K&N Air Filters

[eagleman]

I have the stock exhaust in place and will not be replacing it. Will I get a little better performance with a K&N filter than I am now using the stock air filter? I like the looks and sound of the stock exhaust but a little extra performance would be nice too. Would replacing the stock air filter with a K&N filter help with that? Is there anything I can do to imrove performance and still keep the stock exhaust? Any information would be helpful. Thanks.

Eagleman

[Bdog]

I originally did that change and I don't think it made any difference. The K/N is a better filter and cheaper than the stock one. The air intake system is still restricted so all you will be doing is putting a better filter on a restricted intake. If you want to stay stock and get an improvement then put in a pc 111 or tfi or cobra 2000 fuel modulator in place. The Nomad is set up too lean from the factory to begin with....Bdog

[Jared]

Chuckster makes an intake set-up that keeps the stock dog bowls, but opens up the intake and bypasses the cross over tube. You could change the intake and keep the stock exhaust.

[cactusjack]

The problem with your reasoning here is that the restricted flow of the stock exhaust will nullify any attempt to increase the airflow through the intake.

Think of the airflow through the bike in terms of plumbing. No matter how big the pipe going in, you will only flow as much water as the size of the outlet on the other end.

In other words, you can't have it both ways. If you let a lot of air in, you have to have the capacity to flow that air back out. You aren't going to do that with stock (or debaffled stock) pipes. With a less restrictive aftermarket exhaust, you gain the ability to flow more air through it, at the expense of exhaust noise level.

[eagleman]

Are saying then that the K&N filter is not worth the extra cost and unless I am willing to change out my stock exhaust that any performance enhancing attempts are fruitless. So if you keep your stock exhaust there is no point in spending any extra money on anything to try to improve performance? ??? ??? ???

Eagleman

[funtogo]

I did the caddman mod using K&N and stock dog bowl cover,along with the TFI fuel module and debaffle.My seat of the pants feel says 10% better power and response,and I did get more intake noise also.

[cactusjack]

Are saying then that the K&N filter is not worth the extra cost and unless I am willing to change out my stock exhaust that any performance enhancing attempts are fruitless. So if you keep your stock exhaust there is no point in spending any extra money on anything to try to improve performance? ??? ??? ???

Eagleman



Not exactly. I'm saying to gain real performance, you have to balance things. If you let more air in, you need to let more air out. You certainly aren't going to see much gain without a fuel processor, either. Increasing the intake air will lean out an already lean running engine. You need to add more fuel to the air/fuel mixture on one side, and exhaust it all on the other side.

In my opinion, just installing a K&N filter alone only has one real benefit - you won't have to buy another filter again, you can just keep cleaning and oiling it.

There are three components to the performance equation on these bikes: (intake + fuel + exhaust) = more HP.

[chuckster131]

Best of both worlds..
Debaffle and change the right side intake out, and that will improve the performance.

Just replacing the stock filter for a K-N isn't wasting money as you will have it forever, but it won't change anything in perfomance.

[eagleman]

Thanks for the info. Has anyone out there kept their stock pipes and added the fuel processor. I heard that a Techlusion Module is a good one to use. Has anyone had any experience with this particular type of fuel processor and how do you like it? Any information is helpful. Thanks.

Eagleman