I know I've seen this elsewhere, (as always) but since I have installed my torque tube and taken out the silencer ring, and shortly be swiss cheesing the bottom of the box, my question is will the increased airflow affect the little gauge thing on the side of the airbox? I know it cant be all that important, since you guys w/ a BHAF dont even have one anymore. Just wondering what to do if I see that it has popped into the red zone. Air box BOMBing- the best (AND worst) thing to do for better MPG! All you out there who have done it know what I mean!

 

How did people survive all those years without the filter minder? It's just there to help tell you when the flow is reduce enough to service/replace the filter. With a swiss cheese air box, I don't see it functioning correctly anymore. IMHO
Mike

 

It is designed to pull down if anything restricts airflow enough to cause a vacuum on the clean air side of the filter. Theoretically, it should still work and will indicate a restriction.

 

I don't trust the filter minder. Before doing the airbox mod the filter minder would pull down to 75% on the first hard run with a brand new filter. Since the mod the minder hasn't gone higher than 35%.

MikeyB

 

you can get in cab mounted air filter restriction gauges too... then you can real time monitor it [SW makes a 5"-40"h20 filter restriction gauge] i plan on putting in a test fitting to see how good/bad the restriction is.. i have a old industrial 4" panel mount 0"-60" h20 gauge i will put on some time this year to test how restrictive my bhaf is under load [~2,000rpm, 25psi boost, +1000* egt]

 

Sounds like the minder is doing its job. You obviously freed up some airflow upstream of it when you did the mod.

 

I noticed that on mine too. I ordered some 4" rubber elbows from Peterbilt today, $15 each, allready swiss-cheesed the bottom of the airbox. My restriction went from around 50% down to about maybe 10%, if that.

 

You mean that people actually use those gauges on the air filter box lid. To be honest, I never knew they even worked correctly much less use them for determining when to change my filter.

I just throw in a new filter at every oil change but I do a lot of dusty off road driving on top of heavy pulling.

 

Naw, I change the filter every 15k miles and ignore the guess-O-meter.
Next filter I'm going to try the Amsoil (Donaldson) Ea filter.

MikeyB

 

I used a K & N Filter in my '96. I am considering using one in my 2004.5.
Has anyone tried a K & N in a 2004.5 +?
Any increase/decrease in fuel milage?
Any increase/decrease in performance?
It seems that a one time cost for a quality product is worth more than continious standard filter changes.

Am I wasting my money?

Regards

 

I've heard that you shouldn't get K&N. They don't filter enough for diesels.

 

I used the K&N in my '99. Every time I would pull the hose, the turbo blades were coated with film and dirt.
My 04.5 has never seen anything else but a new NAPA air filter every 10k miles.

 

Thanks for the info guys. I guess I'll stck to the tried and true.

Thanks again.
Cheers Frank

 

I never paid too much attention to the Filter Minder. I just changed my filter every 15,000 miles and didn't worry about it. Now I'm running a BHAF and I change it every 30,000 miles (could probably go longer but $30 every 30,000 miles is pretty cheap).