AEM Dryflow (1 Viewer)

[Heritage 2020]

Greetings,

I know that air filters are like oil/oil filters—no consensus.

I’ve a Safari Armax snorkel which rates well for air-flow, plus location may keep dust/grit down a bit. I’m in the Southeast where dust isn’t much of an issue for the most part.

My recommendation is the AEM Dryflow drop in air filters because I don’t have to oil them—and I can clean them as often as needed (the synthetic media dries quickly).

I’ve used/currently use them on every family car/truck where there is an application with no issues. Also, I prefer not throwing away a bunch of paper air filters.

Of note: The filter rubber gasket is quality, uniform, thick, and pliable— and air leaks should not be an issue.

I figure for the Starbucks runs and daily driver use, the filter should suffice.

 

[TeCKis300]

Greetings,

I know that air filters are like oil/oil filters—no consensus.

I’ve a Safari Armax snorkel which rates well for air-flow, plus location may keep dust/grit down a bit. I’m in the Southeast where dust isn’t much of an issue for the most part.

My recommendation is the AEM Dryflow drop in air filters because I don’t have to oil them—and I can clean them as often as needed (the synthetic media dries quickly).

I’ve used/currently use them on every family car/truck where there is an application with no issues. Also, I prefer not throwing away a bunch of paper air filters.

Of note: The filter rubber gasket is quality, uniform, thick, and pliable— and air leaks should not be an issue.

I figure for the Starbucks runs and daily driver use, the filter should suffice.

View attachment 3196194

View attachment 3196195

I agree that for daily driver or starbucks runs, probably fine.

From the degree of dirt and silt I see in my off-roading, even if it's just a day trip, it's pretty intense and I'll say I don't trust much of anything other than OEM for that use case. Dirt into the engine is like sandpaper. Maybe it's regional but here in the southwest, sand can be fine enough that it's like talcum powder. Hangs in the air making for blinding conditions, even with chase lights. Buddies that forgot to clean their intakes loosing major HP thinking something more serious is wrong. I always clean out and change my filter after off-road trips, and it's little money for piece of mind for the larger vehicle investment.

I know you have a pretty sweet rig too, and you're trying to do the best for that investment. My perspective, but with filters cheaper than gas, I'm happy to chuck and swap them for that extra level of protection.

Here's what comes out of a brand new filter tapping it against the ground after just one day trip. Tons more comes off blowing with compressed air.

 

[CharlieS]

Stock filters are very high quality and effective. I don't see any reason to use anything else.

 

[bloc]

Stock filters are very high quality and effective. I don't see any reason to use anything else.

Plus they aren’t paper.

 

[TeCKis300]

K&N's and dry flow variants have been around for a long time. There's a general understanding that there's some trade between filtering and restriction. For a performance car where power is the priority, that's a fair trade, where performance filters have been able to eek out ever so much power. Partially dependent on the particular vehicle, other modification, and if it exceeds the factory filter flow limits.

It's usually a cost to filtering capability and capacity. This study has popped over the years and thought it would be relevant here

K&N Air Filter Review - Debunking the Myths (and why OEM is better)

Before spending your money on an aftermarket intake, let's debunk the misleading incomplete info about filtering and horsepower in the sales literature.

www.nicoclub.com

 

[Heritage 2020]

Best data driven comparison (by an engineer) I’ve seen comparing OEM style paper to AEM synthetic dryflow and K&N (and BMC) oiled cotton gauze.

I like that he used the same parameters for each and created a nice test rig, plus looked at new vs. dirty OEM.

Not surprisingly there was no power increase and the oiled filters did far worse than either OEM style or AEM synthetic dryflow.

I feel much better about the AEM after viewing this data, but OEM paper style is the clear standard.

Note: I’m betting where you live/drive regularly matters greatly, ie lots of dust/dirt vs. pavement princess. Also, air box sealing to keep unfiltered air from getting around the filter gasket matters—as I’ve read/viewed examples where unfiltered air was leaking around the filter gasket—which is VERY BAD.

Enjoy!

 

[TeCKis300]

Best data driven comparison (by an engineer) I’ve seen comparing OEM style paper to AEM synthetic dryflow and K&N (and BMC) oiled cotton gauze.

I like that he used the same parameters for each and created a nice test rig, plus looked at new vs. dirty OEM.

Not surprisingly there was no power increase and the oiled filters did far worse than either OEM style or AEM synthetic dryflow.

I feel much better about the AEM after viewing this data, but OEM paper style is the clear standard.

Note: I’m betting where you live/drive regularly matters greatly, ie lots of dust/dirt vs. pavement princess. Also, air box sealing to keep unfiltered air from getting around the filter gasket matters—as I’ve read/viewed examples where unfiltered air was leaking around the filter gasket—which is VERY BAD.

Enjoy!

Enjoyed the input from that video. Thanks for the link.

I think it's true that most OEMs these days are not under-sizing the filter element. And are designing good intake paths to take advantage of cold air.

I do think K&Ns filters have a place on more modified street cars where the combination of more mods can make the stock intake a bottleneck. I'm playing around with my 911 Turbo at the moment and debating to re-route the intake to the turbos because it's limiting spool and HP. This would place the intake in a dirty air path right behind the tires, and require the use of K&N cone filters. I think I want to do this as it's a sunny day street car, but I can't say I like the idea of pulling in more dirt.