AMSOIL
lifetime 2 Stage Air Filters
AMSOIL
& K&N go head to head.
THE name of the game, as it is said, is to keep
ALL dirt out of your engine. By doing that your engine may last three of four times as
long as one would normally expect an engine to last. 
Detroit engineers tell us the dirt that actually
does the MOST damage to an engine is between 5 and 20 microns in size. Most conventional
(paper and other types of material) filters will only filter out dirt particles as small
as 18 to 30 microns in size. Since about 80% of the dirt that ends up in your engine comes
through the air intake system, that's a great deal of dirt that's getting through.
Your engine "breathes" air to mix with fuel for combustion -- about 9,000
gallons of air for every one gallon of gas. And there is a lot more dust and grit in the
air than is generally realized -- over 400 tons of suspended dirt in a cubic mile of air
over a typical city; and the concentration can be much higher in rural areas where there
is frequent travel over unpaved roads
As an example, on the older carbureted engines, have you ever taken the air filter housing
off and felt down inside the carb? If you were to wipe you finger around the inside you
would find a lot of dirt and dust sticking to the side of the carburetor. If that much
dirt sticks to the side of your carb how much do you think went down inside the engine?
The air filter is the first line of defense against the abrasive airborne grit that can
cause serious damage inside your engine. But in order to do the job right, an air filter
must effectively filter the dangerous particles out of the incoming air without
obstructing the vital flow of air that is sustaining the engine.
How the AMSOIL 2
stage air filter works.
AMSOIL has literally gone to great lengths in
order to provide the best possible filters for both filtration and airflow. Unlike
traditional paper air filters, AMSOIL Foam Air Filters are constructed from two layers of
polyurethane foam wrapped around an expanded metal cage. The foam is wetted with a light
coating of AMSOIL Foam Filter Oil or "tack" oil. As air is drawn through the
honeycomb network of oiled fibers, dirt particles are trapped -- only clean air emerges
from the foam air filter and passes into the engine.
Because the foam is much thicker than paper, the filtering area is more spread out and air
is able to pass through it easily and quickly. Compare this to the single-layer, tight
passages of a thin paper filter. The AMSOIL Foam Air Filters allow more air -- less dirt!
AMSOIL Foam Air Filters keep oils and engines cleaner for longer periods with the most
effective air filtration available today. AMSOIL Air Filters provide superior performance
in all three critical areas of filtration: efficiency (dirt-stopping), capacity
(dirt-holding) and resistance (air flow). AMSOIL Air Filters are uniquely designed to hold
wear-causing dirt while allowing only clean air into the engine for better performance,
better fuel economy, lower exhaust emissions and longer engine life.
Testing done by "The Diesel Page" http://www.thedieselpage.com
Jim Bigley, author of The Diesel Page Website,
put the AMSOIL Two-stage Air Filter to side-by-side testing with two other popular air
filters. Bigley tested a K&N #1690 oiled gauze performance filter, an AC A644C paper
filter with an oiled foam wrap and the AMSOIL TS-52. All three filters were tested as
received.
"I'm impressed," Bigley told independent AMSOIL Dealer Don Peters of Idaho.
Bigley collected a road dust sample and treated it to pulverizing and grain sorting
processes used in geological sample preparation. He tested each filter with a mixture of
road dust grain sizes: four ounces with grain size smaller than 0.0049 inches, one ounce
with grain size between 0.0049 inches and 0.0082 inches, and less than one ounce with
grain size between 0.0082 inches and 0.0098 inches.
Bigley used a vacuum assembly, rated at 540 CFM, to pull air through the airbag. To test
filtering efficiency, he coated three 4" X 4" ceramic plates with a very sticky
tack oil and placed the plates inside the airbox on top of the fan cage so they could trap
the particles that passed through the filter. He photographed each plate after test end.
Bigley reports, "K&N came in dead last in this test as expected. I expected the
AC filter to do the best in the filtering efficiency test, but it came in just slightly
(emphasis Bigley's) ahead of the K&N. Before testing the AC I didn't think anything
could get through it, especially with (its) oiled foam wrap. The AMSOIL filter surprised
me by winning this contest by a big margin. The advertising claim on the AMSOIL box which
says, 'Proven Best for Removing Airborne Dirt' is no idle claim."
In his conclusion, Bigley reports, "From a filtering efficiency standpoint, the
AMSOIL oiled foam filter element will protect your engine better than the other two style
filters tested. No doubt about it."
