Air filter never gets dirty

[-Spike-]

It measures the amount of vacuum generated. If there were no restriction, there would be very little vacuum between the filter and intake. More restriction= more vacuum. The premise is that this meter will tell you when you exceed a certain amount of vacuum, so you can change/clean the filter. Doesn't matter what vehicle or filter is on there.

 

[Brian894X4]

Multi- hundreds miles behind a partner vehicle on Eastern Oregon dirt roads for a week will fill my stock filter up pretty good with dust. Not necessarily clog it by any means, but it needs a good cleaning. I LOVE the OEM cleanable filters!

An off road vehicle that is designed to operate in extreme desert environments and commerical off road conditions, mechanically...yet has the precision of a modern upper class automobile and actually completely seals out all dust from the interior at the same time.

Who could ask for anything more?

 

[IdahoDoug]

Kevin,

How much and who did you buy it from? The link simply gets me to the maker who doesn't sell them but provides links to a dozen various vendors. From there I fall asleep because it doesn't take me to the product and I have to search again. So, I'll just get one the way you did if you don't mind. Thanks!!

DougM

Great idea. I think I've been replacing my filters WAY too often based on this discussion.....

DougM

 

[e9999]

It measures the amount of vacuum generated. If there were no restriction, there would be very little vacuum between the filter and intake. More restriction= more vacuum. The premise is that this meter will tell you when you exceed a certain amount of vacuum, so you can change/clean the filter. Doesn't matter what vehicle or filter is on there.

Sure it does. That's exactly my point. You need to know the pressure drop for a given filter to make sense out of the number. The pressure drop across the filter is surely a function of the kind of filter it is, size etc. So at best the "numbers" on that device are just a relative measurement. Saying that when it gets to the red you have to clean it is plain silly.

 

[7schulz]

I have two filters, both look to be oem filters, metal mesh around filter black housing. Does anyone have a picture of the difference between the washable filter and non-washable filter? Or can explain it so I know what I have. One was in the truck(130K) other I picked up off a wrecked one(43k), both look new.

 

[96r50]

How the filter looks has little to do with the level of restriction, they can look very dirty and still flow well. Mine has a filter minder on it, the last time it was cleaned was a year (~10K miles) ago, has seen tons of dusty trail miles and just went to 11in/h2o on the last trail. The research that I have seen shows that gas motors can tolerate ~20in/h2o before suffering a detectable loss of HP or gas mileage.

It measures the amount of vacuum generated. If there were no restriction, there would be very little vacuum between the filter and intake. More restriction= more vacuum. The premise is that this meter will tell you when you exceed a certain amount of vacuum, so you can change/clean the filter. Doesn't matter what vehicle or filter is on there.

Sure it does. That's exactly my point. You need to know the pressure drop for a given filter to make sense out of the number. The pressure drop across the filter is surely a function of the kind of filter it is, size etc. So at best the "numbers" on that device are just a relative measurement. Saying that when it gets to the red you have to clean it is plain silly.

What Spike said. It simply measures the amount of vacuum in the intake system. You could mount a vacuum gauge in the cab and get the same info. All it is doing is telling you the highest vacuum experienced inside the intake system. According to Tools' research, once the vacuum in the intake reaches X amount, the engine performance is affected. So if you reach X amount you should probably clean your filter.

 

[Tools R Us]

Multi- hundreds miles behind a partner vehicle on Eastern Oregon dirt roads for a week will fill my stock filter up pretty good with dust. Not necessarily clog it by any means, but it needs a good cleaning. I LOVE the OEM cleanable filters! ...

Mine was last serviced before Moab last April, has had tons of dusty trail miles (~1000). It probably looks terrible and will get cleaned before Moab next month.

I used to clean it after big/long runs and now see that it's a waste. A dirty filter actually filters better than a clean one and as long as it's not excessively restricted there is no performance loss.

 

[Tools R Us]

Kevin,

How much and who did you buy it from? The link simply gets me to the maker who doesn't sell them but provides links to a dozen various vendors. From there I fall asleep because it doesn't take me to the product and I have to search again. So, I'll just get one the way you did if you don't mind. Thanks!!

DougM

Great idea. I think I've been replacing my filters WAY too often based on this discussion.....

DougM

I got it locally at a heavy equipment parts store called Fleet Pride. The manufacturer labels them for many resellers, the most common is K&N, I didn't like theirs. It only has one stop point, 10in/h2o. On the one that I have the "red line" is 25in/h2o and it has several stop points between, so it's easy to watch the restriction increase.

The make several mount types, grommet, remote, dash gauge, etc. Mine is a bolt on (IIRC 3/8" bolt). I drilled a hole through a bolt and mounted through the air filter housing using red loctite. I don't see the need for remote mount, it would add potential leaks and it takes a very long time for the filter to become restricted, so just glancing at it when the hood is open is all that's needed?

They come stock on some trucks (domestic diesels) and heavy equipment, so a wrecking yard maybe another place to acquire them? Also a domestic dealer parts (dodge, chevy?) or heavy equipment/farm (John Deere, Case?).

 

[Tools R Us]

... You could mount a vacuum gauge in the cab and get the same info. ...

In theory yes, but the filter monitor has some advantages: First it's calibrated in inches of water, the 11in/h2o that mine is at now = 0.809115037 inch of mercury or 0.397400210 psi, so would be relatively difficult to see on a normal vacuum gauge.

It holds the highest reading, so you don't have to watch it. Mine is showing 11, but could be reset and in normal town driving would stay at the bottom. The restriction is only seen when the motor is at full power, pulling big hills at 5K rpm, etc, with a normal gauge you would have to watch it full time to catch the highest reading.

 

[Stone]

Anyone try the grommet style gauge? I've been seeing them on Ebay for around $32 shipped...I guess this is a decent price? Thanks.

 

[96r50]

In theory yes, but the filter monitor has some advantages: First it's calibrated in inches of water, the 11in/h2o that mine is at now = 0.809115037 inch of mercury or 0.397400210 psi, so would be relatively difficult to see on a normal vacuum gauge.

It holds the highest reading, so you don't have to watch it. Mine is showing 11, but could be reset and in normal town driving would stay at the bottom. The restriction is only seen when the motor is at full power, pulling big hills at 5K rpm, etc, with a normal gauge you would have to watch it full time to catch the highest reading.

Agreed, I was just saying that the function is the same. No doubt the filter minder is a better option. I've also seen it on GMC gas V8s.

 

[-Spike-]

Sure it does. That's exactly my point. You need to know the pressure drop for a given filter to make sense out of the number. The pressure drop across the filter is surely a function of the kind of filter it is, size etc. So at best the "numbers" on that device are just a relative measurement. Saying that when it gets to the red you have to clean it is plain silly.

It doesn't matter what the pressure drop is for a particular filter. A smaller filter is going to clog faster, and that will show on the meter. The meter tells you when there is too much restriction. I don't know how else to explain it.