K&N Air Filter
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Senior User
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 180
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From: Abingdon, MD
K&N Air Filter
I was speaking to my neighbor about his air filter and he to has a K&N in his 1999 Ranger. Although, it wasnt a cone filter. It was using the stock box, and had a K&N inside of it. I never thought about this because i am more used to seeing cones. I also hear about users on this forum talking about building a box for their cone filter. He said this was much cheeper than buying the other kind, but does it work just as well or better?
Posting Guru
Joined: Nov 2003
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From: California Desert
I built my own box around my cone filter. I know for a fact it allows more air flow...but I didn't even try to make all of the seals perfect so I know I'm getting a bit of heated engine air along with the cool stuff coming from the grill. The cone also allows for much more flow than just a K&N in the stock box. But if you already have one, I'd say it would be a waste of money to trash it and switch to a cone with a custom box. That's close to $100 in the two filters, the one you would toss and the new cone you'd be buying. Also, I'm pretty sure my setup isn't smog legal here in Cali. If you decide to go and build your own box, keep the other one handy for that dreaded "Time to smog your vehicle" slip.
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Senior User
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 180
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From: Abingdon, MD
Well i'm sure your information could help someone on this forum. But does anyone know if it works better or just the same? I think i'm really leaning twords this because it's cheeper.
Junior User
Joined: Feb 2004
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From: Wilmington, CA
I put a K&N FIPK on my 97 4.0, I dont think it had any more power, I personaly think it was just louder, and the paper that came with the filter had a dyno graph with it that showed something like a 4HP gain at 5000RPM, or something like that, I do know that my K&N flows more air than my engine will ever need for the simple fact that the filter is the SAME filter that is on my cousins K&N and thats on a chevy 8.1
Posting Guru
Joined: May 2003
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From: York, NE
If your neighbors cone is inside the box, with all the rest of the intake in tact, and it is drawing air from the stock location, it's not going to give any more air flow. It realyl defeats the point of going with a cone filter. To make the cone filter effective, it needs to be open. There are kits you can get to put a cone filter on the end of your stock intake tube, and then make your own box like I did. It was $90 from kustomz.com. The box works too. I went all out using fiberglass insulation and reflective tape. I noticed today that after driving it that the engine side of the box was quite warm, but the intake side was as as cool to the touch. But if you don't want to go through the trouble, I would keep the one you have. Even if it did make a difference it would be so small that it would never be noticed. Intake kits by themself won't really do too much anyways. They need to go along with a good exhaust to get the full benefit out of them, and even then the intake itself only adds power at the upper RPM's because that is when there is the most air being flowed that the different filter is going to make a difference.
