Cold air intake

[Bigern]

I was thinking about slapping a cold air intake into my 2015 Ford Fusion hybrid w/ 2.0L. Any comments/ suggestions/ concerns would be greatly appreciated as I’m new to the hybrid platform. Thank you!!?

[murphy]

If you unbalance the resonator in the air intake you will not be a happy camper.  It's tuned to soften the noise made by an Atkinson cycle engine.

[Waldo]

What exactly would you be trying to accomplish by doing this?  The only realistic result is that you will pull more dirt into the engine.

[Bigern]

Idk lol i was just trying to have fun with it like I previously stated.

 

[ptjones]

 

From my testing the K&N air filter does improve HP, but I don't think improves FE much with 256k miles on the car with only a 2 BAR acceleration, the air flow is fairly.slow.   Old filter is in box and new is sitting on the box.

 

Well I did it, Changed The CMAX AIR FILTER. What a pain in you know what! It can be done, but not without patience and blood. There are sharp things down there in the ICE compartment. FORD instructions are marginal at best, they don't want you doing this. You need to unplug Mass air flow sensor not in instructions and wire strap I broke around PCV tube. I think you can get this at AutoZone, but don't see why you need it. Wear good gloves to prevent from giving blood. LOL

 

I tested all three filters on my very simple (KIS) test. Here is how it works. You take a box and tape it up good. Then make holes for filter(tight fit) and shop vacuum. Then I setup Dial Indicator on side of box to measure compression of box. Only took a few minutes to setup. Here are the results.

 

1. No filter .000"

2. K&N filter .0005"

3. Ford new filter .0025"

4. Ford 42K old filter .005

 

I can say that a K&N filter works as good as FORD filter w/256k miles on my car and it does it by having more surface area than the FORD one.

 

Paul

 

 

[billford]

On 8/5/2020 at 7:33 PM, Bigern said:

I was thinking about slapping a cold air intake into my 2015 Ford Fusion hybrid w/ 2.0L. Any comments/ suggestions/ concerns would be greatly appreciated as I’m new to the hybrid platform. Thank you!!?

 

It already has a cold air intake. It gets air from the grille area. 

 

Don't use "lifetime" KN filters. After time, the foam seals  compress and don't seal properly. You usually see a trail of fine dust after the filter.  Just change the factory air filter at regular intervals. 

 

On my own fusion and any car that I owned, I have always taped up a screen in front of the air intake duct. It acts as a prefilter and traps out the larger leaves, feathers, etc...

 

[mwr]

3 hours ago, billford said:

Just change the factory air filter at regular intervals.

Is that part of the normal servicing for the FFH?

[murphy]

32 minutes ago, mwr said:

Is that part of the normal servicing for the FFH?

My Owner's Manual says to replace the engine air filter every 30,000 miles and the cabin air filter every 20,000 miles.

[mwr]

1 hour ago, murphy said:

My Owner's Manual says to replace the engine air filter every 30,000 miles and the cabin air filter every 20,000 miles.

This is really strange. The only air filter change I see in my service records are "as requested by customer". The only air filter changes I've requested are for the cabin air filter, after I was seeing more dust on the dashboard. But the part number for those two changes are both for part FA-1911, and a google search shows that to be the engine air filter.

[murphy]

The engine air filter is FA-1911.

The cabin air filter is FP-71.

 

Page 302 in my manual.

[mwr]

4 minutes ago, murphy said:

The engine air filter is FA-1911.

The cabin air filter is FP-71.

 

Page 302 in my manual.

Same in my manual. Which still makes my service records strange. But I guess I'm glad they did change the engine air filter twice, even though they mis-heard me or made some other mistake. I guess it would be easy to confuse cabin air filter with engine air filter, especially if someone just dripped the "cabin" from the request.

[murphy]

The engine air filter is easy to change.  The cabin air filter requires removal of the glove box.  Maybe they "misheard" the request on purpose.

 

[ptjones]

On 8/8/2020 at 3:54 PM, murphy said:

My Owner's Manual says to replace the engine air filter every 30,000 miles and the cabin air filter every 20,000 miles.

I only use the ICE 48% of the miles so in theory you could go to  60k ODO miles and I went about 180k miles on my K%N filter and still looked pretty good.

 

Paul

[billford]

If it's still good after 180k, then where did all the dust go?

 

How much dust was trapped in the cabin filter?

[ptjones]

1 hour ago, billford said:

If it's still good after 180k, then where did all the dust go?

 

How much dust was trapped in the cabin filter?

I'm guessing that the K&N has twice surface area of FORD filter to start with, my FORD filter at 40k miles wasn't very dusty and also the air intake is located above the radiator in a tube and not in the air flow in the ICE compartment. At 180k miles the ICE was only on 85k miles and with twice filter area of FORD filter so the  equivalent 45k miles compared to the FORD Filter  I rarely use cabin filter and it is a pain to change it. I don't know if you use cabin filter when you are recirculating the air.

 

Paul 

[billford]

Besides looking at the filter, you need to carefully inspect the ducts after the filter for fine dust.

