What's the consensus on cleaning and re-using air filters? Advisable? Worth it? Anyone have a bad experience? I was really surprised at how much dirt came out of the filter in the pictures, I didn't think it looked that bad.
The big danger is blowing a hole in the pleating of the filter, because then all the junk you just shot on the floor, is in your engine. As long as we have $40-80 air filters, and engine rebuilds are $5,000+ , I'm buying new air filters.
I blow them clean once in awhile, but also change them each year
Worked in an engine/drive train rebuild shop awhile, had a engine dyno. We put a well worn old Cummins on the dyno brought to power then allowed the engine to draw in a heaped Tablespoon of floor sweepings, HP dropped by 20% INSTANTLY, rings began to fully fail (blowby increase and was gauged) and ex. valves were noted as leaking past at Full Throttle(pyrometer). Y'all can do as you wish, I replace. We also too a 300,000 mile engine on a rebuild roll-over frame and set it on its side at half power to starve oil as in a wreck, took 21 seconds to fully lock up, was hammering at 6.
Replace we don't have an engine that can be built for less than $25,000 Good working precleaner and a vacum gauge to tell you when to replace helps On most of our equipment they are tossed at oil change time and not looked at until next change only the cone crusher will need one between services depending on what way the wind was blowing I figure if hours like that can be made cleaning is out of the question Not to mention you made a mess and breathed all that fine dust blowing them out
When managing the dirt guys awhile back I would blow them out gently each morning because it was soooo bad that summer. Each service it got new ones. The small sum saved doesn't come close to what it could cost. An occasional blow out due to extreme conditions is one thing I guess. I had gotten to where I had a spare set and I'd swap them each morning and clean them up in the evening. There are some exceptions I suppose.
If the machine has a 2 element air cleaner I would blow out the outer @ 35 psi a couple times, always bought new inner element. If the machine only had one element it was replaced with new, never took a chance blowing them out.
I reckon a leaf blower is the best thing for cleaning air filters if you really have to. It's a nice gentle air flow but surprising how much dirt they move.
I like the leaf blower idea Tones . Generally bounce an air filter on a tire to get most of the dirt & crud out . Low pressure air gun after that to go over the rest of it . Clean out allot of filters & reuse them . With exception on the 1974 Pete . It had the old " Farr " box type air filter mounted on the side of the cab . She was shot as well as the many rubber hose connections leading to it . Went simple with a direct mount open element filter we had in stock after a few modifications . http://www.heavytruckforums.com/showthread.php?263-Some-Holmes-750-action&p=3728&viewfull=1#post3728
Generally speaking I don't like blowing out air filters. In a pinch I'll do it but I'd much prefer to replace them if I can.
How much extra life do you get if you blow out one anyway? There have to be a lot of dirt particles that get lodged and never come out.
A couple of thoughts. I was always taught that a dirty filter is actually more efficient due to the plugged particles causing smaller pores for the income particles to be caught in. IMO the filter has to be very dirty before I clean it, and then only as a "get-me-by" til it can be changed. Also, I'm seeing more of the wedge, or box shaped ultra-high-efficiency air filters on tier4 engines. I have seen them blown out, but I'm pretty sure that's a no-no. Usually, as said before, a good precleaner and timely maintenance negates blowing out filters except in the really severe applications.
No idea. We change the air filters every service but I make a habit of checking the air filter every time I go out on service calls. If its really dirty and the machine will be due for a service within the next week I'll just knock out what I can and blow them out lightly. If its still a long way from service I'll change it if I have one on the truck.
Years ago we had a company that would pick up dirty filter wash them and return them. I never like doing it but boss felt he was saving money. Problem was some of the filters would come back with obvious damage like bent end plates or missing or damaged seals. Forget the exact reason we stopped doing that but was glade we did! Once I was the only person in charge of doing service work for the quarry I made it a habit of changing outer air filters based on restriction gauges. It was surprising the different hours some machines would go between changes. Haul trucks and pit loader that worked in areas that were kept well watered to control dust might actually go over half of the season, over 1,000 hours. While say the loader loading customer trucks and feeding BC Plant where there was much less dust control watering done to cut down on dirt on trucks going out of the plant on highway would be lucky to get to a normal service interval. And all machines had similar pre-cleaners.
Great information, thanks to everyone who chimed in. This particular setup has an inner filter as well so I was a little more comfortable just cleaning it out. I've got one on order and will be changing it out this week. One more question. The inner filter looked really clean and had no signs of damage, however it was marked June 97' , Do these things have a life expectancy? If its clean and in good condition should it be changed due to its age?
Would highly recommend that one be changed every other to the outer or at least once a year. Paper does get dry and brittle over time where may look fine but be passing crap.
On generators and fire trucks that run very little my rule is 6 years, but if it runs often I would agree 2 years is a lot of abuse for a little paper filter to take.
