air filter query

Right. Done my forum intros, now for my first question!

Sorted my shrieking belt this morning by making an entirely random tension adjustment. Seemed to do the job. Whilst down there I thought I'd give the air filter a quick visual inspection. A few seconds later I had successfully sheared two of the air box bolts which seemed to be made of some sort of rusty cheese.

So my query is... should I just drill out the stumps, stick a normal filter in and get some new bolts? Or...

Is it worth losing the air box and fitting a universal conical (k&n style) filter instead. I've seen a few comments suggesting this is a worthwhile mod although couldn't see much mention of it on this site. Your thoughts would be welcome. Pros, cons or otherwise. And just how much extra noise would I be looking at?

Also, if I did make the change, would it be better to leave some of the air box base in place for protection?

Picture from an old post of one such installation:

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v601/oOo_Dee_oOo/DSC02073.jpg

I can recommend a K&N filter. The performance is improved and the sound is way better. You don't need to replace it every service, just cleaning and reoiling.


If you want better performance, you should make a box around the cone. This will prevent the hot engine air from coming in.

Thanks. I can't get that you tube thing to play but never mind. Re a box around the cone - can you explain a bit more?

I wondered about leaving the base of the airbox in place, effectively having the new filter sitting in an empty, open topped box (might be a intake hole at the base to be blanked off I think?).

Would a proper box around the filter not reduce the free flow of air into the filter? I vaguely thought that once on the move the air temp would be reasonably cool anyway. All my comments are based on complete ignorance, I should add!

I'm not really too fussed about performance, my hijet is what it is and that's not a speed machine(!], but if there is no real downside then...

Ram air anyone? *grin*

sputnik wrote:but if there is no real downside then...

Noisey.

Prone to water ingress when driving through puddles and flooding.

Ram air - now you are talking!

Hm, I cope with a bit more noise as long as it isn't too extreme. I've already got a motorbike with an exhaust that sounds like the gates of hell bursting open but I do quite like my neighbours!

The water ingress is of more concern which is partly why I wondered about having some sort of base panel to keep the worst if it out.

Out of interest, I havent spent any time looking but i only spotted one bolt attaching the airbox to the bodywork. Are there more bolts underneath or is it clipped in place?

Take what HJ said VERY SERIOUSLY. It only takes a tiny amount of water to get drawn into one of the cylinders and you have INSTANT HYDRAULIC LOCK. Voila !! bent Conrods, bent Crank ,wrecked engine.
Take it from me --someone who totally wrecked a Bedford KM Lorry engine driving through a Ford ( and for Logis benefit thats the WATER type Ford-- not the one with four or more wheels )

Aargh! now I'm panicked. I can safely say I would prefer to avoid a complete engine seizure.

But i guess that brings me back to wondering whether i could leave the entire original airbox base (but not the lid) in place with a conical filter just sitting inside? I could even add a small protective 'umbrella' strip to prevent direct water access/drippage from above.

But would this degree of housing negate the potential benefits of the filter (assuming it would even fit in the first place)? I don't immediately see why this might not offer the best of both worlds but confess I know little about the airflow requirements and, of course, if it is that easy I suspect there may be a reason nobody else has done it...

there are no real benefits to a "open air filter" 9 out of 10 cars just suck in warm engineair.
and actualy decrease your amount of hp..

and in the one car it actualy increases your hp , your talking about 5 hp or so..
do you realy think you can tell a difference off 5hp

i have got a "Green" sport filter because i like the sound.
have had one on almost every car i owned.
i fitted it just like bushwacker did.

There is NOTHING NICER than the sound of the induction roar of a pair of Weber DCOE 45's on a highly tuned Lotus or Cosworth engine to put Butterflies in your tummy -- other than the sound of a tuned E Type or D type Jaguar on Triple DCOE 48's . Its just Sound Poetry.

Agree with you on that Sir Woody .

Thank you Oldie.
Going to see Talon on the 4th.
Also my son has been asked to be the Closing act at the Island HUGE VeeDub festival with his band Wight Floyd and the other band he also formed two years ago Riff-Raff he will be playing in on the Thursday night.
Wight Floyd went down a storm at this years festival and was asked that night to close next year but was just asked for Riff-Riff-Raff to perform next year too. The local County Press review heading was " Riff-Raff welcome here".

i would say the filter is located high enough not to worry about hydrolocking. Obviously you would still need to be aware of the risk but unless you are going into deep water i think you'd be ok to be honest.

I do the back roads daily, and take for example tonight - its been pissing it down all day so I'm hitting great big pools of 6 inch standing water. They make my fanbelt squeal, my lights go really dim and the water hits the under side of the seat covers. All production cars have air boxes for good reason. I had a cone filter on my last one for a couple of months, it did seem to make it have more top end power, but less low end torque. It was also noisy as hell being 6 inches under your bum every time you use the throttle.

Yeah if you are driving roads like that perhaps not a good idea.

Did you mean 6 inches deep? That's quite a lot.

In places yes - these are the great B roads of the cheshire plains! Out in the country with no drainage and slight banks in places. Big pools form on certain spots.

You mean...no toilets?????