Air filters or no?

[Buickguy3]

  A screen cuts air flow by a bunch. Remember, no air flows through the metal part. A flat cloth cover only has X number of square inches of area. A pleated cover is better. On home A/C systems most come with a 1 inch thick pleated filter. On a commercial system they recommend at least a 2 inch pleated filter to keep from Evap. freezing. When we built our filter for the lakester we called K&N and they said that the 10X12 1 inch filter that we had picked was way small even for our old Buick. I think the number they came up with was we needed something like 200 sq. inches.
    Doug 

[Hot Rod Lincoln]

On Tuesday night the engine made 21 psi boost without an air cleaner or screen.

On Friday night with the screen it made 21 psi boost at the same rpm.

when we go to Westech we'll try a couple things to see what happens.

[Hot Rod Lincoln]

maybe a shop vac pre-filter:

[wobblywalrus]

You can put a spigot on the manifold between the filter and the carb.  Put a clear piece of hose on the spigot with the end in a can of water.  The vacuum in the manifold pulls the water up the tube when the engine is running.  Restrictive air filter systems pull the water up higher.   

[racergeo]

  A carb guru told me that on a Holley 4150 they saw a big CFM loss till they put on a 14" W by 8" tall high flow type filter. So if you have a plenty big carb maybe a K@N with there trick top that is also a filter? I'd tell you the guru's name but then you'd know what kind of carb I'm running and if I go real fast, well you know.....

[Hot Rod Lincoln]

  A carb guru told me that on a Holley 4150 they saw a big CFM loss till they put on a 14" W by 8" tall high flow type filter. So if you have a plenty big carb maybe a K@N with there trick top that is also a filter? I'd tell you the guru's name but then you'd know what kind of carb I'm running and if I go real fast, well you know.....

Well since we aren't running a carb ..........................      

[Esslinger Eng]

It's super common for the higher hp turbo engines to gain 50-100hp by removing the air filter from the turbo inlet.

From my experience, your "plenum" right on the turbo inlet is actually worse than having nothing at all on there...

[Hot Rod Lincoln]

It's super common for the higher hp turbo engines to gain 50-100hp by removing the air filter from the turbo inlet.

From my experience, your "plenum" right on the turbo inlet is actually worse than having nothing at all on there...

How concerned would you be about running an air filter at all ?

I'm not all that worried about it, but my father is.

[jh333]

I would bet that the 100k RPMs of the turbo impeller will make quick work of any salt particles that MAY be picked up in the air flow. A giant blender with unlimited HP! !!!!!!

[tauruck]

I'm seeing apples, bananas, strawberries.

[Buickguy3]

  Salt particles do lots of damage.
   Doug 

[hotrod]

The salt particles will also make quick work of the edges of the inlet impeller.
At 100k rpm the outer edge of a 2 inch inlet impeller is moving at 873 ft/sec or close to 600 mph.

Small water droplets in the air stream will eat up a turbo impeller hard salt crystals will sand blast it and destroy the outer edge of the impeller very quickly.
This could lead to imbalance and catastrophic failure of the turbo which typically results in the engine eating some of the shrapnel.

[Hot Rod Lincoln]

  Salt particles do lots of damage.
   Doug 

certainly they can... depends on where the air is coming in I'd think.  With the N/A engine I don't recall any salt sitting behind the radiator or on the front of the engine where the intake is now.  I'd think a wrap or the Shop Vac pre-filter foam would capture particles that could damage the turbo.  I could be wrong though. 

anyway we'll have time on the chassis dyno to figure a few things out. So an A/B test or two will be in order

[Harold Bettes]

There is a common misconception that any air filtration system will cost power from restriction to the airflow path into the engine. The filtration system does not need to be a power robbing solution however with most folks wanting the "quick and easy" off-the-shelf answer will probably make the wrong choice in air filtration.

The air filter system can be one way to smooth and straigten the air going into the engine. Sorta like an oil filter - surface area might be something to look at in order to decrease the potential losses. It depends on the media and the flow rate.

Don't know about you, but the care and effort put into prep of cylinder heads, seats, and cylinder walls encourages me to protect the stuff as much as possible.

Regards to All,
HB2

[Dean Los Angeles]

Even a low buck effort has a huge investment in time and energy. Think of salt crystals as granite rocks, because the damage would be the same. The dust at El Mirage is as abrasive as it gets and passes through a out of filters.

The wire mesh works for birds and boulders. Might as well run nothing. You run the heads on a flow bench, run the filter setup too. The flow through a filter can be calculated. Running a tiny filter gets you tiny results. Just because you don't have room for a proper filter means you still have work to do.