F'n K&N

[krt400ex]

no more k&n.....last time i cleaned my filter, i saw dirt in my intake. i clean the think every ride or 2. like every 3-5 hrs, so it is well kept. last couple of times i took the wheeler out, it smoked for about 20 min, and if i go down the same trail twice i can smell the burned oil in the air. so, my valve seals r now bad, and my bike is down on power. i think it is time for a rebuild :devil: .

here it is. i am going to do a 416, stage 1 or 2 hotcam, JE 10.5:1 comp piston, full yoshi system. here is my question....i do mostly woods riding, and i like a kick *** botoom to mid range, but i also want a healthy dose of top end too. would a stage 2 cam be too much cam or would i still have a kick a'' bottom end too....oh, and i will be getting uni filter too. thanks for the help, and sry for the long post.

i think i am going to call K&N and tell them that their filter has the POS syndrome...because they suck

[blown331]

Stupid question but are you oiling it correctly?

:eek: sue em for pain and suffering and make them buy you a new quad :macho

[NacsMXer]

Originally posted by blown331
Stupid question but are you oiling it correctly?

I'm sure that he is, I used to run a K&N for a few years and had that very same problem ;)

Some people swear by them, but they DO have a weakness when it comes to dusty riding conditions. The filter passes too much fine dust into the intake tract....and it shows too if you wipe your intake boot down with a paper towel, you can see how much crap is getting past that filter. I had noticable gunk building up on the slide of my FCR39 because of it. I also seized and bent both my intake valves at one point, I wouldn't doubt that all that dust had a small role in that.

I say they are good for the dunes, drag racing, or street. Personally, I will stick to ONLY foam filters on the MX track :o

[awsomeaussies]

Did you have an outerwear??? I'm doing the same rebuild as you this winter... maybe I'll switch to foam when it's all done:confused:

[blown331]

You know for a $70 filter that claims this and claims that... they really aren't that great.

We run K&N's on all of our vehicles. Whether it be our race cars or street cars. Even in a few car cases we've seen some slight dust get past the filter.

My stock street cars I keep the stock airlid on the system and run the k&n and those stay super clean.

Our supercharged cars draw in a bit of dust so we clean them non stop

I think i'm giong to stick with my stock filter on the atv... however... I have heard a lot of people using UNI filters... do the UNI's protect well in the sand/dusty conditions if all my other intake tract is stock?

Me for 3 years and counting still have had no dust get through. I use the filter and outer wear and never had a problume. I also have no air box so the filter is exposed.

If you oil it wrong it will get through.

[blown331]

outerwear, need to look into one of those I guess because the power gains with k&n's are certainly noticeable

[blasterandy]

I have a k&n w/ outwear and it works fine just use the k&n oil and cleaner do as the directions say and you shouldn't have any problems. The thing is you shouldn't run them with out the air box lid i know i am but when we go riding in sandy areas i put it back on.

Originally posted by blasterandy
I have a k&n w/ outwear and it works fine just use the k&n oil and cleaner do as the directions say and you shouldn't have any problems. The thing is you shouldn't run them with out the air box lid i know i am but when we go riding in sandy areas i put it back on.

I have no lid or box and i still never got dirt in the intake tube

[bah1491]

i have a custom air box, it has no top, and no front, i run a k&n and a prefilter....never had any dirt in my carb or boot. Oiling it corectly will make a huge difference. i dont think ive ever heard anyone say that a k&n is not good for dusty track use. thats all we run on our dirt track late models....

www.barthartman.com

[NacsMXer]

Bottom line: K&N is superior to foam in that it flows more air but foam is superior in terms of its filtration ability.

I'll take better filtration over more airflow any day of the week.

I don't care what anyone says about improper oiling/cleaning....I was scrupulous about it. I don't skimp on important stuff like that when it comes to maintainence. I had 2 K&N's and both gave the same symptoms. I switched to a UNI filter and no more issues.

I guess stick to what works for you.....K&N wasn't so I switched.

