K&N Air Filters

[South Texas]

Is anyone using a K&N Air filter on their Kubota tractors?

I've looked and can't find some made for the B3200 HSD, or other models. I've seen some info on amazon about owners that are using them, but some require modification simply to fit

I'm not willing to jeopardize the correct function of the air intake on the tractor. I use K&N air filters on my diesel and gas trucks, with great success.

 

[Wild and Free]

I would highly suggest taking them out of your pickups and throwing them in the garbage asap to save from dusting your engines.
They are no better than a screen door as far as filter quality goes.
You can search many diesel forums and find this info out there. I ran one on an 02 Cummins for a year and I am super anal and pull oil samples every 5K miles and over the course of the year my silica kept climbing so I pulled the filter off and the intake tube and found it totally coated with dirt and dust. Threw it in the garbage and went with an AFE dry filter and the samples instantly cleared up and stayed that way.
You can literally put a light inside of one and see gaps and holes in the filter media.
They may do ok in small engines and or smaller automotive applications but I WILL NEVER LOOK AT ANOTHER ONE, MOST FOLKS ON THE DIESEL PICKUP FORUMS HAVE THE SAME experience over the years tons and tons of info like I said to back up my experience before realizing this myself.

 

[lugbolt]

I would highly suggest taking them out of your pickups and throwing them in the garbage asap to save from dusting your engines.
They are no better than a screen door as far as filter quality goes.
You can search many diesel forums and find this info out there. I ran one on an 02 Cummins for a year and I am super anal and pull oil samples every 5K miles and over the course of the year my silica kept climbing so I pulled the filter off and the intake tube and found it totally coated with dirt and dust. Threw it in the garbage and went with an AFE dry filter and the samples instantly cleared up and stayed that way.
You can literally put a light inside of one and see gaps and holes in the filter media.
They may do ok in small engines and or smaller automotive applications but I WILL NEVER LOOK AT ANOTHER ONE, MOST FOLKS ON THE DIESEL PICKUP FORUMS HAVE THE SAME experience over the years tons and tons of info like I said to back up my experience before realizing this myself.

Exact same experience I've had with K&N filters as well, both on a '03 Powerstroke 7.3, and an '03 SVT Lightning. Tubes were dusted in no time. Where'd that dust go? Right into the engine, meaning there was wear. I actually called K&N directly and talked to them about it and they wanted to tell me that I didn't oil it properly. Inside the box when I got the filter was a paper disclaimer that said that the filter was pre-oiled at the factory and did not need to be oiled before installation....and these filters were brand new, right out of their packaging.

They are good at marketing but their filters are not worth the cardboard that they package them in. May as well just leave the filter out of the air box; be about the same thing.

Seen multiple motorcycles with the same issue. And ATV's. And side-by-sides. There isn't enough airflow improvement to justify dusting the engine. The Kubota factory designed filters are pretty good! Will the engine make more power with free air flow? Maybe. But are you willing to take the chance of destroying a very expensive engine to find out?

 

[DThrash]

+1, stay away from K&N. Anything that lets more air through lets more dirt through.

 

[Tooljunkie]

Automotive is what i do, have always disagreed with those filters. The slime building up in the intake tubes had me disliking them from the beginning.
Maf sensors get fouled up from the dirt and oil.

Some of the new machine mfr's dont approve of even a cleaned air filter. Used to send out many filters for cleaning. Now its a thing of the past...pretty much.

 

[PHPaul]

Another thumbs down for ANYTHING K&N. Have never and will never use them on my equipment.

 

[South Texas]

Thanks for the feedback. I guess the marketing hype is all that, just hype. I was under the impression that K&N filters were the best thing available to the consumer.

I've seen the oil/dust residues in the air filter box, and occasionally had problems with the MAF on my Duramax diesel.

With the information in hand from you all it seems I need to rethink using them. I'll stick with the paper filters supplied by Kubota for the tractor.

Thanks.

 

[South Texas]

I did a little more searching and found the following scientific study:

http://www.nicoclub.com/archives/kn-vs-oem-filter.html


The results are an eye opener! An excerpt from that study "In 60 minutes the AC Filter accumulated 574gms of dirt and passed only 0.4gms. After only 24 minutes the K&N had accumulated 221gms of dirt but passed 7.0gms.

Compared to the AC, the K&N “plugged up” nearly 3 times faster, passed 18 times more dirt and captured 37% less dirt. See the data tables for a complete summary of these comparisons."



I'm tossing my K&N filters

 

[clay45]

Purolator
Wix (some folks don't care for them)

http://www.filterrecon.com/store/p17/Donaldson_P822686_Air_Filter.html

 

[CountryBumkin]

I did a little more searching and found the following scientific study:

http://www.nicoclub.com/archives/kn-vs-oem-filter.html


The results are an eye opener! An excerpt from that study "In 60 minutes the AC Filter accumulated 574gms of dirt and passed only 0.4gms. After only 24 minutes the K&N had accumulated 221gms of dirt but passed 7.0gms.

Compared to the AC, the K&N “plugged up” nearly 3 times faster, passed 18 times more dirt and captured 37% less dirt. See the data tables for a complete summary of these comparisons."



I'm tossing my K&N filters

Nice supporting data !

 

[CaveCreekRay]

Yeah... loads of guys put K&N filters on their Ranger 900s and started having engine problems. The dealers found many of the engine lower ends worn out from dirt and dust contamination. The Polaris dealers who used to sell them no longer do and Polaris will void your warranty if they find a K&N on your machine.

The only thing dustier than a UTV is a tractor. On the L3800, you can wash out your Kubota air filter up to six times over a twelve month period and then its time to replace the filter element. Soak it in a little sudsy water for a few minutes and then hose it off. Let it dry overnight before re-installing.

Some Kubota filters can accommodate a second filter inside the primary as an option.

Ray