 

From what I've seen,  this is where the kn filters fail. Dust seems to get past, either through the media or seals as they get compressed over time.

 

Lot of people install kn filters and forget about them because they are lifetime. But you still have to buy the cleaning kits because they still need to be cleaned, oiled and the seals greased which is time consuming, messy and more expensive than just staying with the factory filter.

 

As for the cabin filter, they trap a lot of dust and dirt, it's disgusting what comes out of it. I don't know why you say it's a pain to change. I guess your lungs aren't worth the effort?

 

 

 

 

Edited August 12, 2020 by billford

[ethermion]

Agree on the K&N.

 

The cabin air filter does indeed trap  a  lot of dust & dirt.  Yes, it is disgusting what comes out.  No, it is not a pain to change.  The procedure may sound a bit dramatic, (Oh dear!  The glove box comes out!), but it is pretty easy and 100% worth it.

[ptjones]

11 hours ago, billford said:

Besides looking at the filter, you need to carefully inspect the ducts after the filter for fine dust.

 

From what I've seen,  this is where the kn filters fail. Dust seems to get past, either through the media or seals as they get compressed over time.

 

Lot of people install kn filters and forget about them because they are lifetime. But you still have to buy the cleaning kits because they still need to be cleaned, oiled and the seals greased which is time consuming, messy and more expensive than just staying with the factory filter.

 

As for the cabin filter, they trap a lot of dust and dirt, it's disgusting what comes out of it. I don't know why you say it's a pain to change. I guess your lungs aren't worth the effort?

 

 

 

 

I have my oil tested at Blackstone Labs and my results are better than when new and they said at 30k miles/15k ICE miles the oil still could have gone farther. I have used both Mobil1 and FORD oil. Just checked my oil at 12k miles on oil change and it's at 1/2 quart down, doesn't use much oil .  I highly recommend the K&N air filter just install and forget about it. ?

 

Paul 

[billford]

1 hour ago, ptjones said:

I have my oil tested at Blackstone Labs and my results are better than when new and they said at 30k miles/15k ICE miles the oil still could have gone farther. I have used both Mobil1 and FORD oil. Just checked my oil at 12k miles on oil change and it's at 1/2 quart down, doesn't use much oil .  I highly recommend the K&N air filter just install and forget about it. ?

 

Paul 

 

So you care more about the air filter and oil analysis and disregard the cabin filter and the dust your breathing in? 

[2014FordFusionSE]

6 hours ago, ethermion said:

Agree on the K&N.

 

The cabin air filter does indeed trap  a  lot of dust & dirt.  Yes, it is disgusting what comes out.  No, it is not a pain to change.  The procedure may sound a bit dramatic, (Oh dear!  The glove box comes out!), but it is pretty easy and 100% worth it.

+1 on the cabin filter. I changed mine at 50k miles and it was pretty dirty. After changing it, the AC seems to cool really fast.

I'll post pics soon

 

[ptjones]

4 hours ago, billford said:

 

So you care more about the air filter and oil analysis and disregard the cabin filter and the dust your breathing in? 

I guess you missed the part where I said I rarely use the cabin filter, besides it works better the more stuff that gets in it, but it's more difficult to get air through it. I crack the windows to cool the car off and don't need to use heat during the winter with a coat on.?Hopefully I will get my ordered FEHP in a months time in Sept.

 

Paul

[billford]

1 hour ago, ptjones said:

I guess you missed the part where I said I rarely use the cabin filter, besides it works better the more stuff that gets in it, but it's more difficult to get air through it. I crack the windows to cool the car off and don't need to use heat during the winter with a coat on.?Hopefully I will get my ordered FEHP in a months time in Sept.

 

Paul

 

You must be the only person who doesn't need heat in the winter. Your passengers must have fun driving with you. 

How do you keep the windshield from fogging? Blow at it with your mouth?

Edited August 12, 2020 by billford

[2014FordFusionSE]

4 hours ago, 2014FordFusionSE said:

+1 on the cabin filter. I changed mine at 50k miles and it was pretty dirty. After changing it, the AC seems to cool really fast.

I'll post pics soon

 

 

Pics posted in the cabin filter thread (trying not to go off topic):

 

[ptjones]

I do use the Defrost some when it rains or when it's real cold, most of the time I drive by myself.  Generally use Wife's New Explorer or My 2016 F150 to drive with more than myself, I hate to ruin my MPG's.?

 

Paul 

[billford]

49 minutes ago, ptjones said:

I do use the Defrost some when it rains or when it's real cold, most of the time I drive by myself.  Generally use Wife's New Explorer or My 2016 F150 to drive with more than myself, I hate to ruin my MPG's.?

 

Paul 

 

So you went from using your heater system from rarely,  to using  the defrost now. 

 

 

I attached a picture below from a new and 1 year old cabin filter I replaced today on a F150. The filter does not seal 100% as it plugs up. The dirt just leaks around the edges of the filter. There was a fair amount of dust after the filter but it still trapped a lot of dirt. The fusion is similar. 

 

Seems like your more concerned with mpgs rather than what you breathe.