I'm not knocking the filters at all, I run one on my supercharged F-150. It just wasn't working out on my quad however.

p.s. outerwears do nothing for fine dust. They just keep large chunks of mud and dirt from clogging your filter and provide a certain degree of water resistance. When I had a K&N, I had an outerwear on the filter and airbox......fine grit still makes its way into the intake boot.

[Kaleigh]

Originally posted by NacsMXer
Bottom line: K&N is superior to foam in that it flows more air but foam is superior in terms of its filtration ability.

I'll take better filtration over more airflow any day of the week.

I don't care what anyone says about improper oiling/cleaning....I was scrupulous about it. I don't skimp on important stuff like that when it comes to maintainence. I had 2 K&N's and both gave the same symptoms. I switched to a UNI filter and no more issues.

I guess stick to what works for you.....K&N wasn't so I switched.

I'm not knocking the filters at all, I run one on my supercharged F-150. It just wasn't working out on my quad however.

p.s. outerwears do nothing for fine dust. They just keep large chunks of mud and dirt from clogging your filter and provide a certain degree of water resistance. When I had a K&N, I had an outerwear on the filter and airbox......fine grit still makes its way into the intake boot.

Im with you on this one.. outwear is only for debris.. filter is for dust and small particles.. and faom is alot easier to clean and oil.. i have KN i love it but hate it at the same time.. ill be switchin to foam for next season..

[miller821]

Anyways back to the original question... A stage 2 should be really good for your purpose... A stage 1 is low end, stage 2 is in the middle, and stage 3 if top end... I'd say go with 2 and if its not enough in your bottom end than just jump down a sprocket tooth.

[krt400ex]

Originally posted by blown331
Stupid question but are you oiling it correctly?


yes

i do it all according to the directions that come with the recharger kit

[krt400ex]

Originally posted by awsomeaussies
Did you have an outerwear??? I'm doing the same rebuild as you this winter... maybe I'll switch to foam when it's all done:confused:


no outerwear, and i am running the airbox lid.

[exrider008]

haha funny this thread came up. i just took my k&n filter off my 400ex with a BRAND NEW rebuild and there was fkuin dirt in the boot. i oiled it and cleaned it after every ride with the recharge kit and had an outwear on it but it still let dirt in:mad: im switching to UNI or Twin Air.

["THE ShoP"]

i have a K&N,but i use my airbox an lid,an i ride in coal the finest dust that you can find on earth an i don't have a prolem,i only clean it like once a month,an still its not that dirty..i always check my boot no dust.my advice keep ur airbox an lid on an keep ur intake tube that runs to the front clean..

[krt400ex]

ok, pls stop saying that is is how i clean the filter. soem ppl have the same issues as me. here it is. the high performance filter is designed for race use...MAX AIRFLOW. that is what i have. then they have the regular replacement filter. it is a bit thicker and doesn't let as much air flow...,maybe that is what the ppl have who have no probs with the filter...i dunno...but it is not because i didn't clean it properly....so far, only one person has actually answered my question....so could someone else give me an answere. i would like to have a few different view points here...thnx

[400EXBill]

Inside of a month, I had to pull my carb apart and clean it twice because of the K&N filter. Filled it up with dust and the motor would bog down when throttled. Kinda scary when hitting the throttle on the face of a jump and the motor bogs. I threw it in the garbage and put the stock one back on. No problems now and I run without the airbox lid.

[400exmatt]

Stick with either uni or twin air!!

[CHEVYZ]

As for K&N, I believe everything that he has said. K&N is not for all riding conditions and like others have said, with the additional airflow that you get from K&N, you sacrifice additional filtration. Now, will this happen to everybody? No. I have been running one on mine for damn near the last 8 years with no problems, but it CAN happen.

As for the cam, IF you are gonna go with Hotcams, I would recommend the Stage 2 over the Stage 1 for those applications. Personally, I think there are better, but for a budget cam they are decent. The Stage 2 will work better with the work IMO. The Stage 1 seems to be aimed at mostly stock bikes.