Cummins air filter or K&N?

sisu

Adventurer
I have been using Cummins air filter on my 2006 5.9 but have been told the K&N is as good, plus it will pay for itself after enough cleanings.

What do you Dodge guys think about this?

BTW I seem to get better results from my questions here on the Portal than any where else on the Net.
 

Stoney126

Adventurer
Do not put a K&n on your truck. The drop in filter replacement are worse then the whole cia kit but I would not. There are better kits that filter better. K&N have a reputation of dusting motors. I have not personally seen this(I work for Dodge) but seems to be a buzz around the forums. What I have seen is improper use Of oiling with the K&N and that causing issues.

For about the same Price A S&B CIA is a better safer bet. I like the build quality over K&N as well. If You have the dough A AFE stage 2 Kit would be preferred. That being said Unless you have other power adders Your gains will be very little if any. Not trying to deter you But if you have other things needed to be done Id do those first. I too Would like to do Some sort of CIA or fords version.
 

chasespeed

Explorer
Stay away..... My Super Duty was great example..... the crank case vent dumped into the airstream between the air filter and turbo, so, a little film of oil was on the inside of the piping..... used a K&N drop in..... When I went to relocate the crankcase vent, I noticed, a film of dust stuck to the inside of the piping.... Ditched the whole thing... replaced the filter with the BIG Donaldson filter, and moved the crankcase vent... All better....

Did it do any damage? Not in the time I had it.. BUT, I was stationed in a DRY beach town, and did spend time on the beach... so... more dusty conditions than some?

Anyway, I am running the AFE, and no such problems... though, instead of cleaning this next time, I will be switching to the dry element..... if I keep it at all.

If you wheel the truck, mud, water, etc... I would stick with the Stock box....

Unique Metal Products(UMP) makes a PERFECT setup....... that is the direction I am leaning...

Chase
 

ExpoMike

Well-known member
I have used K&N filters many times in the past. For a street driven vehicle ONLY, they work fine. If you use the rig in the dirt AT ALL, stay as far away as you can. I can attest to the fact that it allows a fine level of dust into the intake track, based on the dust film after the air filter. This occured on 3 different vehicles I owned before I stopped using them in offroad vehicles. On my street driven only vehicles, they worked fine and maybe offered a "slight" seat of the pants feel in throttle response. Since I would not see any dust film in these, I figued it was okay for them. The last one I used, I happend to end up with two K&N filters, which worked well. I would prep both of them and put the second one in a zip lock bag. When it came time to change, I would swap in the second one while I was able to clean the first one. This rotation kept my driving with any downtime. When you clean a K&N, figure at least a half day, since you have to let the filter dry before re-oiling. You cannot blow dry, use heat, etc. I would just place it out on a sunny day.

That's my .02 worth.
 

Regcabguy

Oil eater.
I run a stock box with a www.psmdiesel.com mod. I raised the tip of the downtube 3" for the very rare instance of fording rivers which I did in Utah. That along with NAPA's 9946 4" stock paper filter works great. You can source out the parts from Home Depot to do the psm mod for under $20. Coming out of a 2nd gen.,I cherish a quiet interior.
 

FellowTraveler

Explorer
K&N Air Filter hoop de do-do, or?

Nothing wrong w/K&N if used w/pre-filter in dusty/sandy environments. I have a Donaldson canister and have used a very large cylinder K&N filter only w/pre-filter for many 100's k miles w/o any issues whatsoever.

IMHO, Pre-filters exist for a reason and the K&N works just fine w/one be it in sandy or dusty environments on any gas, diesel or any other fuel type of vehicle.

I have had issues w/vehicles using panel filter (s) and feel panel filters have no place in any vehicle operated off -road or otherwise.

I agree over oiling any filter could negatively effect an AMM even burn it out.

Marketers are always creating new ways to sway the consumer to their accounts products. Air filter wars have been ongoing as long as I can remember and without warning the consumer to don chest-waders first.
 
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bfdiesel

Explorer
I run the stock mopar deep pleet filter. Supposed to be the one of the better for flow vs filtration in the stock box.
 

Rot Box

Explorer
I have put a lot of miles on K&N's in anything from sand dunes toys to daily drivers and I would NOT run one on a forced induction motor nor would I run one on a vehicle that spends any time in dusty conditions.

I prefer stock replacement or WIX/Napa Gold paper filters.
 

nkladwig

New member
I've had a full K&N setup on Grand Cherokee 4.7 V8 and enjoyed the better sound, ease of service and possibly more HP and MPG....being an open element it seems to pick up dirt very easy.

I currently have and am a fan of the S&B intake with cleanable filter on my 5.9 Cummins. Great sound, ease of service and according to dyno heads out there it does add HP/TQ...

Another option is the do it yourself "Whistler" intake - http://www.dieseltruckresource.com/dev/showthread.php?t=129265
 

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