Air Filters

[The mailman]

I keep up with everything! oil changes - early most times, tire pressure, chain tension, daily visual inspections, everything. Well, evidently almost everything. Looking through my maintenance log I noticed the air filter seems to have been overlooked for a while. I had installed a K&N ...ummm... a while back we'll say, and hadn't checked it since then. I pulled it last night and I can't believe the bike could even breathe well enough to run. I didn't have mice in the airbox but I could knit a sweater from all of the "fluff" in the filter. Just lightly tapping the filter on the driveway produced enough for some warm mittens. After spraying on a heavy dose of the K&N cleaner, letting it set, and then rinsing, it looked brand new again. Once it dried completely, I sprayed a new coat of oil into the folds, let it soak in a while to make sure I had full coverage, and the re-installed the filter. I'm not sure if it is my imagination or if my VFR actually said thank you when I fired it back up. Everybody is always looking for more horse power - it may lie in a clean air filter!

[VFRSuperfreak]

I keep up with everything! Tire pressure, oil changes - early most times, tire pressure, chain tension, daily visual inspections, everything. Well, evidently almost everything. Looking through my maintenance log I noticed the air filter seems to have been overlooked for a while.

IT'd be useful to know what mileage that filter had, (and if you constantly pass salvaion army trucks! lol)

[The mailman]

I guess that's like saying my tires wore out and not listing the mileage too. The air filter above had just over 15k on it. No Salvation Army trucks, no cotton gin nearby, and maybe 50 miles of dirt road in the life of the bike. Still amazed it would even run. - even more amazed I let something slide for so long.

Yay! 50 more horses! :angry:

[RogerRamjet]

Here's what mine looked like at 16k miles. Mice are a definite likelihood, and the reason I'm leaning toward keeping with the stock air filter. I'm not convinced a K&N would deal well with this.

[FJ12Ryder]

I use a K&N filter on the bike and am very happy with it. However I just replaced a K&N filter on my diesel truck which I bought used with the K&N already on it. Right after I bought it I cleaned and reoiled the filter. This spring I did the same again with about 10,000 miles on it. I used the K&N filter cleaner and really sprayed it down and washed it out good. When I got ready to reinstall I looked very closely into the folds and pleats and was amazed at all the crud that was still in there and couldn't be gotten out with more washing. I think if you get them too dirty you can't get down into the pleats and really get them clean again. Consequently I now clean my bike filter frequently and use a disposable on the truck. Just my experience, make of it what you will.

[Skids]

I've witnessed some heated debates regarding K&N replacement filters, along the lines of: K&N allow the engine to breathe more, but that's because the holes are bigger and this let's more/bigger particles into the engine which can't be good for the engine and that K&N's can be cleaned, thus saving money over stock filters.

I don't know what the collective wisdom over here is. [shrug.gif]

[Guest tpierce(MP)]

wow. That's a dirty filter for only 15k miles. Mine didn't look nearly that bad when i replaced it around the same mileage. I'm still amazed the OEM VFR filter costs ~$45!! The one for the BMW only costs $15-16, would have thought it'd be the other way around...

[jaydj]

OK, so I cleaned and re-oiled my K&N in my 5th Gen VFR800Fi this weekend, and the first 1/2 tank of gas milage was unbelieveably low. Some background:

- bike has 30,000mi, 6,500 since I bought it this May

- was getting roughly 200+/- per tank (refilled usually about 4 - 4.5 gallons each time)

- just did an oil change with Seafoam

- also put Seafoam in the gas tank which was 1/2 full (w/suggested ratio of fuel to Seafoam for fuel level in tank)

** cleaned and re-oiled K&N air filter. Put on about 4-5 layers of oil since I was not sure how much to use. Let it dry before starting bike.

Rode it on interstate during trip at 70-80mph for 2hrs and watched the gauge just go to nothing, quicker than normal. Re-filled tank. Not sure if mileage back to "normal" yet.

My question is -- can you put on too much oil on a K&N? How much do you put on the filter anyway?

[FJ12Ryder]

Yes, you can put too much oil on the K&N filter, in fact you put on waaay too much oil. Generally speaking you put on enough oil to color the pleats. I usually put on enough so the filter is uniformly red, maybe two light coats. One coat overall, then wait for it to soak in and then another light coat to hit the spots that I missed the first time.

You said you "Let it dry", but it's oil and it doesn't dry. You'll probably be okay after some of the oil gets sucked out of the filter and the engine can start breathing through the material again. It can really screw up the sensor in a diesel engine if you use too much oil on a filter, but I don't think the VFR will have a problem.

[Grum]

Save yourself a fortune, let your Viffer breathe easy!

Here's what I have done for the past 10 years and it works a treat, my current VFR has done 93,000kms and running beautifully as did my two previous VFR's using the same process.

In 2004 I purchased one Honda genuine air filter. Since then I have been removing (at every second oil change) the air filter and reverse blowing any loose rubbish from the filter. I then use the cheap cans of de-greaser you can purchase at any auto shop and very liberally spray the whole filter element (about half a can per filter clean). Let it stand for around 10 minutes, then with the filter leaned up against a wall grab a garden hose and give it a real good spraying generally through the wire mesh side. As the de-greaser is water soluble this works a treat and just washes away. Its now just a case of covering it loosely with a clean cloth standing it upright to dry off over a couple of days, you can assist the drying process if needed by using a hair drier. Once dry pop it in a clean plastic bag and your ready for the next swap over.

If you are careful in treating the element these filters last for years, and with changing the air filter every second oil change they never get very dirty anyway.

Cheers.

Grum.

Edited July 10, 2014 by Grum

[Switchblade]

Terry's !!!!

[MaxSwell]

Terry's !!!!

Before it was discovered the machine was very difficult to start. It had sat in an unattached pole barn; an '01 with 10,000 mi. Was not used much before I bought it this summer. So I dumped the nest, vacuumed the K&N and it's been running great since. Reminds my I need to oil it.

Switch, that was a fun discovery. Got a lot of (joke) mileage out of it. Thanks for the help.

[Switchblade]

Anytime ^^^

[spud786]

I've probably been through half dozen stock air filters running near double the recommend and none have come close to that dirty, actually have to hold them up to the light to see how dirty they are. So I cant say why yours is so bad. Being a K&N it may have sucked the nest right through the filter.