Air filters and ECU
Discussion
I am planning to change the air filter in my car, but wondering whether I would need to make any changes to my ECU afterwards. As far as I understand, changing the air filter would affect the air/fuel mixture.
Before anyone shoots me down for asking such a basic question, I'd like to declare that I do not work on cars, I merely enjoy driving them.
Before anyone shoots me down for asking such a basic question, I'd like to declare that I do not work on cars, I merely enjoy driving them.
Nobody should ever shoot someone down for asking questions on here. I suppose, if someone keeps changing what they ask and maybe not seeming to 'listen' to what is given to them exasperation can creep in, which may not be surprising.
My info for you is old and probably well out of date with clever ECUs. When I was playing with Rover SD1 Vitesse efi in the early 90s (flap and hot wire air flow meters) the guy who did the original work at AR told me the system will cope with 25% more demand in terms of airflow but bugg*r about with cam profiles at your own peril!
Karl next door quite often shows us how remapping modern systems and aftermarket ecus can tame wild cams in terms of careful fuelling and timing. Most impressive when compared with the dinosaur distributors and carbs we play with. mind you we did play with a Kugelfischer mechanical sequential injection system recently, took me back to my Dad's Peugeot 504s of the 70s!
Sorry for being long winded....maybe I should just have said, I am sure the system will cope. Changing just the filter in the case for a freeflow one should have no effect on the power curve. Change the intake and filter setup upstream of the flowmeter and you may well alter the power curve and not necessarily to the good.
My info for you is old and probably well out of date with clever ECUs. When I was playing with Rover SD1 Vitesse efi in the early 90s (flap and hot wire air flow meters) the guy who did the original work at AR told me the system will cope with 25% more demand in terms of airflow but bugg*r about with cam profiles at your own peril!
Karl next door quite often shows us how remapping modern systems and aftermarket ecus can tame wild cams in terms of careful fuelling and timing. Most impressive when compared with the dinosaur distributors and carbs we play with. mind you we did play with a Kugelfischer mechanical sequential injection system recently, took me back to my Dad's Peugeot 504s of the 70s!
Sorry for being long winded....maybe I should just have said, I am sure the system will cope. Changing just the filter in the case for a freeflow one should have no effect on the power curve. Change the intake and filter setup upstream of the flowmeter and you may well alter the power curve and not necessarily to the good.
GreenV8S said:
bitemarx said:
I am planning to change the air filter in my car
Do you mean you plan to replace the replaceable filter element with another similar one, or are you planning to change the air intake in some way?PeterBurgess said:
Nobody should ever shoot someone down for asking questions on here. I suppose, if someone keeps changing what they ask and maybe not seeming to 'listen' to what is given to them exasperation can creep in, which may not be surprising.
My info for you is old and probably well out of date with clever ECUs. When I was playing with Rover SD1 Vitesse efi in the early 90s (flap and hot wire air flow meters) the guy who did the original work at AR told me the system will cope with 25% more demand in terms of airflow but bugg*r about with cam profiles at your own peril!
Karl next door quite often shows us how remapping modern systems and aftermarket ecus can tame wild cams in terms of careful fuelling and timing. Most impressive when compared with the dinosaur distributors and carbs we play with. mind you we did play with a Kugelfischer mechanical sequential injection system recently, took me back to my Dad's Peugeot 504s of the 70s!
Sorry for being long winded....maybe I should just have said, I am sure the system will cope. Changing just the filter in the case for a freeflow one should have no effect on the power curve. Change the intake and filter setup upstream of the flowmeter and you may well alter the power curve and not necessarily to the good.
"No effect on the power curve"?? The only reason I'm changing it is in the hope that it will let my engine breathe better and improve power delivery. 😕My info for you is old and probably well out of date with clever ECUs. When I was playing with Rover SD1 Vitesse efi in the early 90s (flap and hot wire air flow meters) the guy who did the original work at AR told me the system will cope with 25% more demand in terms of airflow but bugg*r about with cam profiles at your own peril!
Karl next door quite often shows us how remapping modern systems and aftermarket ecus can tame wild cams in terms of careful fuelling and timing. Most impressive when compared with the dinosaur distributors and carbs we play with. mind you we did play with a Kugelfischer mechanical sequential injection system recently, took me back to my Dad's Peugeot 504s of the 70s!
Sorry for being long winded....maybe I should just have said, I am sure the system will cope. Changing just the filter in the case for a freeflow one should have no effect on the power curve. Change the intake and filter setup upstream of the flowmeter and you may well alter the power curve and not necessarily to the good.
227bhp said:
Hang on to that hope as you get forced back into your seat with all those extra horses.
I have enough horses, just hoping to get smoother delivery. Guess I'll just try it and see if there's any change.
Just being cautious because its a low mileage car and I don't want to cause any damage to the engine in any way, as far as I can help it.
bitemarx said:
I have enough horses, just hoping to get smoother delivery. Guess I'll just try it and see if there's any change.
Just being cautious because its a low mileage car and I don't want to cause any damage to the engine in any way, as far as I can help it.
bitemarx said:
I have enough horses, just hoping to get smoother delivery. Guess I'll just try it and see if there's any change.
Just being cautious because its a low mileage car and I don't want to cause any damage to the engine in any way, as far as I can help it.
bitemarx said:
Not changing the induction unit in anyway, merely swapping OEM filter element for a K&N one.
Go ahead and slap it in, a k&n or any other "performance" filter elements will be designed to work on a standard engine but may offer better improvements on engines with modified intakes/larger throttle bodies. I am not quite sure that the aftermarket filters are actually designed for the particular job. I sometimes feel it is just a marketing ploy. We see quite a few cars where bhp suffers due to over exuberant filter oiling.! We tend to leave them dry when we have cleaned them, as the slightest oiling has always seemed to strangle the engine a little( maybe that should be the lesser verb 'throttle'?).
At the risk of going off topic, it is Remembrance Sunday and I would just like to say to all the PHers who have been or are or are related to current and past armed forces, thank you all very much for what you have sacrificed for us.
I am taking my Dad who is a 95 year old RAF veteran to lay a wreath and take the salute of the cadet Force at Mount St Mary's school in Spinkhill Yorkshire, where the school built a Memorial Chapel in remembrance of the WW1 'Old Boys' who fell, very poignant thought provoking.and incredibly humbling.
At the risk of going off topic, it is Remembrance Sunday and I would just like to say to all the PHers who have been or are or are related to current and past armed forces, thank you all very much for what you have sacrificed for us.
I am taking my Dad who is a 95 year old RAF veteran to lay a wreath and take the salute of the cadet Force at Mount St Mary's school in Spinkhill Yorkshire, where the school built a Memorial Chapel in remembrance of the WW1 'Old Boys' who fell, very poignant thought provoking.and incredibly humbling.
Mignon said:
50 years ago the old pancake style filters on carbs could be quite restrictive but modern EFi ones are usually not. Manufacturers can't afford to throw away easy horsepower and still stay competitive.
Those old Speedograph pancake filters (yes I'm old enough to remember) were bloody awful s
te filtering ability and like you say often restrictive but they sold sheds loads of em back in the day 
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