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Originally Posted by FrontierTuner
Is it an good idea to leave the air filter exposed in the stock air intake system. I am doing a study and I find that on my 98 fronter ka24de that is seems to have more airflow at 100% throttle (using S-AFC 2) Is anyone else doing this?
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There are two main drawbacks to using an open-element air filter:
1) Hot air induction. Air under the hood gets hot, hot, hot. Especially on warm days driving in town. Then your fan clutches in and pulls air through that radiator and the engine compartment becomes a blast furnace. With an open-element air cleaner, you're sucking all that hot air into the engine. There is a reason your air cleaner is ducted to outside air.
2) Water intrusion. This isn't so much a problem on a truck like this, but if you normally drive through large puddles (live in the South anywhere?) or go off-road a lot, I'd be leery of that. Again, there's a reason the air cleaner is ducted to an air box, which can do a fair job at separating the water from the air.
Try this test. Plumb a vacuum gauge in your induction system, ahead of the throttle body. The best place would be BEHIND the air filter, and in FRONT of the throttle body, but with the design of the 4-cylinder air cleaner, that may not be possible. But even if you can plumb a vacuum gauge into the air cleaner lid, that would be good. Tape the gauge to your windshield and drive around. Be sure to do a lot of WOT. The vacuum gauge will register ANY restriction in your induction system. If you never see a vacuum, there is NO restriction in your induction system, period.
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