12:55 for the answer

Did you try slapping on the k&n sticker on the car? +15 hp i heard.

I always run K&N not so much for performance, but the fact you can wash them and reuse them over and over.

It would be good to see the difference in filtration effectiveness. Living in the driest state on the driest continent, dust ingress has damaged 5 engines in my 48 years of driving. Filtration performance is therefore more important than a tiny performance benefit. A dry paper filter is best because Brownian Motion results in capture of tiny particles by entrapment in the dry fibres. Wet filters do not capture the smallest particles in the same way, resulting in less effective filtration. How about a comparison?

I cannot wait to see the results! I have been planning to do something similar but my problem was the sample size. Maybe now since you did it, n=2 so it's more results and we can get even better data! Nice work on the video!

Finally! Scientific proof that my Hyundai Accent with a parts store air filter is a sleeper! Thanks for the confirmation Jason!

After years with a reusable, washable Filter I noticed how actually bad my Engine ran over time. At the beginning it was nice and had good performance, I changed back to a paper filter from a good brand. My observation was that no matter how good the filter was oild, cleaned, washed, whatever, it let through bigger particles and introduced more wear to my engine. I ditched it, the benefits did in no way outweigh the disadvantages. Wouldn't buy again, just keep your stock filter in good condition and change it once in a while.

as a tech anytime a clogged up mass airflow came in and obviously failed it had a k&n. they’re like having no filter. I believe engine masters did a great filter dyno test…I wouldn’t use k&n even on a yrack car but thats just me

The reason why the dirty filter made a slight improvement over the clean filter is because the souls of the dead bugs have become trapped in the old filter and those trapped souls translate into greater power!

This is how KZfaq videos should be. Thorough and thoughtful an complete and I don't know how to express my admiration for quality. Thank you.

Something people don't think about when comparing power numbers: better horses can translate as better MPG as well.

Using K/N performance filters will increase the OUA levels in your engine (silicon levels AKA dirt) It will cause your engine to not last as long especially if you have a high pressure engine with forced induction It also increases the pressure in your crank case, this is a problem for direct injection engines as you’ll be spraying more dirty oil onto your intake valves which don’t get cleaned by gasoline being a GDI, make sure if you use this to run a oil catch can Always run OEM filters the engineers spent weeks designing it to be optimal between performance and reliability.

K&N is how I caught a mechanic lying about changing my air filter and charging me $17.00 for it. Got a vehicle inspection, and it clearly says on the air box "DO NOT REMOVE K&N FILTER". He wrote on the bill "changed air filter". When I opened the air box the K&N was still there. I trust mechanics about as far as I can throw them.

But don't you get a sticker with the K&N? If you didn't put the sticker on you are missing out on an extra 5hp gain

Dude I love the actual real life and dyno testing, way better then the other videos. You got your self a sub today sir

I used K&N years with no problems. Oiled it every 50k miles or so. Read comments about dirt in the intake after the K&N. Wiped mine with my finger and it was perfectly clean. I bought a few paper filters but am thinking about going back to the K&N when those are used up.

I would have liked to see a NO FILTER test (at least on the dyno) to see how much restriction there is with an air filter.

Wow that's alot effort to prove that point. You definitely deserve a sub

That ain't dirty, that's gently used.

Whether the K&N filter will help, and how much it can help, depends on the vehicle. The part that isn't a variable is how well they filter. I've never seen a dirty intake tract with a stock or stock replacement filter and have never seen a clean one with a K&N.

Ordered a high-performance filter and a turbo kit showed up... weird.

"it does says PREMIUM!" lol

Excellent video, good data and you explained it quickly and clearly. I see so many people on KZfaq downplaying k&n saying that they don't do anything except make your truck sound differently. I noticed a huge difference in towing capabilities when I put one in my 2012 Jeep Sahara It went from chickenshit slow difficulty pulling a heavy trailer to being able to pull a trailer and it was a 2 to 3 mi per gallon increase with the fuel that was my main reason for installing the k&n system to get more miles per gallon and it worked.

I put a K&N filter in my 4 cyl truck about 12 years ago and noticed quite a difference in performance, but the filter I replaced was really dirty. Great product imhop.

Useful, unbiased information .. what a concept. Thanks EE!

The best youtuber out there, i remember 2 years ago, in my automobile mechanic school, on of my teacher showed one of your videos as a demo...from montreal canada

Yes, they work. I have had a full K&N intake and filter system in my Jeep Grand Cherokee for well over a year now. I document my gas milage and usage for work daily. I not only get better gas MPG, I get a noticable increase in passing accel and HP.

