Maintenance Questions..

[NSTG8R]

I remember when you had to change the oil in your air cleaner.

Yep, oil bath air filter on the old Solex (I think) carbs. What a mess that was! Old Vee-dub's were some fairly tough engines though. Love those boxer engines! Not sure if it was the gearing, or what, but that Baja could beat a V8 for about the first 100 ft. (then it's over with.)

 

[BilgeRat]

Me too. Had a 61 Chevy I had to do that on. It had a bypass cartridge oil filter that you had to suction out the filter canister when you changed oil. Oil bath air filters were common on Detroit Diesel 6-71 engines right into the late 1990's as well. Fun to clean with a bunch of mayfly carcasses sucked into the oil... :-(

 

[harlan stephens]

I have ran k&N s on boat and cars for some time. No issues. Clean and oil vrs pay for new paper?
Changing things on the intake like with less retriction will change air fuel ratios.
Add more air you need more fuel to keep the same a\f ratio.
Opens a whole can of worms. But is fun if you have access to a tuner and dyno to eek the most out of what you have.
For the elio ....its best left as is.
Its perfomance is fuel economy.
Thats just my take.

 

[skygazer6033]

Drove a '41 Ford business coupe for years. Had an oil bath air cleaner. Finally got tired of the mess and converted to a paper element cleaner. 85 HP flathead V8 cast iron block with sleeves. 30 more HP than the Elio with 3 times the weight. Had the reputation of being quite sprightly in it's day. 6 volt system with positive ground took a little getting used to.

 

[skygazer6033]

Mass airflow sensor takes care of that on electronic fuel injected engines.

 

[harlan stephens]

Depends on the limitations of the maf.
And what was changed.
And about a zilloin other things.
Yep a can of worms

 

[wheaters]

Mass airflow sensor takes care of that on electronic fuel injected engines.

After changing from the stock paper air filter on my old BMW 2.0, six cylinder engine, the K&N filter oil polluted the MAF hot wire sensor , which upset the ECU calibration and reduced the output. I changed back to the paper air filter on that engine, which cured the problem. These days, on modern engines I just use the manufacturer's filters.

I do still run a K&N filter (actually an Alpha, but almost identical) on my little 850cc, carburettor equipped engine. No MAF to worry about. I change the needles on the carburettor to adjust the air/fuel mixture on that.

 

[harlan stephens]

Never had the maf issue. But have allways used very light oil....pink not red...lol

The spray oil seems better at the light oil idea.

 

[wheaters]

Never had the maf issue. But have allways used very light oil....pink not red...lol

The spray oil seems better at the light oil idea.

I know what you're saying - not too heavy an application of the filter oil when servicing it.

But this was as it came, out of the box from K&N.

 

[ElioDigger]

it will not be hard or your average pepboys would not be able to service it.