Dry Induction Kit - APEXI Solution for 911
 

I've been reading about the 'induction kit' issue for some time now and I finally took action.

I have a 3.2 1984 Stock Carrera (euro).

Firstly I bought an 'inbox' K&N filter ( long before I found out the problems they caused - my local porsche dealer is still selling them I should add!!) - the Mass Air flow meter sucked all the oil off it and ruined my MAF So don't do it - wet oil and MAF's don't mix - and I'm pretty sure the performance actually, incredibly enough, took a tiny hit - in that the 'feel and urgency' seemed to disappear. My baby had lost her kick!!

So my real problem is that I live in a very dusty place and I wanted to make a simpler longer lasting solution with a better micron filtration.

What I did was to buy an APEXI Induction Kit - the kind they use on Skyline's - these have excellent flow rates - easily good for about 500HP and they also have a sub 5 micron filtration level AND they are a dry CONE type filter lasting about 30,000 miles.. - plus VERY CHEAP compared to any and all other Porsche inductions kits I've seen...

So the problem - fitting it to the MAF...

The induction kit comes with a alloy mount. I had a local machine ship 'cut me a' rectangular insert template which is the same size as the MAF with two sets of threaded bolt holes ( cost me about £20) which meant I could bolt the plate to the MAF and then the alloy mount which came with the APEXI ( which the actual dual funnel air filter screws onto) to the plate. I used the original paper filter on the MAF side and gasket cement on the permanent seal between the plate and the air filter mount.

As a wonderful bonus the kit comes with a metal strut which with a tiny bit of bendin sits perfectly onto the stud on the manifold which the original air box normally bolts to. So it's solid as a rock!!.

My car still has a wonderful urgency and I actually think she whips upto 6000 rpm much easier than she used to - plus I can actually hear the 'pshs - pshs' of the injectors - and it looks fantastic and naturally makes doing my valves and any right hand engine work a whole lot easier!

So there is a solution if anyone is interested.

I bought the APEXI model 507- M001

Pictures! Must see pictures!

ok..I'll post some up tomorrow.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1113846646.jpg

Here it is!

I actually bought mine off ebay as I'm in the UK and no one seems to do em here - but search google for apexi 507-M001 and you'll find plenty...

here's one that tells you what it does..

http://shop.store.yahoo.com/hopup1/apoin95ecgst.html


The actual filter cone is standard across the powerflow range and can be bought as a replacement for about $40. It's a really nice piece of kit - way ahead of the K&N cone ( should have seen the oil on my intake manifolds after that thing - never again!) - The thing your really paying for is the alloy mount - without that it'd get really messy trying to fix it to the MAF. As it is I could really do with nipping to the local h/w store and getting some shorted bolts to 'finish it nicely' but - you know how it is - always something more pressing.

The key to it is drawing a good template from the alloy mount. You bolt the plate onto the MAF using the 'inner' holes and then the alloy mount sits perfectly right over the 4 nuts holding the plate to the MAF. So then you simply bolt the mount to the plate into the 'outer' set of 4 holes. Then just bolt the filter onto the mount - comes with a gasket and the little strut leg just sits on the old box mount ready to nut down.

It comes with a tin heat shield as well but I haven't fitted that.

Now when I need to remove it I just undo the jubilee clip on the rubber boot to the lef tof the MAF, the dme cable and the front nut and pull the whole MAF in one go. Takes about a minute.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1113852339.jpg

I'm not a fan of K&N's because the factory airbox isn't a restriction. Aside from the power loss some have experienced with K&N's I didn't think they were that bad when properly oiled.
In the picture I see the factory air meter - not a MAF. Is that because it ruined your MAF and you went back to the factory meter?
(Factory= barn door meter, MAF=hot wire or film that gets damages by over oiling K&N.)
-Chris

Did you have to buy a new MAF unit after the K&N filter was used?

Sorry - that is a really bad habit of mine - I say 'Mass air flow Meter' and drop the wrong M!!! - I say MAF when I mean AMF - not the hot wire - I have a stainless exhaust but I like to keep everything else totally stock - but my old AFM was sure gobbered up with nasty dirty blacky gungy oil : as well as the entire inlet manifolds. What I didn't like was the sheer amount of oil it had sucked off the K&N in one tiny place! - it was reading a post on here about wet oil filters that alerted me to the fact - I saw that and thought -bugger better check that crappy bloody thing!!. I put the multimeter on my AFM and it was screwed so I figured I'd do the whole thing new and nice- I live in a REALLY dusty environment and so I didn't want to take any chances - I know that the standard porscheair box is good for 250HP but it's really just a real nice clean solution and sounds REALLY nice up high in the revs...I read somewhere that paper does about 20 microns and this is 5 microns with more 'airflow' as well so I tried it and it really came up trumps. If I had a 300bhp 930 I'd be itching for this solution!! You really going to feel some difference without the 'wet oil' issue.
I posted it becuase I know regardless of reason people are going to keep putting those oily filters on - just about every porsche place sells em and they are nasty..I mean the oil is SUCKED clean out of the 'little square' that the standard Porsche box has pushed up against the filter - so if it's not oiled it's not filtering - plus if you see the 'white sheet' dirt test thats floating around the net somethwere you'll never want a K&N again - I think they are designed to stop birds flying down there or something!!....the apexi is as far as I can tell the only real nice DRY glass weave filter on the market..

