Dear Cinematographer and bborces:

Welcome to our thread! Hope you stick around.

Dear ar_moj:

Sir, palitan mo na air cleaner mo, if its blocked and dirty, it will definitely affect your fuel economy. Read on for advice on what you can do. Good luck.

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Although I haven't used K&N filters myself, everyone who has used them on their diesels (turbo and non-turbo) told me that malaki ang diperensya kapag kinabit mo sya - both the power and the fuel economy and in the reduction of smoke.

So na-intriga ako and decided to MAKE MY OWN. You see the B2500 has a branched rubber air pipe connected to a very long inlet manifold. At one end is the air filter assembly and at the branch is a resonance chamber I dismantled it and checked it out, it has NO OPENINGS except for the connection with the branched pipe.

I disconnected the resonance chamber and bought a small, second-hand air filter assembly that fits in the space available. I had to make my own fittings to connect it properly but eventually everything worked out.

After naikabit ko na ang lahat I can say that lumakas ang hila, nabawasan ang usok at tumipid ng konti. Pareho ba ang resulta sa K&N? Well I can't say as I haven't tried, BUT the whole thing cost me around Php P1,000 only so in that sense, malaking gastos ang naitipid ko.

Another thing is that the original filter is about 8" in diameter and 10" long, while the auxiliary filter (for want of a better name) is about 6" in diameter and 10" long also. They are both paper-element filters and are disposed after 5 000 km of use. I clean them every week.

Although the K&N filters are washable (and the filter screen can be replaced) I have always noted that a considerable amount of dust and dirt do get through. They have inferior filtering abilities.

That's one of the reasons I decided to stick with the paper-element filters, after three months of use, look on the inside of the K&N filter - its full of fine dust, not good for the engine, perform the same test on the paper element filters, even after six months or more... NO DUST on the INSIDE.

It MAY be that the K&N filter may flow more than my set-up (although I doubt it - the difference would be marginal) but it also definitely lets through more dirt. Since I value engine life over short-term performance that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

As to the mushroom-type air filter, well I'm an old man and have tried almost everything, including those when I built high-performance cars back in the 1980's (kitaam - cno mas matanda sa atin!).

They look good but don't really flow that well (especially kung nag-backfire ang carb mo at naging crispy na ang foam element nya) and don't filter too well either. So my advice is to stick with paper element filters, just find a way to modify them so you can use more than one.

Back when the air filter elements were all round or oval, we would cut a rubber gasket to glue between them and stack several one on top of the other! Hah... nasubukan nyo na yan? The whole thing would stick up out of the air cleaner assembly but in most cases would still clamp down, especially if the cover used a central bolt with a wing nut to tighten it down.

Just my 2 cents,

Best Regards,

Dusky Lim

PS - Hi guys! I make (and sell) a very effective diesel fuel additive, please PM me if you're interested. Thanks.