I'd chuck a 20 year old filter and start fresh just for peace of mind. Usually date mine with a paint pen
I usually marked the top of the inner filter like three pieces of pie. When installed new marked the hours and maybe the date in one pie piece then the next time the outer needed to be replaced per the restriction gauge marked those hours and date and the same for the third outer filter change. When I removed a dirty outer and found all three "pie pieces" marked a new one was installed and marked up. Also tried to keep a note in the service reports so I had a good idea when one was coming due for change to be sure I had one on the shelf.
I am a change them dont blow them out guy. If they make it to three years i recomend to change them. If you slide a shop light down inside a air filter you can see bad spots on inner filters..... some times.
Thanks Guys, filters are on order
I get my air filter replaced...as it's straight from the 'horse mouth' and does not cost me as much as it would from the stealer.
irrespective of which engine you are running or what fuel, the stoichiometric ratio states for every unit of fuel into the engine there be around 15 units of air that have to be filtered
As usual I'll be the odd man out....... I clean out outer filters and replace inner filters. Its common practice here for fire dozers to blow out the filters and radiators with a leaf blower or compressor after every shift. Running in dusty top soil with no water 95% of the time I can't imagine how many extra filters a guy would need carry to run a dozer on a fire for a month.
Well as they say there are exceptions to any "rule". If you are careful about the cleaning and keep a close eye on the inner filters to spot any problems of dust getting past the outer filter that's a good first step. I would also suggest having the equipment on an oil sample system just to double check the cleaning you are doing.
Can remember when Mt. St. Helens went off, quite a few wrapped air filters with heavy cotton cloth to gain some service time.
The older metal cage ones I've seen guys bend them beating them out on tracks to get dirt out. My grandpa would blow them out a few times a year with a blow gun. I try to replace but just the other day on a new CTL I took my little dewalt battery powered blower and blew it out. Worked great and it's rubber tipped so it won't bend anything. Great for blowing out cabs and whatnot.
Just after the blow, the ash and dust turned to grease when the rain got into it. Talked to a few guys that had several filters and took some home every night and washed them out with a garden hose. If I'm paying for the filters we are going to blow them out at least a couple of times. If someone else is paying for it I'm going to give them the choice. I seem to remember most medium sized machine air filters now run more than $75.00 a piece for a manufacturer that I would trust not to come apart on the first use. In a dusty environment I'm going to make an effort to stretch out that cost.
I usually tap out limestone dust and not blow the filter . I figure the air does more harm and if I tap out 90% of the dust it will be grand . Grass pollen and dust needs the air . 80 quid a year is fine but a week is alot . Some machines have very good exhaust extractors and some machines have fk all pre cleaning .
Could also factor in the original quality of the filter... If you're putting in let's say a factory cat filter you could probably get away with cleaning it a few times before the element/paper starts to let go. On the other hand a bottom of the barrel filter may not take to cleaning very well...
To put things in perspective does anyone have any horror stories of catastrophic filter failure and what happens to the engine? I've been fortunate to have never dusted an engine in my time and have no experience as to what exactly happens to the engine and components. Quite a few comments on engine damage, however not much on specifics. I'm all ears
Same here Dpete. When it's dusty we'll blow out the outer but never the inner. If the inner shows 25% or more dirty coverage both filters are changed. We date and place hours on machine when changed on every filter, inner and outer. Haven't had a problem blowing the outers out several times but we run Cat filters, they stand up.
Here's a pretty extreme example of dust damage. The coating on the piston skirt is almost completely worn away. The cylinder bores were worn over 3mm oversize turning the oil into an iron sludge which took out the crank bearings. I wish I'd have taken more photos but at the time it was just another job.
like LT-x7, SOP for us is to blow the outer filters out after working a fire, rx burn or any machine work, changed out at operators discretion, and definitely changed during PM services
As I noted earlier, we had an engine, an existing well worn engine on a dyno at HP that it could still maintain, took a conventional kitchen style tablespoon to a pile of shop floor sweepings and sprinkled into the turbo intake, lost 20% generated HP INSTANTLY and would not recover, blowby went ballistic, engine went into failure almost within a few tens of seconds. It does not take a lot or a long time of ingestion to put $20k+ in a pile.
Thanks for posting the pictures, I now have a new respect for air filters!
Sorry Dmiller, I somehow missed this post, thanks for re-posting
The air filter is unlike the other filters. The other filters are filtering a relatively clean substance and just keeping them clean, and if they miss any chances are they will catch it on the next pass around without much/any damage. While the air filter has to suck in massive amounts of filth and somehow deliver a perfectly clean product instantly to the engine, it is a wonder that they can work at all.
I used this when I was still farming to blow out filters. It drops pressure for each of the four ports enough not to accidentally breach the filter. I tried selling them to customers, but the responses I got from them on maintenance was...frankly sickening in most cases. Got one guy that went and bought one direct from the web site (Gee thanks! Even told me) for the same money. The one I used to use on the farm I loaned to another customer...which reminds me I gotta get money for that thing. Well worth the money IMHO. Even my tight ass brother and father who hate anything that costs money or is something new liked it enough to buy their own. : ) (Not from me of course....)