Oak

Curious will it pass visual Ca smog. I've heard conflicting stories. K&N site claims the drop In filters that fit into stock air box are legal. Anyone have real life experiences of being "dinged".

"02996ttx50

I've passed before with the bmc ( similar ) and although it's red ( instead of the mahle "tan" paper filter ) no issues at all. since they are both flat panel filters, and mostly obscured by the airbox i'd say you can safely go to get tested without being overly concerned. the smog tester guys are not particularly savvy, or even care, beyond failing people for *obvious* violations which if they did not? would get them in trouble with carb.

they are mostly looking for "cats" and glaringly obvious aftermarket parts ( like red forge intake hoses etc..) or parts that otherwise would ( or should ) have "carb" numbers.

you'll be fine.

Kevinmacd

Be careful with the oiling of the filter, it will take out your MAF! To be honest this has been discussed many times before on this board, and no one seems to think you get any benefit, since the stock has pretty good flow.

Ridin Dirty

my worthless $.02

-i am not a fan of k&n

BUT

i think the trouble comes from over oiling.....too subjective.....too ez to screw up and if you do screw it up you will affect the MAF. if all the stars are aligned perfectly i think they MAY be superior to paper but not worth the cost and the PITA.

my accidental scientific experiment:

my wrench installed a k&n w/o my approval. eh idc he's pretty good and fair otherwise. so i've been stuck with this thing for years now. wash it, dry it, oil it with fingers crossed. So i was doing this ritual but in frozen February so i couldn't leave it in the sun to dry. But since i'm neurotic about my cars of course my garage is air conditioned ....but just just ghetto air conditioned-like with two of those r2d2 looking type a/c portable units that vent through a window. so i stuck it on the inlet panel of the ac (this will pull air through the filter and dry it in no time w/o heat).

so i had a paper filter that i bought before my wrench put this k&n on and i thought hey ive got a flow test here. so after k&n dry, i oiled it but then stuck it back on the r2d2 ac thing then put a piece of regular 8x11 copy paper over the filter....results: copy paper stuck to the k&n...copy paper fell off the paper filter. it wasn't a big difference but interesting....i still wouldn't buy one on my own even after this too many variables (did i under oil? what happens after some dirt on there, etc..) but very interesting.

jeanmarcboilard

How much extra dirt and dust is also allowed through that K&N filter if it can keep a piece of paper stuck to it.