K&N air filter- updated, the real story and the final fix- guaran teed!

Date: Friday, August 3, 2001 From: Pascal Reid Over the last six months, I have sent numerous posts with my testing of the K&N air filter. I adjusted the carbs 8-10 times making numerous changes to the needle, the air/fuel screw, and doing side by side testing with the stock air filter Nathan Burney donated for the cause. My conclusion was that the K&N just was not a quality filter and the stock actually allowed more effective airflow than the K&N. On the 11th of July, after admitting that there was nothing else I could do to get the filter to work, I sent an e-mail to Dynojet and K&N explaining the lack of airflow and if they had any suggestions to rectify the poor performance. A few days later I received this e-mail back from Dynojet. ------- Because that filter is brand new to the market, we have not done any testing with it yet. What I would recommend is putting your stock filter back in, and hold it until we can update our kits for the K&N Filter. Usually there is no changes that have to be done for the filter, but on that bike, the filter does a lot. Phil Dynojet Research 1-800-992-4993 ----------------- Then a few days after the e-mail from Dynojet I received a response from K&N. Unlike the experience another lister had with the response of paper or leaves being in the filter, Lisa Sutton from K&N was not only professional in her reply but persistent to get my 100% satisfaction and resolution to the air filter woes. A couple of e-mails back and forth, and this was her response after chasing down the head of the powersports dept at K&N: When we first developed the air filter we developed it with a smaller opening on the filter which flowed less air than stock. This would make the bike run rich. We have since then redeveloped the air filter that actually flows more than stock. If you would like to try and return and exchange your filter we can try that and see if it helps with the rich problem. You can reach us at 800/858-3333. Thank you Lisa I called her and accepted her offer to try out the new filter. My goal this time was to just do a plug-n-play with no mods made at all leaving the Dynojet settings "as is". Lisa sent the new air filter "next day delivery" . I proceeded to look at it, see a better looking filter and swapped with the stock air filter. Before starting the testing, I made sure to check the settings covered below and that the carbs were perfectly synched, all looked ready. Test environment: Carb setting- Dynojet Stage 1 (3rd clip on needle, 3 twists on air/fuel screw.) synched carbs to level from idle to 6K (less than half a cm off on stick at 6K) Temp- 73F-86F Roll on at 4th gear and 4K on tach (40mph). (Goal here is to see smooth acceleration with little to no lag, surge and/or hesitation) Terminology:(mine not the dictionary) hesitation= slight delay initially then responds to throttle input surge=responds to throttle input but not smooth Stock filter At gradual WOT- smooth all the way up. At quick WOT (wide open throttle) slight hesitation but very minor, nice pull. cruise/steady speed- okay, very minor random surges   OLD K&N Air Filter (From old testing results) At gradual WOT- slight hesitation At quick WOT- serious surge and hesitation (lags .5 seconds) possible stalling if throttle not released. begins pulling at around 6K cruise/steady speed- okay, like stock just not as crisp   NEW K&N Air Filter At gradual WOT -smooth all the way up At quick WOT- VERY slight surge pulls nicely and quickly cruise/steady speed- much improved and smooth- better than stock here The question you may be asking is, "did the new filter work?" Well, I can say the NEW filter is night and day compared to the old filter. As Lisa mentioned the hole is enlarged to accommodate more air flow. An analogy would be (size not performance) old K&N is to new K&N as Stock is to snorkletomy. The old hole is 4.5cm the new 5.75cm. The NEW K&N is better now than the stock. It is smooth at steady throttle, smooth on acceleration, quick to get up to speed for passing and the hesitation is so minor it's not really even worth mentioning. Note however that this is based on WOT from 4K, if your at the normal 5-6K one rides at there is immediate and quick acceleration with no problem at all. So if you have one of the early prototypes, which has a raised hole (the new filter is completely flat on top) you may want to pull it off the shelf and call K&N for a swap. I was informed that the filter was replaced about a month ago so if your filter is older than that check with K&N to see if you qualify. One thing I am convinced of, after all the testing I did on the old filter, I can tell you the new filter works significantly better and it's a keeper. I strongly suggest all of you that have battled the K&N problem give them a another try, I assure you it WILL be worth it. If anyone gets a response from Customer Service they are not happy with, consider asking for Lisa. Pascal