The AUSubaru.com.au Forums

Just after some opinions and personal experiences on air filters.
My L series sedan with EJ20 currently has a paper pod filter.
My understanding is that these are great for performance, simply letting more air get in, but are pretty obviously terrible for creek crossings and watersports in general.
Not to mention it gets sand caught in the "fins" after a day on the beach.

I put a unifilter (foam soaked in oil) in my old brumby with EA81 before going up cape york and found it great for repelling water and catching dust. (Once it clogs up you can just wash it out and re-oil it)
I can't remember how they compare to paper as far as air flow goes...

Looking at the unifilter site, http://www.uniflow.com.au/ , I see they have a foam pod filter.
I thought this looks like a good idea, a lot cheaper than a proper impreza one too, but maybe still not as good for water as a box with filter inside?

So, what is everyone else using? (snorkels don't count)
Give us your thoughts and opinions please.

Cheers,
Tommo.

In my Liberty, GM Holden air filter (VN - VS Commodore range $8.70 from Holden) but also have Commodore K&N filter as well but needs cleaning.
Cheers
AP

big k+n pod. water in the air cleaner doesnt bother me too much atm- it hits my dizzy first :s

A lot of people have started off with pods when doing an EJ conversion only to turn back to the either the L series or EJ air box to protect the filter.

My personal opinion is you should try and have some sort of air box if it's an offroader... and just go with some sort of pod filter you can oil if it's on-road.

Mud and water on any kind of filter is not it's friend.

Dave

ive got wt looks like a cheapo pod on mine..which came with the Lib donor in the first place and have kept it.
i also dont really "want" to do any major water/creek/lake/huge puddle crossings in my car. if i did id get a snorkel for that kinda stuff

PS - i dont trust Oiled Filters. especially on EFI'd cars with Maf sensors and the likes.

If the filter is oiled correctly it wont effect the MAF. True if you over oil it the MAF will play up.

It's not just water you will need to avoid with an exposed pod Matt. Mud has water in it and gets all the way through the filter. I was shocked once after a mud trip when i removed my filter to find small specs of dirt that had been washed into the intake.

Dave

Im running the standard air box with a washable Finer filter panel element. Creek crossing arent a real problem with mine for water in engine but water on some electrics still needs looking at this will get done on the pull apart and refit coming up.

wanky wagon has a blue pod filter to match the other blue highlights in the engine bay...lol

alex

FUJITA dry filter on the sti as i run a inner gaurd pod or the Trust/Greddy 'Mushroom' style dry filters also work well.

for an offroad beast like yours tommo I reckon you should sort out a snorkel and a sealed airbox off another vehicle.

something like an early pajero "barrel" style finter will give you tons of airflow, and allows easy plumbing of a snorkel

I used a Donaldson airfilter housing on my registered Brumby and a double layer oiled Unifilter on the racecar (because I ran out of room). The Donaldson is without a doubt the ultimate in off-road filtration. As used on trucks and earth-moving machinery all over the world.

I second the donaldson, i come from a farm, and if its good enough for a 6lt diesel engine working in large amounts of fine dust, surely it must be ok for a 2lt subaru engine.

Dual stage unifilter here

Std Ryco panel filter . Imo Pipercross make the best OEM style elements - from a performance filtration point of view . Less restriction and better filtration than K&N . It only takes a little too little or too much filter oil for a K&N to not filter or not flow too well .

I HATE pods , look tacky and can often hear induction roar . They take air from warm engine bays and thats not a great idea .
If you can get a pressure drop test to show that a OEM style panel is forming a restriction then do something about it . If its not you've gained nothing and potentially given the cops something to defect or a reason go looking for things you don't want them to know about .

At least for an EA82/T I'd just use a good quality panel in the std box and call it a day . All I did to mine was remove the plastc tube in the air box itself - from memory and fit a ryco . Previously it had I think a Nissan panel filter which didn't fit the box properly , the lid wouldn't seal shut and the over centre locks were bent . Going back two cars ago I had a DR30 Skyline (factory FJ20 Turbo) and it used the Nissan sized panel filter on a 150 Kw 2L engine and it went fairly well . I doubt a 115 Hp (85 Kw) EA82T engine is going to run a similarly sized MPFI/T element out of flow , not if its a good one anyway .

Cheers A .

Thanks for all the input guys, gives me something to think about.
Might even look into snorkels further...

Do a search. I had info about my snorkel set up in a post some place.

Dave

Alex wrote:wanky wagon has a blue pod filter to match the other blue highlights in the engine bay...

Why does this not surprise us alex?

I'm still running the original airbox and paper filter. I'll probabily still be using this box and filter once I get around to sourcing a snorkel - I've had a little bit of water over the bonnet with no spark issues but found mud in the bottom of the air box a week later (when i changed the filter).

Cheers

Bennie

my Brumby uses a commodore air box (drawing air through what used to be an indicator light hole) so cheapo but good Pheonix panel filters fit the bill. a side benefit i believe for you aquatic dudes is that the intake is on the top side and you can have some good drainage before drowning your engine in filtered water !

I had used the K&N standard filter replacement for the L-Series and the same type in the Liberty. They seem to work fine. I've cleaned them a lot more than they say, but I also expose my vehicles to many km of what they term as non-street conditions.

AlpineRaven wrote:In my Liberty, GM Holden air filter (VN - VS Commodore range $8.70 from Holden) but also have Commodore K&N filter as well but needs cleaning...

To reword:

AlipneRaven uses a stock generic fitment, non-genuine Subaru filter made by another automotive manufacturer that fits perfectly and is cheaper than OE

Just because the K&N fits that other model doesn't mean it should be called that (although a number of parts places sell it with that description). It also fits the some 300ZX / Fairlady, Liberty/Legacy and early Imprezas from memory.

Just removing reference to that other brand

NOI.

No air box at all on the Superu! Air is filtered by a custom setup at the snorkel head that consists of a piece of 3M coarse foam with a washable fine mesh filter behind it. Works great, easy to keep clean and cheap!







Also have the dyson style extreme conditions filter for heavy dust conditions, but the current setup usually suffices!



As soon as the lift kit arrives from BYBs, it's gonna be a very happy new year!