Are you sure the oil in the air box isn't from overfilling the oil at some point?
-Chris

well, I had a nice dry, clean airbox when I used the stock Mahle paper filter prior to the K&N and I've personally never over filled the oil - I would be lying if I said I had checked that AFM before I changed to the K&N so it could have been dirty I couldn't say - but one way or another I had a problem after that filter and the 'wet oil posts on this forum didn't reassure me that it was a ZERO cause for concern issue - so I went back to stock paper - plus as I say I do think it was actually slightly detrimental to the top end 'feel' of hte car - then I put my car on the gas analyser and saw I was running very rich (4.5%) so I began checking around which was when I saw how gummed up the AFM was - I cleaned it and the barndoor moved ok but still rich - toggling the hidden screw made no difference so I figured my AFM was buggered - I mean I grant you it seems major unlikely for the filter to have caused an AFM failure- that was probably just 'due it's time' to be replaced but one thng I am certain of is that after the Apexi and the new AFM the barndoor and the boot to the inlet manifolds are SPOTLESS cos I checked em on sunday when I had the AFM off for putting a new set of injectors in...I'll see if I can find the link which shows how much crap the k&N cone or panel filter let's through on a 'white sheet' test when compared to paper and other makes of filter - it's shocking - now I don't want that crap in my top end. One thing I absolutely sure of though is that the porsche 'k&N' panel filter swap out that you put in your oem box is a WAY bad idea - just because you can see a dry square on the K&N where the oil has been sucked clean due to the inherant small apeture nature of the stock oem box..that can't be good - even if you are 'competant' at reoiling...with the stock panel filter ( k&n or otherwise) it's as if you got a foot square filter and it's only sucking through 2 square inches - that's especially bad if your sucking oil of it!!

IMO oil & filters belong in the 1950s.
Glad to see a reasonable solution that:

Works well
Looks sharp

Hmmmm.

It's unfortunate the magazine didn't test a factory air filter for a baseline test nor use a standardized test procedure.

(- Extracts of this article have been transcribed from a Japanese article featured in Revspeed Magazine, August 1999),

The HP gains for all filters seem dubious (+13-14 hp), as is the claim, "Zero Maintenance, Lifetime Use" for their filter of choice.

As an aside, costwise, 200 British pounds = $380 US

Sherwood

I imagine the gains are for a Skyline - it's well known a chip, an exhaust and an induction kit will bump the stock 280 to 350 on a GT-R.

price wise I paid about £65 for mine and replacement cones come in at about $40 - again I don't know what plumbing of box work it comes with for the Skyline kit but that may account for their pricing ( and it was probably from a UK dealer who simply just convert dollars into pounds for EVERYTHING!)

I agree about HP though on the 911 - I didn't fit it for that - just sub 5 micron filtration and easy bay access - somehow I found every week I was pulling the dam cover off reaching around gashing my hand on that stupid cover clasp at the top back of the oem box.

I repeat. The webpage has a manufacturer's claim, "No Maintenance, Lifetime Use". This technology is intriguing in that once filtered, the +5 micron dust doesn't seem to collect in the filter pores, but instead goes away somewhere - the only way this filter could ever be a lifetime use item.

In other words, what happens to the test dust they used in the test? It either goes through the filter, stays in the filter or somehow shakes free from the filtering medium and thus ready for more dust, or some combination of the above.

Sorry. This sounds too similar to K&N claims, but without the oil.

Sherwood

Yeah, I see what your saying but what your saying stands the same for paper - if you look at my filter in the photo you can see it blackening on the intake side so It could well collect in the filter - I don't know - I live in a a filthy dusty area and for me filtration was the first core requirement of any solution this was the ONLY one I could come up with that matched or exceeded the filtration of paper - it's not wet and certainly not sub 250hp restrictive - there are 1100bhp skylines with them on - now that's not an engine I'd want to take chances with - pretty much all high performance japanese cars use em.

and that website - I'm not sure it's a manufacturers claim - I just posted that site becuase it demonstrated what K&N are letting through and apexi aren't - there are others whcih confirm K&N's relative weakness ( but don't list apexi). Here's one :

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/airfilter/airtest1.htm


Apexi state that the actual cone ( which is a sort of fabric glass fibre weave not paper) has a life expectancy of between 30,000 and 50K miles - I don't know why that site put lifetime - it's not my article - you buy the cone as a 'universal replacement filter' which costs around $70. In that repsect it is probably more expensive than the mahle paper if you replace every 30K but it's not a significant cost and if your putting out more than 250HP I can't think of a good reason not to use one.

http://www.frankencar.com/products/apexi.htm

As I say the barn door on my new afm is still shiny clean ( and dry!) and my intakes ( after they were cleaned from the previous k&N which left them gunged) are still clean and dry...I'm not here to sell you one - you know relatively speaking I'm a big fan of the stock mahle paper system - but with this small mod my car feels, sounds and performs incredibly well - it's one relatively cheap mod that I'm very happy with - if it makes people sub 250hp stay paper or makes people think twice about an oiled solution then that's got to be good. Personally I like it - if you lived in the filthy dust bowl I do you might too!! :-)