The beauty of the K&N is that it'll pay for itself. I've been running one in my F-150 for 17 years and it works just fine. The trick is to oil it LIGHTLY on the intake side only. The mass inflow sensor never gets dirty. If I'm going to be driving on a dusty road for awhile I'll swap it with an OEM paper filter. I take great care of my truck and I think the K&N is a great value.

The effort and quality you put into your videos is amazing. Subscribed. Hope you get to 2M very soon

Wow, I did not expect such clear and logical results. I thought any gains would be too small to see above the noise in the data.

Good stuff! Another variation of this test that I would be curious to see, is to measure the actual filtration capabilities of the filters. Some thing that could measure particle sizes that pass through, so that we can see the trade-off of power/ dirt that gets into the engine.

The carquest filter, though less expensive, has many more pleats affectively increasing the filter surface area which allows for the increased air flow. Stick with the cheap dry filter. K&Ns are easy to over saturate with oil which can cause mass air flow sensor damage.

I would love to see this same comparison on a K&N replacement filter vs a whole K&N cold air intake system.

PLEASE Also do a comparison of the particles each filter catches/allows through. I think it would be an important part to review as well.

Great informative video! There's a big missing piece though when it comes to long term effects of less filtration on the engine. The internet is full of people with opinions on this, but finding hard data is frustratingly difficult.

Thank you for sharing your testing methods and results. Purchased a K&N filter today and after a few minutes of driving, I could tell a marked difference in the responsiveness of my 2021 Forester, a CUV not known for sprightly driving characteristics. Hopefully this is not all in my head.

Jason. I used to design and build clean rooms. If you want actual filtration data very willing to work with you on this! It’s quite easy to use validated equipment I have on a test rig to help you answer that question.

It would have been nice to see dyno numbers for no filter scenario (open pipe) to see how much of a restriction the filters introduce. Maybe something for a future video.

THANK YOU for being thorough!! I really REALLY like the comparisons, you know, the numbers.

It is pretty well-known that while K&N filters flow more air, they also flow more dirt. So, it comes down to how you weigh longevity vs. performance.

*Suddenly car quest sales go through the roof.

Shoulve done no filter

Always enjoy your well put together informative and clean videos. Thanks a bunch and God bless you.

It would be interesting to see filters for increasing engine life compared, as air intake contributes dirt to engine and oil. Especially for us rural folk that drive on dirt a lot. I've been interested in the Donaldson blue .

Can you try this on the Nissan Leaf just for good measure?

You'll notice K&N says "designed to" and they carefully avoid the actual claim of increasing anything. They confirmed that with me on the phone, they wouldn't guarantee any gain. A performance filter may also pass larger grit particles, wearing pistons and rings and contaminating oil. Remember the auto maker spends lots of money trying to make the highest power (EPA MPG) without causing that unacceptable engine wear.

the K&N also is washable. I gained about 10bhp from swapping to K&N in my audi A5 3.0 tdi, could probably gain more if I modded it by doing the case removal. I have washed it 2 times since I bought it and honestly, it already paid itself compared to having it changed. (albeit audi service actually does it for a flat rate included in their oil filter/oil service)

Very cool video. 2.5% isn't much, but cool to see that performance filters do have some improvement on performance. It is still a larger factor of improvement than some very expensive modifications.

I added a turbo in my Tesla, now I have to figure out the fuel part

I would say the reason for the Carquest "premium" filter's performance is the higher number of pleats and greater surface area of the filter material compared to OEM.(Can't say anything else without knowing the types and thickness of the materials)

I like your usage and understanding of the idea of percentage of change, vs raw numbers. I have used that thought process when tuning various engines. I've used a virtually identical process to street tune vehicles as you did to compare filters.

Very good video. Did you ever do the follow up video removing the charcoal filter? I think I would have bought one from a junk yard just to avoid any warranty issues. My guess is that your numbers would get better, both on the dyno and on the road. One thing I noticed when I installed my K&N air filter that after driving it for a week I saw another slight improvement once the computer adjusted to the increased air flow. Ron

Such cool work you did in this video - thumbs up and a big THANK YOU !!! :)

I have used K&N for years. Twice a year I pull it, clean it and re-oil it. Acceleration and MPG has always been better with the K&N. Many nay sayers will disagree but I am satisfied that the initial investment was worth it.

