Oil bath or k&n, Would it work Options

[jporsche914]

I have a stock 1972 1.7L little porsche. It has the oil bath air filtration on it. The oil bath seems to me like it would rob the engine of air. Since i live in colorado i was thinking the more air the better. I found a k&n filter kit on the 9xauto.com that will fit a 1.7L engine. My question to you guys is it worth it?? Will it help my engine?? i need a new air filter boot anyway because mine is cracked.
Thanks

I know this picture is not a 1.7L but they said it will work

[dmenche914]

I'd save my money, the KN will add little if any power, and must be protected from rain. The early 1.7's did use an oil bath, I had one for a long time, was great, no filter to buy. Some people do not like them, maybe because it can be messy if you spill oil during a change, or if very hard cornering is done.

later 1.7 cars did have a paper filter from the factory. Also note that the early 1.7 cars made more power than the later 1.7 car. This had to do with compression change and so forth, but the fact remians, the highest power 1.7 did use a oil bath filter originally. This is a carry over from the VW's of the day, which used oil bath filters.

There is no reason to think an oil bath filter restricts the air more than a other type of filter. In stock trim, the stock filter is a good combo. Air intake restrictions become an issue when you do other mods to the motor.

Also be aware you need provisions to attach all the needed hoses to the filter.

dave

[jporsche914]

Well i do want to do little mods here and there. I was thinking an exhaust and sport ignition. Would the K&N filter need to be used then or still the stock oil bath??

[Levi]

K&N is always a good choice over a stock filter, always!, every little bit of extra HP helps... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[machina]

I did something similar on my 1.7. Had the filter from my other car, never installed it , so I rigged it up to fit the 1.7 TB.

I doubt there is any actual gain in power but it sounds better. Its for sale if you want it. PM me

dr

[Rgreen914]

I also saw the air filter arrangement on eBay when it was for sale. Reminds me of a filter system I built years ago for a baja bug I had at the time. The elbow and connecting parts come from your friendly neighborhood plumbing supply/hardware store. There are a lot of plastic, rubber/hose clamp items just about the right size to build whatever design you can imagine; a little creativity is all that's required to attach the breather hoses to the system.

[jporsche914]

Will all the hoses hook up to this k&n filter system.

[Rgreen914]

Based on the number of brass fittings shown in the pics, and they look like standard, barbed brass fittings, all the hoses should find homes; I seem to remember another fitting on top of the filter itself. I've always used K&N Filters whenever possible; I even tried to find one to fit into the stock filter housing (1973-1.7) without any luck so I'm currently running a paper element in it. However, I've got a K&N in my big block Suburban and ran one in the big block dually I used to own.

[ThinAir]

Don't forget that these are the same guys that sell the aluminum fuel rails that are supposed to give you more power. They don't seem to know much about what actually enhances performance and why, but they have copy writers that would make QVC proud. I keep wondering if it's an offshoot of AA.

This system might actually work quite well, but based on their claims for other merchandise don't expect anything close to the improvements that they claim.

[ChrisFoley]

If I'm not mistaken all the hoses attach to the boot, not the filter housing anyway.
I used a K&N motorcycle filter on my 1.7 liter when I ran in SCCA ITB. All I did was cut the boot in the middle and insert a piece of thinwall steel tube so I could rotate the inlet to a better position for the K&N. Then I used another piece of steel tube to attach the filter element.
I'll see if I can dig it out of my pile of old parts and take a pic.