FWD> K&N Filters Concern (fwd)

["Barton P. Chambers" <bchambers@atlantic.nos.noaa.gov>]

<ahem, cough, cough>  The following additional datum point is from the P-philes
listmeister himself, a long time racer (runs Ghost Racing, has built and
fielded IMSA cars, etc.)  His points might bear consideration...

Bart
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From: stan@tta.com (Stan Hanks)
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 1995 11:09:36 -0600 (CST)
To: SJJE@chevron.com (Jessen Scott -)
Cc: darling@simlab.arc.nasa.gov, porschephiles@tta.com
Subject: Re: FWD> K&N Filters Concern

> This note, which was forwarded to me days ago by a friend, is pretty much
> why I stopped reading rec.autos.tech.  Too many kids with nothing better to
> do that make shit up and see if anybody figures it out. Suurre, oil
> impregnated filters pass more dirt, uh huh. That's why every dirt racer just
> about in existence runs one of these or a K&N style -- they LIKE to put dirt
> thru their motors]  They can win major offroad events this way.  Yeah,
> right...  Send me accredited test results and not made up no-name bullshit
> and I'll listen....

Actually, Scott exposes a very good point here, one that I keep trying to make
every chance I get: just because something is good for racing does not mean
that it's even *USEFUL* for the street.... What you can tolerate in a full
race engine is very different that you want in a street engine. Why? Because
you're going to be tearing that engine down and rebuilding it with pretty
good frequency. At least once a season. Maybe more like every race if you're
talking IMSA or one of the serious pro series. That's just what you do.

So only getting say 10k miles of engine life due to a crappy air filter
is *NO BIG DEAL*... Here's the math: 10,000 miles at an average 100 MPH
is 100 hours of operation which is 3 to 5 times longer than the engine
lives *ANYWAY*!!!! So just because you use K&N on racing engines doesn't
mean *ANYTHING* about how good they are for the street!!!!! On the
other hand, a filter that keeps your engine *PERFECT* (yeah, right) for
100k miles is going to be *WORTHLESS* on a race car, because you will 
be losing some flow efficiency, and you can't afford that. Period.

>  -Scott Jessen -- and why, yes, I have raced a fair bit off road now that you
> ask...  Oh, and I run K&N on my tow vehicle and ITG dual-density oiled foam
> filters on the 911...

Yeah, I run the K&Ns on my race car too, and *HIGHLY* recommend the ITG filters
for carb applications when racing...

Street, that's another can of beans entirely... Factory air and oil filters
ONLY (but would highly consider the Canton/Meca oil filter for street use).

Stan
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