Installed my KN filter today. Haven't tried it out yet but as long as I get better mpg I'll be satisfied

I bought a K&N filter not because I cared about more power, but mainly because I thought it would save in the long run since it's washable and reusable. Now I have some second thoughts if it doesn't filter out contaminants as well as regular filters as I tend to keep my cars a long time. But no problems to report so far after 190,000km.

You should do one on the K&N filter vs the K&N cold air intek

The souls of the dead bugs were giving the car extra boost!

But… how well does the filter actually filter the air that goes into the engine? Isn’t that it’s actual job? I don’t care about a filter that increases power but will suck in anything smaller than a bird…..

My first thought would be that having more pleats with the Car Quest filter means more surface area to pull air through, making it more efficient. Likewise the K&N filter has a lot of pleats, but also a less dense filter material makes it easier for air to pass through. This material may also make it easier for small particles of dirt to pass through...

This is probably by far the best comparison video with OEM vs performance drop in filter. Great review man thank you!!!

If you could do a run without a filter that would be great!

Downside of performance filters on cars equipped with a MAF: It dirtied the maf, recommended to clean it at least yearly

I’m only 1:40 into the video and had to comment. My last truck with a V8 and 12 years old had a K&N air filter in as soon as I broke the engine in. I had a friend who had a speed shop with a dyno and we ran it with the stock filter and the K&N. I don’t remember the exact numbers but I got a 19 horsepower increase and a 24 ft pound increase in torque. Not a lot on the dyno but on the road you noticed the difference. Especially when towing. In twelve years I only cleaned it once and it didn’t really need it then, but it was extremely low mileage when I sold it. Ron

Not to mention that the K&N is also washable and reusable 👍

Been looking for one of these videos recently, none that explained it well and this one popped up in my sub box! Love it!

Really interesting and well done. Interesting how many comments and forums on other videos say that swapping filters makes no difference. Good job.

Why not do a Dyno with NO filter just to show the restriction a filter put on a motor???

ProjectFarm did a video on filters as well the less restrictive don’t filter as good and allow in dirt, the K and N was the least restrictive but allowed a lot more dirt

Great video, very interesting. I've been rallying for years. I've had all the K &N stuff, it blocks quickly, and will soon starve the engine of its breathing. Stock filters work best, easy to clean, easy to replace, and cheap. Unless you want a good look under the hood ( Bonnet) stick with stock stuff. If you want an extra 5 to 10 HP free, wiring your Alternator with a switch so you can turn it off ( World rally cross cars run with no alternator just a newly charged battery) will give you that. We have it on the rally car, and turn it off in the stage, turn it on for road sections.

This was a very informative video! Great work! Like some of your other viewers, I'd used K&N because they are reusable. Clean them up & re oil them & they last forever! Glad to know that they ACTUALLY do give you a little more bang for your buck! Thanks!👍

I have had K&N filters in my vehicles for years. I want the engine breathe easily. I also put new exhaust systems on and adding an inch in diameter. These two modifications help quite a bit. I saw a 4mpg increase in our pickup by adding the K&N and going to a larger exhaust.

K&N FTW! Even on my wife's non-performance cars, I always drop a K&N air filter and a tuner sticker for that extra 5hp, yo!

The best and most affordable modification for your car is maintainence

I have used K&N for over 15 years. Never had an "engine wear issue". I do notice better throttle response & and, as indicated, a slightly better running engine. Whether it's worth the $$$ is up to you. Anyone who's leasing, save your money.... (Note, do not expect an MPG increase, you may, or you may not- that's a crap shoot, but less air restriction & good plugs do generally help)

Just watched. Very informative. Thank you for this. Very nice explanations from the shop to the road.

What a well done video! I appreciate all the time and effort into this video!

Oh yeah time to get a K&N filter for my Chevy Spark😂

I bought a used jeep with a K&N. I went to service the K&N, removing it to clean and oil it. Once I got it out in the sunlight, I realized I could see right through it. The metal mesh was there and in the shade of the engine compartment it looked just fine.

We noticed an interesting effect when we were playing with a car on the rolling road several years ago. We were trying out minor jetting changes and saw some improvements on the second run. The first run had been as the car had arrived with us to set a datum point. However, it was only after this that the operator confessed that he had gone to the toilet after the first run and had then completely forgotten to make the jetting changes for the second run. A few tests with different cars showed that this was a common effect i.e. power run followed by short break followed by second power run usually saw marginally better figures despite no changes being made. We tentatively put this down to the internals of the engine now being fully up to temperature, but the air in the test cell having cooled down somewhat and therefore being denser. After this, whenever practical we would finish testing and then revert the vehicle back to its "as arrived" status for a final run to check if we had a real improvement. For more complex jobs this was obviously not practicable but we would generally see a 2-3bhp improvement when we did it.

