TEST & RESULTS - Stock air filter Vs Cone air Filter

[Antz]

I'm sick of all the arguing over weather a stock air filter is better than a cone air filter, or not so rather than join in, I thought Id actually myth bust it.

The car:
2003 V40 T4 - 135k miles and due a full service imminently. Ive had this car for 5 years now and when I bought it, it was already running on a Ripspeed cone filter and the previous owner had thrown the airbox lid in the bin. I swapped the Ripspeed filter for a proper K&N cone filter which noticeably improved power delivery and adding a heat shield improved things further. Its been this way for 50k miles........but was it better than a stock filter???.......lets find out.

I sourced a stock airbox from a 1999 V40 2.0T in my local scrapyard and bought a cheapo £6.50 air filter from the motorfactors.

Now lets compare.....

Before - K&N Cone with home made heat shield:


After - Stock air box with stock paper air filter:


Now its time to take it for a test drive....

Having always driven the car with the cone filter Im well used to how it drives. With the stock air filter the first thing that's apparent is the cool SWOOOOSSHHH under acceleration and PPSSSHHHT of the Recirc valve when changing gear have gone which upsets me greatly. This appealed to the inner chav.

How did it drive though? Well Having kicked its head in for a few miles on standing starts, straights, overtaking, twisty bends and full throttle though all the gears I'm saddened to say I actually think it performed better with the stock filter. It felt like it pushed you back in the seat a little bit more and performed very much like it used to do on a nice crisp cold day when the turbo is getting all that lovely freezing air. Not by much, but it was apparent.

I imagine this is down to the fact with the stock filter it only gets cold air, albeit restricted to what the cold air feed can give it. With the cone filter, yes it gets more air but not all of that air is cold and some of it will be soaking from the turbo. We all know how hot T4's get in the engine bay and think of that warm air getting into the intake.

Im going to look at getting a K&N panel filter and try the test again. After all, the panel filter will let in more of that cold air.

So conclusion:

Does a stock filter perform better than a cone filter? - I think so.
Does it sound as good? - Hell no.
Does it look as good as a cone? - No.

MYTH BUSTED.

[Cornishv40]

I will keep mine standard then!

[skyship007]

So conclusion from Antz:
Does a stock filter perform better than a cone filter? - I think so.
Does it sound as good? - Hell no.
Does it look as good as a cone? - No.

So my conclusion:
Does a stock filter perform better than a cone filter? - I think so too.
Does it sound as good? - Hell yes, just turn up the boom box!.
Does it look as good as a cone? - Yes, it looks real cool to the Volvo Gods. If you want something shiny just cover it with Chrome tape.

PS: One tricky point about bearing life expectancy is that it is about plus or minus 25% from average OEM certified figures for a 10 to 20 year old car. Even with a new car the variability in how long a bearing or oil seal will last before failing is still plus or minus 20% (30% if it's a non EU or US engine).
That means two identical cars might fail at 75K miles (Monday morning job) or 125K miles. Then add driver style and you might well get one fail at 50K (Big foot cold start expert) and the other at 150K miles. Then to add a final factor, one car might be serviced to perfection, whilst the other is Iffylubed, so that's why one chap (Or chapess) might say it went bang just out of warranty, whilst the other is still going well at 300K plus.
Never seen Blackstone figures tell any real Porkie pies for a before and after situation, although some experiments do take 3 oil changes to confirm.

[malteser]

You will almost get the same noise from a performance panel filter as a cone Slightly less noisy.

I've tried them all lol

Mine has gone mad in the last few days getting wooosh on a standard filter

Got to check my hoses

[malteser]

ps Antz thought my engine bay was dirty lol feeling slightly better now

[DXMachina]

Excellent post, thank you for it

This confirms work done by the crew of Mighty Car Mods - which is an Australian youtube show produced by a moderately well-known electronic music producer (Moog) and his video producing friend (Marty). If anyone isnt aware of them, they are well worth a look.

[Dean1985]

Have you taken the foam out the bottom of the airbox? If you haven't then by taking it out will give you a bit more off an aggressive meatier tone whilst accelerating away

[Mount vision rider]

What about enclosured induction kits with a cold air supply?

They still raw for the inner chav (just like me)

[Alex121]

Originally Posted by Antz

Having always driven the car with the cone filter Im well used to how it drives. With the stock air filter the first thing that's apparent is the cool SWOOOOSSHHH under acceleration and PPSSSHHHT of the Recirc valve when changing gear have gone which upsets me greatly. This appealed to the inner chav.

I don't know why, but I've always had these noises on the stock filter and box. Foam is at the end of the filter too. All 100% standard. No idea why I hear it? Not complaining though as I like it lol

[cookie]

What some of us have been saying for years, panel filter best (other than oiling potential on MAF (never had problem in 7 years on T5) standard, then cone worst