Air filter?

[hex0rz]

Hey guys, new here. This subject is what has got me registered here and staying here now. I looked on moparmans tech articles and saw the one about the BHAF.So I got under the hood and out of curiosity, I gave it all a looky-loo. What I found next was un-nerving. The tube to the turbo inlet was taken off and the inlet to the turbo looked exactly like the picture of the one in his article. Upon further reading, it turns out that it is because of those good ol' k&n filters. Well, it turns out I have one too!The thing is, I'm nervous about what damage it may have caused. Any debris like that is NOT good! My truck seems to run and perform just fine, but I can also be on bought time. I check the air filter and the filter is downright pitiful! It is just caked with crap! I'm surprised the truck has not sucked down the minder.I checked the minder and it is operational. Although, I cannot figure out how to remove the minder from the housing? The rubber is one piece and I do not want to break the minder. Any tricks?I'm gonna look into the BHAF tomorrow and see if my local NAPA has one. Would anyone know if they or someone else would carry the sock for it too? Would the sock be of any benefit?I realize I will lose the coldflow because it will suck in air from the engine bay, so has anyone made a box for them or something of the sort?

[Mopar1973Man]

Head over to Vulcan Performance hes got a good deal on BHAF filters. http://www.vulcanperformance.com/Big-Honkin-Air-Filter-BHAF-p/bhaf.htm As for for the outer wears you'll have to do some creative design work to make a craddle for the filter to sit in so it doesn't wear holes in the outerwears. I had one and the washboard roads of Idaho wore holes in mine in less than 6 months... The filter minder is just a plastic barbed fitting. Use a little WD40 around the neck working into the grommet and with a screwing action back and forth it should come out. Then you should be able to remove the grommet.

[98whitelightnin]

Here is my BHAF and outerwears

and here is the plumbers foam I put under it, I doubled it up where the filter actually sets and put a little bit on the battery too

--- Update to the previous post...

I also pulled the 3 bolts that hold the original airbox out so they wouldnt rub any holes in it.

[hex0rz]

Your outerwear does not look like the others I have seen. I'm looking for the ones that are more like a cloth material. Does yours work well?

AND DANG! The filter sure does wear away at that foam! What is causing that excessive wear? Is the filter that heavy and have sandpaper on it? I looked at vulcan but I also have not compared to local prices yet. Vulcan seems to be a bit steep. As for the cradle, I was thinking about making something that will use the bolts and a little cradle I can mount the filter on and clamp down. Does the heat shield matter much?

--- Update to the previous post...

Well, was doing a little researching and pricing on the BHAF. Around town, not so good. $78 is about the avg. and they would not be able to get it 'till Tuesday. Although NAPA did carry the PN# 6637 filter for $58 I believe. Which was not in stock. But they had the $78 one in stock! :banghead: So I called every dealer in the area and went through the list.

2 places I found on the net that is selling filters cheaper than vulcan performance so far:

http://www.sonomatesting.com

Donaldson B105006: $42.10

Hastings AF1012: $27.54 (Description says Champion, not sure if it is right filter)

http://www.summitracing.com

WiX 42790: $54.95 (Not cheaper, but another source)

Fram CA6818: $35.99

I wonder if there are any other places out there... hmmm.

[98whitelightnin]

Your outerwear does not look like the others I have seen. I'm looking for the ones that are more like a cloth material. Does yours work well?

AND DANG! The filter sure does wear away at that foam! What is causing that excessive wear? Is the filter that heavy and have sandpaper on it? I looked at vulcan but I also have not compared to local prices yet. Vulcan seems to be a bit steep. As for the cradle, I was thinking about making something that will use the bolts and a little cradle I can mount the filter on and clamp down. Does the heat shield matter much?

This is the only outerwear I have ever seen, I ordered it from http://outerwears.com/ and got my filter from my brother at a parts store. He got me a good deal at $35 ad I gave almost that much for the outerwear. I guess it works good, I ran it for a few weeks before I got the opterwear and cant tell a difference with or without. I never ran a heatshield but Mike's research leads us to believe better mpg is achived with higher iat temps so you dont want cold air. When I first put it in I used a 5 gallon bucket and cut it down where it would just set down on 2 of the 3 bolts and it worked fine but kinda looked crappy. The filter isnt eating into the foam its just kinda dented it a little. Here is what my first settup looked like

[Mopar1973Man]

Should peel that label off and stick your filter minder there...My first filter than ran 7 years and 130K miles.Then the location of the filter minder...The the heat shield I used backing nuts to pick up the filter above the A/C line a bit more. Also the studs are flush with the top of the nuts and don't touch the filter...