So the high flow sports filter how much worse are they at filtering? And how much will that shorten the life of your engine by?

Love watching your vids, it's great seeing the actual science behind the tests

Couldn’t ask for a better real world comparison video . Good job

Just watched yr vid,really good,.I have a 4x4 ,it's said it's ok to put a performance filter in ,while normal city driving...BUT not on dirt track,off road..as they do let more air in for performance,but do not filter as well...as more air is allowed through...cheers.😊

Incredible video testing air filters! Kudos to the amount of effort you took to prove your point!

Finally some proof for the K&N “go to filter” we all have spent money on. Lol Great comparison. 👍🏼🇨🇦

I have used K&N on all my cars that I plan on having over 5yrs. Nearly 21yrs ago i started a temp job at an Oreillys and got one. I did short air intakes and all the usual stuff kids do. One car i got a different brand and it was a cone Spectre i think. It was reusable, but after a few years, one day, my throttle gets stuck open. I found a part that came off inside the filter and lodged in the intake valve. I reached out to the brand and found out K&N had just bought them out. So i called K&N and they apologized and asked me to send it to them so they could redesign it I guess. Anyways, they sent me back a K&N box and filter kit for my car worth way more than what I had sent them. Since then, i have used them. The fact that they are re-usable saves you money. Now they do not pay me (But I wish they did😂) to push their product so im just giving my experience. I did notice they do have smaller filter ridges and a metal screen which seems to stop heavier elements from breaking through. It may be that they dont filter as well but i have not seen that as a problem yet. Now my thought on why the dirty filter did better than the clean OEM? Perhaps as the suction from the intake over time pulls at the element it losens it up allowing more airflow. The new element was tight and packed. The old one was broken in. As of now my 2017 F-Type v6 has two K&N filters but behind those is the same unservicable permanent filter behind that. Im sure if it was cut out, it would increase performance but also let in more garbage. Great video as always.

I've seen filtration efficacy tests of K&N vs paper air filters and what I would say is that Jason's guess as to why the K&N filter might be flowing more air is true. If filtration efficacy and engine protection are of paramount importance to you you would do well to research the topic carefully and not just look at airflow restriction tests. Another point to consider if you do chose to use the K&N air filter is to be careful not to over oil the filter medium, as excess oil might get sucked out of the filter and end up coating the MAF sensor downstream of the filter and cause erroneous airflow calculations in the ECU.

Being in air quality most of my life it is my experience that with a given size of a filter and I’m talking square inches a filter area.... of these 4 tested filters. The one with the best airflow will be the worst in particle filtering

Just put a pipercross panel filter in place of an oem paper filter on my 1.9 tdi seat ibiza FR and its actually made a massive difference car feels more free and low down torque has impoved. Used to have an S2000 filter but the panel filter is better than both the 90mm cone filter and oem filter.

I have ran K&N filters for over 10 years. They are reusable, have a million mile warranty, and obvious a great buy. Having a reusable air filter saves alot of money over time for sure.

What do you estimate the HP and Torque gains from a performance cabin air filter?? HA!!

Again I have to say, Quality content with Logical and measurable Data.

Nice useful review, it remains to compare the filtering efficiency over stock vs high performance air filters!! It is not a big asset to get more air flow with markedly redused filtering efficiency!! 💪🏻👍🏻

I got the K&N for my Lexus GX470 because I liked the idea of just being able to pull it out and clean it and slap it back in.. for someone who changes the air filter every 10K miles it’s convenient and probably saves some money in the long run

The fact the stock filter breathes just as well even when filled with detritus means it's probably a good filter.

I experienced a similar result using a stock filter vs K&N on an ‘04 Ram SRT-10. 4rwhp and 6rwtq increase with the K&N.

Unless im planning on driving a race tuned car (which I'm not) I'll stick with a stock filter as the gains as a percentage are so minimal i don't even think its worth the extra money for a k&n or other cold air intake mod, thanks for the video, you have just shown what i have suspected for a while, cheers mate 👍🏻

Thank you for the good video! Be great to see air quality on air filters now. Thanks

I gotta say! You’re video was perfect perhaps one of thee most perfect videos on KZfaq out there. 11/10 quality!