K & N Filter ??

[deerhunterf350]

Has any 48 or 55 owners made a PRE-FILTER using K & N to pre-filter air before it enters the Factory Air box and filters.

I have a rocky garden area , and I plan on making a Dirt screen this fall to remove as many rocks as possible. I got one bucket load of dirt this weekend and I seen a Brown Tornado of Dust being sucked into the front of the Tractor. I want to get something in place that can be removed and cleaned, leaving the factory filters in place in case the tractor must be used for normal use while the K&N is drying and being re-oiled.


If someone has set something like this up, please post pictures of the setup and part# of filter that worked for the application.

Only Thing I am concerned with is the Turbo pulling a large volume of air, if the Pre-Filter would starve the motor of air????


Thanks

 

[Osconda]

deerhunterf350,

I worked on this for several hours a few months ago. I tried making a pre-filter that attached to the snorkel on the existing filter housing. The biggest problem I had was the lack of room under the hood. I had the contraption fitting well but I couldn't close the hood. I wasn't persistent enough and probably could have gotten it to work if I could find a section of pre-formed radiator hose with the required bend in it.

I think it would have been easier if I would have used a much smaller filter but I didn't want to make the engine any harder to breathe than it was going to be with the added filter. Worst-case you'd lose some power but you probably won't need it for the task at hand.

Don't have a picture but what I tried was using two pieces of 3/4 plywood that sandwiched a standard type round paper filter. I picked up several at Wal-mart of the dimensions that I thought would work best and were relatively cheap. They were about as tall as they were wide. Maybe 6" across. Anyway, picked up some kind of rubber adapter in the plumbing section at Home Depot that fit the "snorkel" in the housing. The adapter was kind of bell shaped / tapered. Used 1/4" allthread with wingnuts to keep the plywood / filter assembly together. Cut a hole in the center of one plywood ends. The hole had to be small enough that the big end of the rubber adapter wouldn't pull through.

So basically when put together you got this filter sandwich with a rubber tube sticking out that fits the existing filter housing. A hose clamp around the rubber tube holds it to the the housing. Worked good but I couldn't close the hood. See attachment for crude drawings of what I tried.

 

[Hooked_on_HP]

Did you check to see if NH offers a severe duty filter. Alot of manufactures offer a severe duty filter for what you are doing. It might be alot cheaper in the long run. It will not hurt the performance of the tractor either.

 

[daTeacha]

Some 8Ns had an air filter that hung outside the hood. It was basically an oil bath that the air had to be sucked through before it got to the carb. You just changed the oil when it got dirty. I seem to remember a mason jar and lid being part of the setup. I don't know if something like that might be easier to re-invent or not.

 

[IH3444]

I let this thread run a bit before sharing my design, and solution with you. First, as has been pointed out there needs to be a huge precleaner area, with extremely low restriction, or the injection pump preset will inject the same amount of fuel regardless of the amount of air which has filled the cylinder. The engines aren't electronic controlled engines such as a volkswagen TDI with a mass air sensor measuring the incomming air volume. That said, the other problem is definetly the lack of any real room under the front hood. So to keep from the engine from running with any increase in the fuel to air ratio, I choose not to use a K&N filter, although that was my first idea, which I did invest some time into it's engineering design. Looked at many offerings on the K&N web site, and even got serious about going that route. Bought a rubber pipe coupler from Home Depot which fit the metal intake of the NH air cleaner. I then use a whit PVC 45 degree to go from that to the rubber pipe clamp.Thinking I could attach the K&N filter to that, but after attaching the rubber pipe arrangement to the air cleaner, I learned just how snug things were under the hood. So now I have a $4 clamp, and $1 PVC pipe. I can alwasy return the clamp, haven't whittled on that yet. hehehe. I was very concerned about the oil wetted foam as being too restrictive, along with not wanting to add another paper element for the engine to breath through. It had to be some material that even a light breeze would pass through with out any impedence. Next stage of thinking was realizing I was looking at this problem as just getting a quick fix. Uh, Un, this is going to take some good thought. Now I built mine with some black delrin, but the same can accomplished with a good piece of other material. I turned the exact diameter into a piece of delrin, 1" thick, and slid it onto the air intake, a good snug fit. I then drilled and tapped a hole into one side, knowing I was going to slice the delrin in the middle of where the threaded bolt was. This was so I could draw up onto the bolt, and tighten the slit delrin ring to the air cleaner. Now you have a base to start from which is tight up against the cleaner, and something to screw to. I ran some 3/4" delrin rod parellel to the NH air cleaner, and had to do some trial, and error fitting, along with measuring. Now we have a good sturdy, large frame to continute on with. I then took almost all one winter morning clipping 1/4" mesh hardware cloth, and fitting it to the delrin ring, and rods. Forming it, working it, massaging it, and screwing it into the final masterpiece that it is now. Taking it to the shed, and being sure it will have clearence under the hood, not to mention the battery maintainer I also installed with a crossbar where the oil cooler goes on the TC55s. Clipping out end pieces, bending, and lashing them the the now getting stiffer hardware cloth frame. I then cover it with very inexpensive plain old filter material which is in any house filter you can get at Home Depot. I carefully taped the filter material to the frame, and mesh hardware cloth cage, being sure not to overlap too much. I must say I'm pretty proud of my self, this was a bit of a toughie. The solution just didn't jump out at me. Several designs were investigated, some prototyping was done, and finally a working model was built, which worked well. The the final product was built. Of course I have too many hours to count into it, but this is what I do. I can easily remove it, blow it out with compressed air. I service it maybe every 25 hours. I was taking all the filters out, and inspecting them, but after the first time, and seeing how clean the first stage filter was, I don't need to do that much any more. I'll try and get some pictures. I also used blue tinted air filter material, keeping with the color theme of the tractor. It fits fine, has low air restriction, captures much dust, is easy to clean, the filter material is cheap, and replaceable. The working first prototype model maybe available at a later date. Personally I think NH should provide something like this for the tractor which operate in extremely dusty conditions, but they are making much money selling filters. Good luck building yours, you get to try out your craftsmanship, the hard parts has been done, conceptual idea, prototype, final model, finish product.

