The power produced by your engine comes from the combustion of fuel in air. Combustion requires significantly more air than fuel, stoichiometric combustion of petrol in air is 14.7:1 (by weight), however; load and temperature conditions will cause this to vary from approximately 18:1 (lean) to 12:1 (rich).
For a diesel (compression ignition) engine the stoichiometric ratio of 14.7:1 will vary widely due to engine load from approximately 20:1 (full load rich mixture) to 100:1 (no load lean mixture).
To approximate further it can be said that for every mile you drive the average car, you require 400 litres of air. Getting 400 litres of air per mile into your engine isnt easy. The air contains lots of harmful particles such as dust, dirt and insects. These particles would destroy the valve train, cylinders, pistons and just about anything else they came into contact with. Just imagine trying to run your engine with a single piece of lead shot in one cylinder and you can see that a quality air filtration system is vital.
The mathematics of combustion within the internal combustion engine is the last significant area of automotive engineering that is not entirely defined. However, the chemistry of combustion is, as is the effect of combustion upon the performance. The air filter has one primary task cleaning the intake air charge. However, modern engine performance starts with the quality of the air charge. The air filter system has a number of other roles:
1. Reducing the ingress of water
2. Reducing induction noise
3. Enabling the sensing of inlet temperature
4. Controlling the flow of inlet air to optimise performance
5. Ram and Wave charging of the inlet air can be affected by careful design of
the inlet tract and air filter
The air filter affects performance in three critical ways:
Engine power volume of air entering the engine
Throttle response restrictions to the flow of air
Engine wear poor quality combustion
Engine air filtration simply involves placing a filtering media within the inlet tract. This media can be made from many porous materials; most common for passenger vehicles is a paper element. The porosity of the element determines the efficiency of the filtration, however, the efficiency is further affected by the use that the filter element has endured. The filter element requires regular replacement and should be checked every 5000 miles. To improve engine performance (allow a greater volume of air into the engine) high performance air filters and induction kits are also available from autosava.
AIR FILTER SERVICE INTERVALS
Autosava suggest that air filters are regularly inspected and replaced accordingly:
PETROL ENGINES
Non turbocharged: 10 000miles (or 1 year)
Turbo and supercharged engines: 5 000miles (or 6 months)
DIESEL ENGINES
ALL: 5 000miles (or 6 months)
To find the air filter for your engine - simply follow this link, or call us on 08700 42 00 85
autosava.com is a trading name of autosava limited a company registered in England and Wales no: 5414081 VAT registration number: 850 8893 87