> I have K&Ns on my TR6. I recall the K&N instructions said not to
> use gasoline. I bought their oiling kit which comes with a
> cleaning solution and a bottle of red oil. The cleaner certainly
> does seem to get out the dirt. That being said, perhaps they are
> just promoting sales of their kit. Gas seemed to do a good enough
> job the first time I cleaned the filters, before I had the kit.
I'm told that gasoline will eventually damage the fibers in the K&N filters
and spread little white threads all through your engine. My friend with the
914-6 that this happened to said it didn't appear to have harmed his engine,
but was disturbing all the same. He thought they might have plugged some of
the air bleeds on his Webers. And I'd guess that with part of the filter
element gone, they didn't clean as well as before. (He just replaced the
filters, so no report on that topic.)
However, I wouldn't describe a K&N as "foam", unless you're talking about
the foam pre-filter that some of them have. The element looks more like
filter paper between wire mesh to me.
Even if the 'official' cleaning solution is just dish soap, the potential
for ex$pensive damage seems to outweigh the cost of following K&N's
instructions. Just one re-ring will buy several lifetimes worth of cleaner
& oil !
YMMV of course
Randall
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