 

[drm]

Not sure if something like this would work but when I road dirt bike things would get dusty fast and changing out or cleaning a filter on a 100 mile weekend in the dirt was not reasonable. I used a product called Filter Skins, a thin very tight weave cloth that was oiled with motorcycle air filter oil and slid over the filter. When the prefilter gets dirty peal it off and replace with a new one. May be worth looking into.

 

[IH3444]

Thanks for the tip, and yes, I investigated the bag type over skins with the pull strings also, but once again, I didn't want to add any additional impedence to the air intake. It's not too dusty where I operate. My area is familiar with rain, and cool tempertures. My tractor is a TC48, non turbo. A TC 55 may be more tolerent of an additional outer skin, due to the turbo being able to pressurize the engine intake to the point of the waste gate opening. I got a great deal on my TC48, and really didn't want the EHSS, but the turbo would have been nice. A TC55 with just manual shuttle shift would have done me nicely. I know that many people are very happy with their EHSS, but for me, I didn't want the option of another possible thing to go wrong when I was trying to get some work done. Plus the manual shifting is a breeze.

 

[Osconda]

What the heck is Delrin?

 

[IH3444]

Overview

Delrin® acetal resin emerged from DuPont's efforts to capitalize on the success of nylon and the growing post World War II market for plastics and other synthetic materials. Efforts to develop a tough and heat resistant metal substitute began in the early 1950s, and by 1952 chemists in the Polychemicals Department had synthesized an inflexible polymer from formaldehyde that assistant research director Frank C. McGrew called "synthetic stone" and DuPont named Delrin®.

After four years of development DuPont patented Delrin® in 1956 and began construction of a 20-million pound annual-capacity production plant at Parkersburg, West Virginia, completed in 1960. As manufacture commenced, total research and development costs for the project topped $50 million dollars. DuPont fully expected to recover these costs by marketing Delrin® as a general substitute for nonferrous metals, but a patent dispute and stiff competition held profitability down. As a result, DuPont focused subsequent research efforts on more sophisticated and specialized engineering polymers.

Despite its troubled beginnings, Delrin® thrived in the long run and has been steadily improved over the years. Today, Delrin® is a mainstay of DuPont's engineering polymers line and is widely acclaimed as a lightweight but durable low wear, low friction plastic for electronic office equipment, advanced conveyor technology, and automotive applications.

Delrin is the brand name for an acetal resin engineering plastic invented and sold by DuPont. Often marketed and used as a metal substitute, Delrin is a lightweight, low-friction, and wear-resistant plastic capable of operating in temperatures in excess of 90 degrees celsius (approx 200 degrees Fahrenheit).

Other names for this compound include: polyoxymethylene (POM), acetal resin, polytrioxane and polyformaldehyde.

Uses

The Food and Drug Administration has approved Delrin for use in the food industry. Delrin was used by Mattel from 1968 to 1972 to produce the low-friction wheel bearings found on redline Hot Wheels. Delrin is made from acetal homopolymer resin & when extruded into large basic shapes (i.e.- sheets, rods & tubes) tends to be subject to porosity problems. These porosity problems can make the product less reliable in certain applications. Acetal copolymer (Acetron GP) is often used as a replacement for Delrin (acetal homopolymer) when porosity risk is a factor in material selection.

It is also used extensively in paintball markers, where it is used to make bolts, pump handles and many other parts. Its low cost, adequate strength, light weight and self lubricating properties make it ideal for markers. Its competition in this area, Nylatron, while slightly lighter is more prone to swelling. A swelled part can make the mechanism impossible to operate and sometimes even damages the marker. Nylon-based products such as Nylatron have better wear-resistance than Delrin, but do not have good moisture-resistance, and therefore not suitable to high-humidity or underwater appplications.

Another recent use for Delrin is in the manufacturing of Irish flutes (traditionally made of wood) and tin whistles (traditionally made of metal). Delrin flutes sound similar or identical to wooden flutes but have none of the shrinkage or cracking issues usually associated with wooden instruments in hot, cold, or dry environments. Builders such as Desi Seery, Michael Cronnolly of M&E Flutes, and Tony Dixon all build Delrin flutes.

Delrin has become an increasingly popular material in the fabrication of guitar picks. It has excellent durability; it is much more resistant to wear than nylon at the point of string contact, especially on round wound strings. Delrin does not crack or break like celluloid or polyvinyl chloride (PVC), provides a solid, slip-free grip, and develops a "memory" over time

 

[djradz]

I imagine you are now fine with your new filter design, but I wanted to comment anyway. I've washed the factory NH filters on my TC-40D now several times. I did the same on my Ford 1720 and have even done it on my Kohler lawn tractor engine. You need to use some very strong liquid detergent and very warm water, but they've always come out as good as new.

Never sprayed them with filter oil however. Maybe something to consider?