The size of a cold air intake filter has a direct impact on performance. The larger the filter, the more air can flow through it, allowing the engine to breathe better and produce more power. When performing routine maintenance on your vehicle, it's important to consider the air filter. For your car to work well, something as small as the air filter can cause an impact.
They should be changed annually, whether they look dirty or not. When the air filter is clogged, the vehicle suffocates, in a sense. It is very similar to a vacuum cleaner, when you notice a decrease in power; a dirty filter can be the cause because air is literally being pushed through the price of your vehicle's energy. The simple solution is to buy a new air filter every year, but there are other options. High-flow air filters, sometimes called high-performance air filters, can be installed to extract air from the outside of the car instead of the warm air used inside the engine compartment.
Paper filters are often very efficient at trapping dirt for that reason, but paper filters have two major challenges. But more importantly, those filters were used to straighten and diffuse air before it entered the carburettors. That's where the engine air filter comes into play, as it's designed to trap harmful contaminants and at the same time let a clean air flow into the engine. Whether you want to increase your horsepower, fuel efficiency, or simply reduce the hassle of changing your air filter regularly, a high flow filter may be a good choice. One of the benefits of a high flow air filter is that unlike normal air filters, it doesn't need to be replaced every year. The tests of K&N have shown that for most two-barrel and four-barrel carburettors, the air flow is greater when the diameter of the air filter is large compared to the height.
While a paper filter needs to be replaced frequently, a K&N filter can be cleaned and reused over and over again, functioning practically like new for the life of your vehicle. One problem that has been observed is that, due to increased air intake, high-performance filters can expose the engine to more debris and contaminants. Disposable paper filters have thousands of tiny pores, or airways, that are excellent for trapping particles the same size or larger than their pores. For a K&N element, you can use the diameter of the air filter to help determine the area sufficient for the required airflow. The only exception to the K&N rule is when a filter element is attached to a long runner, such as in the cold air intakes of EFI engines.
The most important function of the air filter is to protect the engine from dirt and debris, and most filters do that function quite well. Secondly, once the filter pores are clogged, air no longer flows as freely into the engine, and less air means less power and acceleration.
