SuzukiSavage.com /cgi-bin/YaBB.pl General Category >> Rubber Side Down! >> K&N Air Filter Warning /cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1164499618 Message started by geo on 11/25/06 at 16:06:58

Title: K&N Air Filter Warning Post by geo on 11/25/06 at 16:06:58 I installed the K&N Oil impregnated air filter in my LS650. It gave me a noticeable mid to upper RPM power improvement. :D Also, I like its seal to the airbox much better than the stock filter. :D Beware of the following problems: :( 1. K&N didn't supply the holding bracket in the box. I had to get the motorcycle shop to pursue K&N for the bracket after having ordered 2 filters. The installation instructions showed the bracket, but it wasn't included in either package. ??? I did finally get the bracket. :D 2. A couple weeks after installing the filter I noticed the bike would not accelerate normally. Something was hanging up. It might accelerate properly in first gear, but wouldn't in second gear. Sometimes, I would hold the throttle wide open, and something would let loose and the bike would accelerate. I removed the carburetor and inspected it closely. I found an oily residue on the piston valve and its bore. I cleaned the residue off these surfaces, and normal acceleration was back! ;D The source of the oil was obviously the K&N filter oil. So, be careful with this filter. I hope most of the oil has been processed through, and I won't have to take the carburetor apart again.

Title: Re: K&N Air Filter Warning Post by Steve530 on 11/25/06 at 16:23:29 geo, How much oil was on the filter? Anything unusal there?  It comes ready to use in the box. I've hesitated to buy a K&N filter for my car because I've read similar reports.  The reports are that oil deposits on the mass air flow sensor and causes a malfunction.  That's a fairly expensive piece that I don't want to replace early.  But the Mikuni carb is a bit more robust. I'm suprised that there was enough oil deposited to clog the carb, BTW, my K&N came with the bracket, but I've read reports here that it is oftern missing. Steve

Title: Re: K&N Air Filter Warning Post by geo on 11/25/06 at 16:53:34 The filter was used right out of the box, after removing the plastic wrapper. No liquid oil was observed. No oil wad added. By the way, I'm happy with the performance of the filter. Our local automotive talkshow guru does not like the K&N because of the mass air flow sensor problems he has observed in cars at his shop. This is consistant to what you have heard. So be extra careful there. My last car was a 1996 Mazda Miata and I did put a K&N on it and had no problems. I did see noticeably more power 4000RPM and above. My new car is a 2006 Honda S2000. I'm going to wait a couple years for K&N to get it right for this car. I got caught today in a speed trap testing out my cleaned out carburetor. Fortunately, I wasn't going fast enough to get a ticket. They gave me a warning and a lecture. :D Its pays to be respectful and humble.

Title: Re: K&N Air Filter Warning Post by Steve530 on 11/25/06 at 18:02:51 It might be worthwhile to pull the intake boot and check for oil, then. BTW, I do not plan on using a K&N on my car.  The gain is not worth the risk for my car, and I don't think K&N will chnage the basic design.  There are also high flow foam filters, but I'll just stick with the stock paper element. Glad you dodged the ticket. As you wrote, humility and respect go a long way.

Title: Re: K&N Air Filter Warning Post by Ed_L. on 11/25/06 at 19:27:02 I had something simular happen on my '02 when I switched to the K&N filter, noticed a little bit of oil on the bottom of the carb and some oil in the airbox. Freaked me out a bit cause I thought there was an oil leak. The exhaust also smelled bad, sort of like oil burning. i figured it was just a little oil from the filter getting sucked into the engine and getting burned. The smell went away after only ten miles so it wasn't any big deal. Still it was worth it although now I wish that I had gone to a cone filter just to clean up all the stuff behind the carb.

Title: Re: K&N Air Filter Warning Post by Savage_Rob on 11/26/06 at 08:06:18 geo wrote: I installed the K&N Oil impregnated air filter in my LS650. It gave me a noticeable mid to upper RPM power improvement. :D Also, I like its seal to the airbox much better than the stock filter. :D Beware of the following problems: :( 1. K&N didn't supply the holding bracket in the box. I had to get the motorcycle shop to pursue K&N for the bracket after having ordered 2 filters. The installation instructions showed the bracket, but it wasn't included in either package. ??? I did finally get the bracket. :D 2. A couple weeks after installing the filter I noticed the bike would not accelerate normally. Something was hanging up. It might accelerate properly in first gear, but wouldn't in second gear. Sometimes, I would hold the throttle wide open, and something would let loose and the bike would accelerate. I removed the carburetor and inspected it closely. I found an oily residue on the piston valve and its bore. I cleaned the residue off these surfaces, and normal acceleration was back! ;D The source of the oil was obviously the K&N filter oil. So, be careful with this filter. I hope most of the oil has been processed through, and I won't have to take the carburetor apart again. The bracket was not included with mine either but I just called K&N and they sent me one with no questions asked.  It arrived in two days.  I have never had a problem with the filter in any way and I've been using K&N filters on my cages for many years now without any problems.  It's worth noting that your crankcase breather tube routes to your airbox too.  If the bike has been tipped or if the oil was overfilled, etc. you could wind up with motor oil in the airbox.  There's a drain tube for dealing with that occasionally.

Title: Re: K&N Air Filter Warning Post by Steve530 on 11/26/06 at 10:25:50 Rob, FWIW, the reports of oil contamination was with "hot wire" type of mass air flow sensors.   The wire gets coated, stops working, and the EFI goes into limp-in mode.  I've read about this problem specifically with BMW 3 and 5 series cars. Steve

Title: Re: K&N Air Filter Warning Post by geo on 11/26/06 at 15:43:43 [quote author=Savage_Rob It's worth noting that your crankcase breather tube routes to your airbox too.  If the bike has been tipped or if the oil was overfilled, etc. you could wind up with motor oil in the airbox.  There's a drain tube for dealing with that occasionally.[/quote] This is a possibility, what would happen if I plug the bypass opening and breath the crankcase to the outside?

Title: Re: K&N Air Filter Warning Post by Savage_Rob on 11/27/06 at 06:55:54 Just put a filter on your breather tube.  Plenty of folks who've gotten rid of their airboxes and use a cone air filter use a smaller air filter on their breather tube.

Title: Re: K&N Air Filter Warning Post by Gulfstream on 11/27/06 at 07:42:09 Rob, do you have the P/N for the K&N cone filter that will fit the carb when doing the airbox delete?

Title: Re: K&N Air Filter Warning Post by Savage_Rob on 11/27/06 at 08:24:27 Gulfstream wrote: Rob, do you have the P/N for the K&N cone filter that will fit the carb when doing the airbox delete? No I don't, sorry.  I use a direct replacement K&N in the airbox.  There are several folks who have though.  You can probably find it by doing a few searches.  Set the way-back for something like 800 days though.  Maybe someone who uses it will chime in with the part number.

Title: Re: K&N Air Filter Warning Post by Gulfstream on 11/27/06 at 10:22:21 Like a dummy I didn't search and there was a thread just below...doh! Seems RC-1250 is the one!

Title: Re: K&N Air Filter Warning Post by Savage_Rob on 11/27/06 at 10:49:05 Gulfstream wrote: Like a dummy I didn't search and there was a thread just below...doh! Seems RC-1250 is the one! Well, there ya go! Cone air filter (http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?board=RubberSideDown;action=display;num=1164614054)

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