K&N air filter

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Lou D

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Hi all, I have a 2006 Gen 2 that runs pretty good. I have the Vance& Hines CS One slip-ons that look good and sound great. Is there any benefit to a K&N air filter? The bike has 4000 miles and the original air filter is still clean. I average 43-46 mpg. The pipes have absolutely no carbon around the tips. Any advice? Lou D

 
K&N does not work for me. You always end up with a filthy intake track (oil residue builds up and dust accumulates). Forget about washing and re-oiling, Takes 5-6000 miles for excess re oil to equalize. The FJR intake track is spectacular. Why **** it up?

 
More problems caused in the automotive/power-sports world by K&N filter oil than by rust, ethanol and teenagers on cellphones.

Just keep a clean OEM filter in there and live happy.

 
I have ran one for fifty thousand miles and no issues.

Most of these old codgers around here believe that if a little oil is good a lot is better!

A light spray is all you need and spray from the inside as the air moves from the inside to the outside on the FJR.

 
Don't over clean it and don't over oil it and you will be very happy with a K&N, People who have had problems were over doing both, Don't and you'll be good! I've got over 50,000 on mine and my intake is a "clean as a safeway chittlin"

 
...Most of these old codgers around here believe that if a little oil is good a lot is better!

 

A light spray is all you need and spray from the inside as the air moves from the inside to the outside on the FJR.
I'm usually in that camp. For those of us who have never used one of those kind of air filters, is there a video that demonstrates the "proper " amount of oil to spray on the filter?

 

Don't over clean it and don't over oil it and you will be very happy with a K&N, People who have had problems were over doing both,...
I hear ya, now show me...

 
What's the collective forum wisdom on Uni's ?
Depends on who's wearing them.

Some are okay....

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Others, not so much....

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What's the collective forum wisdom on Uni's ?
I have UNI. I bought it right after doing the CDog AirBox mod. I ran it for a while, but when I went to check on it one day, I noticed extra oil in the air box. I pulled it out to clean it, but in the time it takes to dry, I went and picked up an OEM filter. I never put the UNI back in, so it's sitting, clean and dry, on my shelf. I didn't notice any performance gains, but that was butt-dyno only.

Supposedly, the UNI is a better filter than the K&N, but I don't know if that's someone's conjecture or if it really is a better filter.

Some day, someone's gonna make me a reasonable offer on the UNI, and I'm gonna ship it out. Since I don't use it anymore.

 
All air filters are a compromise. Filtration is always indirectly proportional to air flow.

Oiled air filters attempt to provide improved air flow with less of a compromise on filtration by oiling the media. But, as others have already pointed out, YOMV

Too much oil can cause intake gunk and deposits. Too little means the wide open fabric of the filter will not filter as well as is optimum. The obvious down side to the latter is possible premature wear on internal engine components.

The real question here is: What do you hope to achieve by switching from a stock to an aftermarket filter?

The stock filter works pretty well. When clean it is a reasonable compromise point between good filtration and good air flow. But it does filter, and therefore it does restrict airflow somewhat. What this means is that when the filter becomes a significant limiting factor in the intake airflow, the engine power will be somewhat reduced. When does that happen? Only when the throttle plates are NOT the limiting factor to airflow. IOW - only at WFO throttle, and especially at the highest rpms, when airflow is increased.

Are you looking at getting the highest power at very high rpm and wide open throttle? Will you be drag racing your FJR? If not, the air filter is not the major air restriction, and you will realize no appreciable increase in power. If you are looking to drag race the engine and are only interested in maximum air flow at high rpm, then even a K&N filter is (still) a compromise. Just pull the air filter out altogether for the maximum possible airflow. Yes, you will end up having to rebuild or replace your engine more frequently, but who cares? That wasn't your goal.

OTOH, if your goal is to have reasonable performance and good engine longevity, then the best possible thing to use is the stock air filter. There are design engineers at Yamaha with way more smarts than the dipshits at K&N, who have calculated the optimum point on that compromise curve to both provide adequate filtration and still give excellent airflow (and therefore engine power) at the vast majority of throttle openings and rpms likely to be encountered.

The choice, as always, is all yours.

 
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I doubt the stock filter is hurting much. I guess I could put a manometer on the air box if it gets on the dyno.

It's hard to resist screwing with things, isn't it lads? I think we went through the air box mods.

I ran some tests on a ported R1 head with the stock filter on my airflow bench

Not enough restriction to matter according to the engine guru.

I'm probably an idiot, I have a Uni. LOL

 
Why in the **** does Fred have to come along and say something smarter than everyone else?
Stop with the name calling buddy or I'ma gonna havta reportcha.
Jesus...I didn't call anyone a name. I dropped an F-bomb, but apparently, in business, that's ok now. I mean, I called Fred Fred, but THAT'S HIS NAME!

You guys are hurting my feelings!

 
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