K&N Universal Intake

[mikeromeoooo]

Will this fit on the Kizashi? http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0018J ... d_i=507846 Sorry if its a dumb question, just looking for alternatives to the RRM Intake

[Moto]

Maybe but I would expect zero gain in performance.

[mikeromeoooo]

Gotcha, is there something else out there thats more affordable?

[murcod]

Hi, what are you wanting to achieve?

You'll most likely get something that sounds faster, but may actually lose power.

[Woodie]

Gotcha, is there something else out there thats more affordable?

K&N drop in filter is $49.

[murcod]

Even the drop in filters are of dubious value (in my experience) unless you only want to save money on filters. Power wise, it's unlikely you'll won't notice anything. The money saving might also be at the expense of filtration quality and could void your engine warranty.

(I've used multiple K&N pod and drop in replacements over the last 20 years. I've also used Green Filters which are a lot better quality and construction than K&N.)

[KuroNekko]

Even the drop in filters are of dubious value (in my experience) unless you only want to save money on filters. Power wise, it's unlikely you'll won't notice anything. The money saving might also be at the expense of filtration quality and could void your engine warranty.

(I've used multiple K&N pod and drop in replacements over the last 20 years. I've also used Green Filters which are a lot better quality and construction than K&N.)

I too have used K&N filters in the past and now rather not. I had both a drop-in panel filter and a cone filter as part of a SRI on my former Impreza.
I agree with Murcod that a drop-in panel filter barely makes a difference in performance. Even if it did statistically, it would be so minimal that you would not notice a difference. K&N filters are re-usable, but require washing, drying, and re-oiling which is far more of a hassle than buying a new filter. I also agree that K&Ns have inferior particle filtration compared to normal filters given they use oil-saturated cloth media. The gaps for particles to pass through are far larger than standard air filters. The trade-off is better airflow.

Cone-type filters on SRIs and CAIs will definitely have a more noticeable performance effect. However, they add more noise than power, IMO. The throttle will sound throatier with a cone filter. I believe that this is why OEMs don't like cone-type filters. OEMs want to make their engines as quiet as possible and take measures for air intake noise insulation. SRIs and CAIs basically do the opposite.
While the panel K&N filter made no difference in performance, the cone filter on my SRI set-up did. It helped the engine rev faster, but did not seem to actually add any additional power. The most noticeable difference was the intake noise it added.

I also want to add that K&N filters were originally designed to be used by off-roaders on dirt bikes, 4x4s, and the like. The design was to allow filters to breathe better even when saturated by dirt from dirt roads. K&N is from the Inland Empire of Southern California (where I used to live) where the offroad dirt bike, 4x4, bro-truck scene is quite big. The company was started up for these applications on dirt roads, trails, and sand dunes. They were not really initially intended for road vehicles so they weren't designed for optimal particle filtration when applied to street cars that don't have to worry about constant dirt in the air from dirt roads.

[murcod]

I just remembered an air filter test I uploaded to the internet years ago http://users.on.net/~murcod/Air%20Filte ... %20Out.pdf it's just a pity they didn't throw an OEM paper filter in there to show the particle difference.

[KuroNekko]

I just remembered an air filter test I uploaded to the internet years ago http://users.on.net/~murcod/Air%20Filte ... %20Out.pdf it's just a pity they didn't throw an OEM paper filter in there to show the particle difference.

Quite an interesting test. Good to know that foam filters in general suck at filtering.
Looks like the K&N was a good balance between filtering and airflow, however I have my doubts any of these filters beat a standard filter in filtration. My guess is that a standard filter would have the highest filtration but the lowest air flow rate.

[Ronzuki]

The money saving might also be at the expense of filtration quality and could void your engine warranty.

No 'might' about the 'at expense of filtration quality'. It's a fact. Been there done that before. Anything smaller then dead gnats will be sucked in to the engine until the filter starts clogging up w/ the K&N oil absorbing what dust and dirt it can. At that point, you might as well have a paper filter anyway.