with. A filter change will have the least affect at idle speed and/or roughness.

Whatever the reason for your idle to "smooth out" and your fuel economy increase the filter is not the cause. It's more likely that your local gas station switched from winter to summer blend, or you changed your driving style slightly trying to justify the filter to yourself, or a hundred other things that would be more likely and logical than a filter change.

Thanks Joe...that's the beauty of the boards. Everyone has opinions...especially on this topic. There are twenty threads about the theoretical plusses and minus' of intake modification. You can't tell me that there will be no difference in performance by intake modification. It may be positive, or it may be negative, but there will be a change. I started building cars 25 years ago. I've worked on everything from bare bones carb engines, early fuel injection, turbo charged and super charged. As neither one of us are engineers, it's safe to safe that neither one of us can decisively predict the outcome of a particular mod without any exact data. In many cases I've worked on trial and error; what made sense in theory made no sense in the application. Sometimes things work even if you don't think they will. I can say this with certainty though, I didn't change my gas...that concept is a little small minded. There was no restriction in the previous filter as it only had 2,000 miles on it. The K&N is a freer flowing filter...period. That point, even you cannot deny. If you think so, try comparing the two side by side. As far as why Honda doesn't use these types of filters? Maybe because they require more maintenance than an ordinary double paper filter and they don't want to take the chance that the common person won't maintain them properly. As far as when the idle change happened, it was when I screwed the last screw down and started her up. I let it idle for about 5 minutes and it started to smooth out. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe you are the only one on this site who knows EXACTLY how the system is engineered. At least you can admit there is an awful lot of controversy over the topic. I started off this thread by saying that certain portions of my findings were my perception and couldn't be backed up by statistical evidence. I can say however, that I've been around cars enough to know a little.

And for those of you thinking about it...the worst case scenario, is that you won't have to buy a new filter for 1 million miles. You simply wash, rinse...repeat. Oh wait, that's wash, rinse and re-oil.