Okay just got back from the desert last night. Around 600 miles of highway and 200 miles of off road. Dry extreme dust of the California Mojave Desert with temperatures averaging 117 degrees sucking dust the entire time as I was not the leader.

The K&N was hammered. I don't think a typical cheapy dry filter would have done well. I removed the entire air box and washed, dried, and re-installed. Washed the K&N, dried, re-oiled, and re-installed. Easy, and she breathes easy again.

Bent my driver step rock crawling..I removed them last night in the driveway with the help of a couple of ice cold corona's. The H3 looks way better without them. I will now be installing new rock bars.

The rear e-locker is amazing...and I am highly impressed with the paint as it held up well against the desert pinstripping (from the creosole bushes).

H3 brakes do not like dust and sand as they begin to squeek alot.

Dura-Tracs rock guys, no flats, perfect condition with no cuts or wear issues. Several people with BFG's had flats from rocks and a few creosole bush branch punctures.

Overall it was a great trip and I was able to go everywhere a loaded Rubicon went with ease while enjoying the A\C, leather, and Sat Radio!

OnStar phone service is bitchen!

 

Awesome! Good to hear man! I'm glad you had fun. I tell EVERYBODY on here; take off your damn nerf bars and crank the torsion bars. The best looking, best acting, and best bang-for-the-buck I've ever done to one of my vehicles.

 

Bottom line... Oiled K&N Filter is the WINNER!!!

I'll get one tom!

 

Big debate, The oiled air filter does cause problems with some vehicles equipped with a Mass Air Flow (MAF) sensor. It can cover the sensing portion with oil and dirt. This can cause the sensor to malfunction and increase emissions and potentially damage the catalyst. I am a K&N fan for high performance high flow filter systems for off-road. The engines are rebuilt nearly every other run (50-100 miles). The damage that may occur if the filter allows too much dirt to pass will be internal in the engine and could cause premature failure of the piston rings, cylinders and bearings.
It's buyer beware and now you've been given some facts.
Check the specs of the K&N against the OEM as far as the size of particulates allowed. (# of microns)

these debates are so boring,,, the above a quote from an "ex,pert"

i think ill just dunk my az filt in 10w40,,just for the winter!

actually for 12 bucks i can toss it every 2nd oil change,no mess no fuss,,,NO risk

btw,does anyone believe that a $13 kn oil filt is really better than a $6 filt at walmart!??

my bet is they paste their name on the same generic filt and double the price

 

FWIW, I put a K&N on just after I bought my H3. At about 50K miles I pulled it off to clean it and found I had installed it badly - apparently got the hose clamp too tight or off in position - and the filter rubbed on the bottom of the air box and was damaged. So I put the OEM paper filter back on and immediately noticed about a 1MPG drop in mileage on my ScanGuage. Replace with a new K&N (installed much more carefully) and saw mileage go back up to the 16-17 MPG I was used to seeing.

Now that is absolutely non-scientific or authoritative but I'm convinced to stay with K&N. Y'all will have to make your own judgements.

 

Now thats interesting that you could actually see a difference in the scangauge. Thats pretty awesome. What about on paper though? Could you verify the mileage differences on paper or did you not have the filter in long enough?

 

I had the OEM filter in for about a month & definitely saw a small difference in my mileage - right at about 1 MPG. Of course as they say your mileage may vary.

 

I took my H3 in for the hood louver recall and had them also check out the engine due to a rough idle when comming to a stop. They called me and told me they had to clean the throttle body (covered under warranty), and told me to remove the K&N because it messes with the MAF sensor and the oil from the filter can gum up the throttle body. Not sure if its true, hahaha still haven't removed the K&N.

I also had issues with the truck not starting once in a while, security system issue and had to wait 10 minutes to try and start again. They replaced the ignition no questions asked, and haven't had a problem since.

 

Was your k&n oiled or dry? Probably oiled right? Thats pretty impressive; 1-mpg is an extra 23 miles off the same amount of money and gas!

Yep thats the downsides to an oiled filter; they do mess with the maf and cause issues. Generally it's easy to clean them; some throttle body spray does the trick.

 

It was oiled. The way it came from K&N. Frankly I was surprised at the difference but I have been generally satisfied with K&N's in a bunch of vehicles. I did find that I let the filter go a bit too long in our '97 Grand Cherokee and it started performing poorly. A quick session with the cleaning kit and all was right again.