I found out by chance that the twin K & N filters on my normally aspirated XFire actually do NOTHING...
I was looking for an induction leak - re a previous post here...
And, with the engine running I removed the Ram-Tubes air intake tubes to the engine cover/filter housing and put the palms of my hands over the intakes....
Nothing happened, the engine kept running smoothly...
.
So, removed the whole cover and put my palm over the main intake choke - engine stopped instantly
.
This told me the engine cover was leaking air badly and the filters are probably of no use....
Today I stripped the filters from the housing and noticed that the filter covers that screw to the main cover are bowed / miss-shapen.... and air was wizzing past the filters, and the filters only stoped leaves, all the other crud went straight into the engine.... oh joy....
So..... with some Black gutter sealant and a squirty gun applicator,
I put a narrow bead around both halves of the mating surfaces each side of the filter mating surfaces... (not the filters),
allowed to partially cure so the sealant isnt so sloppy for 40 minutes, and then re-assembled....
Fitted to car.... started engine and ..... fingers over intake tubes.... and the air-flow made lovely farty noises thru my fingers as the engine sucked air...
The sealant will peal away and seperate when it's time to clean the filters again in a few months.
A success....
So, the moral of this one is...... see if your filters are actually doing any filtering......
Grant B
