Tony,
You wrote:
>Among human practices, one that makes me uncomfortable, is the practice of
>installing K&N air filters, and leaving them un-maintained. I have almost
>twenty K on mine and was wondering if it is good practice to at least knock
>the dust of it. They advertise no maintenance except re-oiling at long
>intervals, and in fact state that it will get better with age and the
>accumulation of junk. You can see why this seems unnatural. Any advice?
>Tony
>
If it "works" forever, it will be because you regularly CLEAN and re-oil it.
Get some "K&N" brand cleaner, pull your element and follow the cleaning
instructions.
I've cleaned my several K&N elements more frequently than 20K miles over the
years,
A few pointers:
1. Only plan on cleaning the element at a time when you can let it get
completely dry before re-oiling.
2. Completely saturate the element, on both sides, with cleaning solution
and let is soak-in and loosen the crud for 20-30 minutes.
3. Rinse the solution (and crud) out of the element with water. Pay
attention to the cleaning instructions and don't "blast" the element with a
high-powered spray. I take a bit of time, with a fine low pressure spray, to
rince all the solution and crud off. WARNING: always, initially, spray
rinsing water from the back side of the element so you don't "drive" the
crud into the element.
4. If the element is still dis-colored after the first cleaning (by
dis-colored, I mean some soiled areas still showing, not the pink tinge
(from the dye in the oil) that will allways remain to some extent), repeat
the cleaning process.
5. Allow the element to COMPLETELY dry, in ambient air, before re-oiling.
I'm very cautious and do not attempt to accelerate the drying by using an
oven or hair dryer, for fear of damaging the element. Now, its obvious, that
a nice warm, sunny and lightly breezy summer day is the optimum time to get
the element dry quickly. However, if you take the time it will dry in any
weather, at this time of year it may dry quicker, in the absence of sun,
inside the house.
6. After the element is dry, lightly, and I really mean LIGHTLY, re-oil the
element according to the spraying pattern instructions (on the cleaning
solution bottle). I only lightly apply oil to the front side when re-oiling
but then, I clean my non-street driven element at intervals much more often
than 20K miles.
An additional point: Many folks actually feel that a new element, just out
of the box, has too much oil on it, and they CLEAN and lightly re-oil the
new element before initially installing it.
Good luck, Don
PS, Wouldn't it be easier to just put in a new paper element? Just kidding.
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