Personally I think the K+N filters are over rated.� There's an
excellent posting at TDIclub.com has shown that there are several issues
with them and OE paper filters work better.

- Paper filters
better when dirty and when clean.
- Paper flow more than enough
presenting no restriction for a 2.0L TDI (which uses a lot of air).
-
The oil on K+N filters destroy MAFs and other sensors.

The most
restructive part of the system is the silencer for the air box - remove
this and you will have lots more flow. 

I first hand can say
that in very dusty conditions - like extended dirt road travel - the oil
on the K+N becomes saturated with dirt and then MORE dirt goes past 'cause
it doesn't stick to the oil.� The one reason why a K+N filters at all
is the fact there is oil on it and the dirt sticks to the oil - nothing
special about cotton over paper!� 

A stock filter works
just great for most applications - change it every time you change your
oil and you will be much better off - if you are really serious about
filtering in duty conditions a prefiltering cyclone works really well -
all Syncros have this and it is an easy retrofit to the 2WD.� I have
the MANN cyclone filter for my LT (OE original) and for my TDI Westfalia
(one from an LT) and that catches about 90% of the dust entering the
system.

If you do insist on running a K+N cone filter, a set of
panyhose over the filter goes a long way to help it filter better... seems
like a lot of stuff to do just to get away from paper.

David
Marshall
VW Adventure Driver and BMW Adventure Rider
 
http://www.hasenwerk.ca

On Mon, January 19, 2009 18:13, neil
N wrote:
> 
> On Mon, Jan 19, 2009 at 4:27 PM, Frank
Grunthaner <frankgrun@aol.com>
> wrote:
> 
>> Apologies for the technical nature of this post to those on the
list who
>> tolerate this sort of thing, but I couldn't
resist.
>>
>> Frank Grunthaner
> 
>

> AFAIC, no apology needed!   :)  It does spawn some ideas.
Thanks.
> 
> For my Jetta 2.0 ABA conversion, I stole a
trick from the Diesel
> Vanagon guys and mounted a Dodge Caravan
V6 air filter box in the
> driver side cubby hole. It has a
smaller surface area than the stock
> Jetta air filter box so I
"Swiss cheesed" it a little with several 1"
>
holes.
> 
> I think it may still be somewhat restrictive
though.
> 
> Maybe someday I'll put a K&N setup.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Neil.
> --
> Neil Nicholson '81 VanaJetta "Jaco
>
http://groups.google.com/group/vanagons-with-vw-inline-4-cylinder-gas-engines
> http://web.mac.com/tubaneil
>
http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/