Air filter inspection questions

[chinesedawn]

How to do a inspection for your air fiter? I mean not just check if it dirty or not, how can you know if the air filter need to be changed? Because lots of aftermarket air filter can be cleaned and reuse like K&N, I have one, after I clean it I can see lots of little holes under the the light like the picture, I don't know if it is normal and will be OK after I oil it or not.

[Bill UK]

You run the risk of contaminating the AFM (Air Flow Meter) personally I would stick with the Toyota stock one, or a dry type cone filter. There should be a air filer recommendation/test section on here somewhere.

[Bill UK]

There you go, Link doesn’t answer your question, good result on the test though, don’t like the oiling bit, the AFM is a very sensitive bit of kit.

[cre]

He's running a 7M-GE, so the oil isn't an issue... still, K&N isn't my favorite. Hard to tell by the picture, but it looks more porous than I like to see. How long has that filter been in service?

[chinesedawn]

hehe.... the filter come with the car when I bought it so I don't really know how old it is, I felt my car don't have enough power so I checked the air filter and spark plugs, it looks really old but not that dirty when I pull it out(I can't see red color at all even after I clean it, the filter supposed be red I think) and then I realize the spark plugs more likely is the main problem...."They are swimming in the oil"

Do I have to change the air filte? Any good suggestions what brand is better and not too expensive? Actually I think( just I think) the normal one is good enough for 7mge, if my old K&N need to retire.

And!! All my spark plugs are all in the oil, no misfire, could it be the problem of my supra poor accleration( it is OK but compare to others....) and eat lots of gas in short trip? ( that is the only problem I have, the engine runs smooth and no noise, no DTC.....the feel of my 7mge just like a brand new 4 cyclinder engine, runs good but not enough HP and Torque....)

Last, how important it is about the fuel injector's oil ring seals, when I rebuild my engine the gasket set doesn't go with fuel injector seals, my bose ready to kick my out of shop at that time, I try to hurry so I didn't change them with the new one, I checked all the seals , no damage but the rubber is little bit hard which I don't know they suppose like that or not.

[cre]

Personally, I'd replace that filter. It looks rather threadbare which is unacceptable. I've never seen them in any color other than red either... They may have been washing it in bleach which would have contributed to the degradation of the filter medium.

My preference is either Apex'i or AEM... I've heard really good things about Amsoil's EaO filters too, but I have no experience with them. You will need a different adapter for any of these to mount to the AFM.. You can get a simple adapter on eBay for just a few dollars. I would use a silicone coupler and a piece of pipe to put the filter out of the engine bay below the headlight.

The oil around the spark plugs is most commonly due to leaking valve covers. If it gets past the sealing boot of the plug wire it'll cause misfires and loss of power.

The O-rings on the outlet side of the injector aren't going to kill anything if they're hard. They're an air barrier. They prevent pirate air from entering the system there (or escaping when the manifold is under pressure in a turbo engine). If you can hear air hissing then the leak is large enough that it should be addressed... but on a relatively stock N/A I wouldn't sweat it.

[cre]

If your intent is to just keep posting that people refer to their garage then stop... they know that is an option. If you're trying to spam with the link behind that obnoxiously large image (please replace it with something much smaller) you're going to find yourself banned real soon.... and don't post that you're in the USA when your ISP is in India. Seriously, what are you trying to accomplish? Are you genuinely interested in contributing?