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Waterproofing The Air Cleaner Housing


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I fitted a K & N filter to my Safari snorkel equipped 300 TDi yesterday.

I noticed that I had not sealed the water release valve that hangs off the bottom of the can lid when I fitted the snorkel two years ago, although I'm sure that Safari recommend removing any possible point of water ingress. Smacky bottom perhaps.

I re-sealed the spotwelded seam on the can, and the lid, but before I seal the valve, are there any benefits of having one drain point in the air feed?

drainvalve6kk.jpg

By the way, definite improvements in performance with the K &N filter fitted - turbo spins noticably quicker and there is more in-gear acceleration....and of course you don't have to buy a replacement every year [cleaning required every 50,000 miles]. Good investment at £65.

So do I seal up the valve??

Neil

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i sealed mine by streching a piece of inner tube across the the metal hole (after removing the dump vlve (the rubber bit)) and held it in place with cable ties. no probs as yet.

my snorkel system runs with no water drainage point. i ahev often wondered if this is a good or bad thing - travelling in the rain for example some water most go down the intake.

2yrs and no problems as yet.

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I'm sorry if I have to keep repeating myself, but I reckon the K&N filter is a terrible thing. I had one fitted to my 300tdi for 60 000 kms (along with a Mantec snorkel) and it just about wrecked my engine. The bores were completely stuffed, though being a cheapskate I managed to get by with some honing and a set of new rings.

Maybe the K&N is a good idea in the UK where it rains all the time, but whatever you do do not go somewhere with a dusty climate.

I still reckon the only way to clean a K&N is as follows:

1) place on driveway

2) soak in petrol

3) light with match

IMHO you would be as well off removing your air cleaner altogether for increased performance

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IMHO you would be as well off removing your air cleaner altogether for increased performance

Why not say what you mean Jim!!

I understand why you have a concern - by design, the filter passes more through than a dense paper item, but it is not as transparent as a Series filter. As we tend not to live in a dust bowl in the UK, it's horses for courses.

Neil

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still 96% odd of dirt stopped.

i think its due to personal prefence, a suggestion for home testing i have heard is the £29 test machine of a white cloth ove the end of a hoover on suction then test by sucking air through std and then K&N filters against how much mcuh ends up on the cloth.

ok vaccum then as hoover as we know is a trade name

and i know you cant get a decent hoover/cleaner for £29 but the tests the same.

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still 96% odd of dirt stopped.

i think its due to personal preference, a suggestion for home testing i have heard is the £29 test machine of a white cloth ove the end of a hoover on suction then test by sucking air through std and then K&N filters against how much mcuh ends up on the cloth.

ok vaccum then as hoover as we know is a trade name

and i know you cant get a decent hoover/cleaner for £29 but the tests the same.

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One of the reason I get angry about K&N's was that I fitted their sticker to the side of my LR, next to the air intake. About a week later, a T@y@t@ driver approached me at a petrol station and told me that the K&N would stuff up my engine. Of course, I didn't believe him ...

Yes, it is horses for courses. If you move from rainy UK to somewhere a bit hotter and dustier, or even go somewhere like that on holiday, or there is a sudden heat wave and drought (haha), just swop back your old paper filter for a while.

I used to run bikes with no filter at all in England, they went well but the intake noise was annoying. None of those engines lasted very long anyway :D

Here are my bores at 166 000 kms after 80k with the K&N. Compression was down to 15-17 bar (instead of 24)

IMAGE016Small.jpg

And this shows the lip at the top of the bore, after honing:

Cylinder4aSmall.jpg

The ridge was too deep to hone out. The engine is now on 220k and running fine.

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