Air Filter Induced Catastrophic Cummins Failure

[Edward Buker]

One other thing on filters..... When a company says that they are making a filter that is less restrictive or provides more HP you need to understand how they did that. There are only two ways to reduce restriction, one is increasing the pore size and the other is to increase the surface area. The Donaldson filter that I referenced has an extreme amount of pleating and surface area for its size, more than any other filter I have seen. It also has filter media with a very small pore size to capture small particles at a very high efficiency. They have optimized the design to obtain the best result.

The Donaldson Endurance testing indicates high efficiency particle removal in the sub micron range and an overall 99.99% particle removal rate. The K+N quotes between a 96% and 99% efficiency but they do not include sub micron particles at all in their test. K+N refer to course dust tests only in the independant lab tests.

To put it clearly K+N does a fair to poor job at removing the boulders and Donaldson does a fine job at removing the grains of sand by comparison. I was not impressed with K+N filtration at all.....they are selling cleanable filters and not filters that produce very clean air for engines. Very large difference between 96% efficiency and 99.99% when hundreds of millions of particles are in the airstream needing to be removed over the life of the filter.

I'm with Gerald on this one, couldn't pay me to own one. You spend a huge amount of money for these engines, filtration is the last place you want to save a dime....

Later Ed

[Jeff Watt]

Just out of curiosity is there a way to retrofit/change the large canister type of filter that I have to use(replace$) with a cartridge type - I am not referring to the k&n.

I expect someone/company with more expertise than I could fabricate a metal canister that fits the intake plenum box and then connects to the engine intake pipe but can use a cartridge instead of having to replace the whole metal unit which, as was pointed out, it about 30" long and about 1' wide (in its box).


If so, then could easily carry a couple of filters and and they would be less $.

Jeff

[Keith Moffett]

Thanks Gerald, you saved me a bit of worry.  I just found a source for a K&N that would fit ours and was considering it since our canister type is so hard top clean or replace.  The last new one I had sent UPS from Bend and NAPA here wants $385.
I do wonder though if there is a way to use a small K&N as a prefilter to the main OEM one?  Seems that would keep the main filter cleaner longer and flow more air if it were kept clean.

What say you all?
Keith

[Bill Sprague]

I ordered the Donaldson at http://www.filterspro.com/index.cfm.  The shipping was $20 and the filter $109.  No sales tax outside of AZ.  I have never done business with Filter Product Corporation, so we will see what happens.  

I'll report back when I get it successfully installed.

[Bill Sprague]

Update:  The filter arrived in a couple of days.  I put off working on it until yesterday.  It was a lot easier than I thought it would be.  

The air filter used by Beaver on my motorhome is a big, self contained can mounted on a shelf in the engine compartment.  It is held down with a single clamp, connects to the engine with a hose clamp on a rubber boot and connects to the inlet with a similar boot.  

I expected it to be difficult to get the rubber boots off, but it was not.  Every job on my motorhome seems to take three times longer than planned.  This one took 20 minutes.

I started by vacuuming the area with a shop vac.  I took the clamps off and the boots pulled loose without any hassle.  I put the new one in place, slid the boots on and replaced the clamps.

I decided that I didn't like the way Beaver installed the clamp on the engine side.  Considering how important it is to keep dirt out of the engine, a single low grade hose clamp seems to be problem waiting to happen.  The clamp used is a quick release style where the threads of the screw can fold out of the way -- on purpose or by accident.  I'm adding a second clamp as a backup.

The existing filter was about three years old with about 30,000 miles on it.  It was not very dirty and appeared to be in great condition.  

The filter change was so easy I decided to change out the house water pump.  The old one has been having a little difficulty when the water tank gets low.  It might be an aging check valve.  The water pump did take three times longer than planned!