Which is better? An aftermarket cone K&N Air Filter or the HKS SuperMegaFlow air intake? I'm driving my self simply cwazy & batty thinkin this out thoroughly... Both are real good, both kick @$$, but which has proven itself time after time? Please post which intake you have had, have, would like to have, and aw heck, just good ol intake comments!! LOL

 

http://www.mkiv.com/techarticles/filters_test/2/

 

from wat i understand....

The HKS super mega flow intake systems use a foam material in their filter. This foam material allows more free flowing air but has been known to deteriorate over time, leaving ppl with chunks of foam in their engine. The K&N filters use a oil cotton fibre material in their filter. This material filters overall better than a foam one but lets slightly less air thru the filter. I guess its ur choice if ud rather have more air flow, or a more reliable yet still a very high amount of air flow...

i could be wrong but i think im rite lol

keep in mind that a K&N filter is like half the price of an HKS kit... and in my opinion it is much better.
The link above actually proves it.

 

150$ for a chunk of foam and a few stainless steel clamps and an aluminum adapter? **** that. A K&N is like 25$.

 

more like 46.00 for a real one

 

you can get the HKS for like 60-70 new, look on ebay and the for sale section on the forum

 

I don't put much credence in the above article. It was not performed in accordance with SAE standards, and from what I understand, the authors were Apexi vendors.

I have had experience with both products, and I like the K&N filters much better. The HKS intake is good for those who like bolt-on kits, it has provisions for the air pump, and it looks good for show-car value, but the element gets dirty pretty fast and it’s not reusable. K&N filters don’t look as good, but they last 10 years or 1,000,000 miles with 50,000 mile cleaning/oiling intervals. K&N also makes a drop-in replacement filter for the 2Gen RX-7. K&N filters have been used by many different types of racing teams for decades.

 

Anybody have any experience with the Bonez intakes (modeled after the K&N it looks like)?

 

I'd rather have reliability.

 

personally i would never use a foam intake. i took apart a motor that had use a HKS foam intake and its the worst rotor and housing i have ever seen in my life. it is just terrible.

 

I went to the local import performance shop (this place does not sell low quality ricer stuff), and they had a K&N clone for $22. I used it on the TII and it flows great and looks great. Why pay so much money for some foam and wire mesh!? Just get a good off-brand and save some money.

-Joe

 

i did the same thing, ive had the knock off k&n for 4 years now and its held up great, though i do have to clean it every 5k to 10k miles but thats prolly just me seeing a semi dirty air filter and cleaning it

 

What about the all stainless steel Blitz one? It's filter element never needs to be replaced. Anyone have experience or knowledge of it?

 

Maybe i should start fabbing airfilters! For the amount you guys pay for one i could become rich! Whats 2-3 HP anyways?

 

I'm using a Blitz clone/look alike. I don't see a problem with it. Sounds pretty good too. The only problem I have with my Blitz clone vs. the real Blitz stuff is that the "metal" end pieces on mine are plastic. Stupid eBay crap. Oh well, at $3 apiece, I can't complain.

 

2-3? Its much more than that...specially on a turbo car.

-Joe

 

Dude, it's just foam. Very little bits of foam. I know the HKS filter elements will shed bits of foam if you keep them too long (I had one), and I know this is not going to do anything for filtration, but I find it very hard to believe that bits of foam are going to have any impact on hardened steel surfaces. If the filter in the engine you describe had anything to do with the damage you saw, it was due to lack of filtration, not ingested bits of foam.

 

It's really more of a geometric gain based on the airflow rate as opposed to a simple arithmetic gain. Therefore, higher-horsepower engines require air filters of higher capacity. Basically, you just want the filter to have enough surface area and flow characteristics to handle the flow requirements of the engine. Anything larger than that, and you will not see any performance gain at all vs. the correctly-sized filter. It's almost like a radiator, in that it either works or it doesn't, and anything past the required level of performacne does not yield any better results.

Well-designed filters like the K&N's have actually shown a performance gain over no filter at all.

IMO there is no point in getting an off-brand since the K&N filter is good for 10 years. Depending on the design, a K&N cone filter costs about $30-50, and the cleaning/oiling kit is about $10, so that's $40-60 for 10 years, which works out to only $4-6 per year. At that price, anybody can afford the best.

 

There are gains with each, and this has been explained a thousand times before I was born.

A foam filter is more of a "depth" filter. Made to a useful depth, it's superior in trapping fine contaminants, but one needs huge elements to reduce service intervals for washing.

Look through a screen+gauze type filter at sun or lamp, and see the gaps of light shining straight through fiber. Filters like K&N breathe very well, but allow a lot of crap through.

Choices.

 

Actually, you have it backwards...foam filters like the HKS piece flow very nicely but filter like crap. After 10K the filters are usually so nasty that you may even have idle/spool issues from it being so dirty. K&N's and the like filter much more efficiently and how they flow depends on their size/design.

 

Please avoid confusing folks.

The foam filters do clog, yes, and sooner than the breezy screen+gauze types. Quality compared with quality, premium gauze filters let fine grit throught that premium foam filters will trap. To have service intervals with foam approaching that of of gauze, increase element size.

No magic.