[hex0rz]

98whitelightnin, man! I did not realize that one of these filters could fill a 5gal. bucket, lol! I'll try and look into it more about the outerwear I saw. I'm pretty sure it was a cloth like material. Maybe he had one made up by his wife? I also found this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Donaldson-ECB085011-Fram-CA6818-HD-air-filter-Wix-46637-/400252228452?hash=item5d30e45364&item=400252228452&pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&vxp=mtr Its a Fram, so would it be just as good as any other of the brands of the BHAF? I can atleast have it delivered to my door at the price of a bhaf from vulcan and save some money at the expense of time. Would the fram compare to the 6637 filter from napa? Cause if they are the same, I could save some time instead of money, I guess.

[Mopar1973Man]

Here you go... http://articles.mopar1973man.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=41:bhaf-big-honkin-air-filter&catid=24&Itemid=107

[98whitelightnin]

I personally wont run fram but alot of people do. The filter you are looking at is the smaller filter for the ford powerstroke BHAf, the wix 42790 or napa 2790 is alot bigger and yes it is the size of a 5 gallon bucket. You gonna spend some $$$ on it but like Mike said, it will last a long time and it filters better than after market cai's do. I think vulcan probably has the best price on the combo for them unless you know someone in Tyler Tx that can get you one from my brother.

[hex0rz]

The one on ebay is like this one from NAPA: http://www.napaonline.com/Catalog/CatalogItemDetail.aspx?R=FIL6637_0331399939 Which is the smaller one. But I wonder if that is the only difference... http://www.napaonline.com/Catalog/CatalogItemDetail.aspx?R=FIL2790_0331326543 ^they have this in stock for $78. I suppose even if I did spend the money for it, it really would still be a cheap alt. in the long run. Considering how many miles you get out of it...

[dripley]

I have the same outerware as 98white does. It is the only one I ever saw. Except mine aint that pretty any more. Guess I should wash it. I do not have a heat sheild on it and have no problems egt's summer or winter. I did not really notice any differance when I made the change.

[98whitelightnin]

Vulcan has that $80 something dollar one for $44, plus you get the outerwear from them and save on shipping.

[keachman1]

Where do you get the outwears from? Or did I miss it in the post above?

[98whitelightnin]

http://outerwears.com/proddetail.asp?prod=2086 http://www.vulcanperformance.com/SearchResults.asp?Search=bhaf

[hex0rz]

Well, I looked on vulcan performance. The shipping, outerwear, and filter would cost $92. I broke down and went to NAPA and spent the money on the one they had in stock as I just could not be patient enough for it to come in the mail. It cost $83! BUT, I went to walmart and spent $5-6 on some fleece fabric and had the mother-in-law make me an outerwear! It looks beautimus! Well, before I started putting my grubby hands all over it. :lol:I did not see any tips or tricks on how to install the filter minder. I just matched the hole size the OEM box had and drilled a hole in the BHAF. Its a 3/4" hole, but the hole is much thicker than the OEM box. I dunno how you guys did it, but I was not comfortable with it in there as it felt like it could practically fall out with some vibration.So I counter-sunk the hole a little to fit it in more and used 3m weatherstripping/windshield adhesive. We'll see how that fairs.Let me know if anyone wants pics of the outerwear. I really think its a work of art! I almost thought I could make a living off of making outerwears!

[Mopar1973Man]

Don't ask... :rolleyes:I take the largest drill I got (which is a 1/2") and ream it out any old way I can. (Gunt, cussin') Never the less the hole is close and the grommet is tight...

[98whitelightnin]

Ok, now I have to see this makeshift outerwear. I usually use my southern engineering to its fullest (like the 5 gallon bucket) and love to see others use theirs too.

[hex0rz]

Haha, well, I suppose I should have made the hole 1/2" as it would have been good practice. As the saying goes, "You can take away, but not add"!

Needless to say, I think the 3m definitely helped. It sits in their nice now and I'm confident it wont fall out.

Well, because I find the little worm in your pic to be a handsome youngin', 98whitelightnin, I will post pics! That pic gets me everytime I see it! Just don't let the wife know I said that. She would be all over me about having kids!

Keep in mind, I got my grubby hands all over it, so it does not look clean. Especially it being white! I have enough material left over to 2-3 more of these things, lol. The wal-mart lady felt generous, I guess.

I used 550cord, and a figure-eight-on-a-bight to tighten the end around the filter. I think it will work great!

I just gotta finish up the mounting plate for it, and she will be good to go! I'll post pics of that when I finish it too.

[Mopar1973Man]

Hell yeah... That looks awesome...

[hex0rz]

<--- Closest thing I can come to take bow and take credit! :lmao:Well, I couldn't work on the plate for the BHAF today as I pulled a 24ft travel trailer for the in-laws instead. Got to put some miles on the filter and see what the truck could do on the new tranny rebuild. I would have to say it handled very nicely! Except for the fact I really want an exhaust brake! I had trailer brakes, but I was on a windy road next to a big river.I turned on the O/D button to disable the OD, and burned about a 1/4 tank for the round trip. So hand calculated MPG was 15.5. Last fill-up without trailer, OD disable and BHAF I had 18.5 mpg. So hopefully I can get some more miles in to get an more accurate reading with the BHAF on without pulling a trailer!