When I get my I want to fit a panel filter and run it on Optimax. Which panel filter is the best???? I had alot of trouble with the K&N on my Focus and had to remove it, so I don't fancy one of those again!
Many thanks in advance

pipercross seems to be a favourite.

talking of them...... ive got mine sitting in my disused airbox if you want it for a tenner. did about 7000 miles but i cleaned it twice in that period.

did it make much of a difference??
At £10 I may be interested

a little i suppose, people supposidley get 2-3 bhp from them.

offers better filtration than the paper filter anyway.

Believe it or not, when changing your air filter to a performance filter you actually LOSE a bhp or 2. You need to be thinking about air coming out of engine for a filter to give u any more bhps e.g you need to upgrade your manifold and full exhaust system etc for the filter to give u more grunt.

Its called volemetric efficiency! lol.

Make sense ?

Think thats probably true about losing bhp in some cases, but i think a lot of ppl on here have had the rolling roaded and found gains.

To be honest i can't imagine you would even notice a 2bhp gain (or loss)

Mase you hit the nail on the head mate. spot on

sorry but thats complete shisen. no exhaust system is that ineffective that by increasing the density of the forumula in the "bang", the resulting by-products (emmisions) will cause a reduction in power.

not by the amounts we are refering to here anyway. stick a great big turbo on then yes, but add say even throttle bodies will not result in a reduction in power due to excessive back pressures. in will not operate as effeiciently but it will work.

Alright dan, ya st looking sweet!

And if you was too add a performance filter to a completley standard engine....99% of the time you will actually lose BHP's. There alot of people who think they know alot about mechanics but trust its true....Ive seen the tests for all the top manufacture of performcae filters.

Hmmm... well I gained 3 bhp with my Pipercross panel filter.

My point exactly, gains WILL be seen from performance panel filters.

Logically you would think you would gain BHP's for installing performnce filter due to increase of cool air etc etc. But I can assure you that you will lose a couple of BHP's when having a performance filter added to a standard engine (Max power tested all the "top makes" last year). I think I should have pointed out earlier that Im talking about the "cone" filters!

I will try and find the test reults and post them on here for everyone to see.

Ah!

Well that "Cone" changes everything! I think we were all talking about panel filters (as the thread title suggests )

With a cone filter, yes you could lose some BHP, this is due to heat soak. This is when warm air is taken into the engine and like I said above this will reduce the mass of air/fuel mixture in the cylinder, leading to less power. Fitting the appropriate cold air feeds or placing the filter in a heat shield normally stops most of the heat soak and then you will gain some power again.