Good! No problems experienced with AEM’s dry flow filter up until I upgraded air intakes haha. Just make sure you get the right size.
Which intake did you upgrade to?
I've had the AEM filter on for about two months now and its been fine. From holding both the PRL and AEM filters up to the light, the AEM definitely seems like it would filter better since it's a lot less transparent.
Definitely! I had an AEM filter on my last car and it returned lower silicon and wear metals than the OEM filter on a Blackstone oil analysis. I'm happy to hear the AEM works well with the PRL intake. Is the sound the same?
I'm not sure since I installed the AEM filter with the intake. Seems loud enough for me. That's good to hear that they do filter better, since that was the main reason I went with it.
Yeah, it went on a bit loose but fit snug once the clamp was tightened. It seems to seal fine and I haven't had any issues with it.
In case you're curious, I just took mine apart to check after driving over 400 miles on a road trip through the Southwest desert. Upon removing the filter, the inside of the MAF housing was spotless. As well as the couplers and the rest of the intake tract. It seems that the AEM filter is sealing nicely on the housing and looks to be filtering great so far. Even in dusty and windy conditions.Yeah, it went on a bit loose but fit snug once the clamp was tightened. It seems to seal fine and I haven't had any issues with it.
Fyi, your math is not far off! Probably the difference in a manufacturing variance. I actually cut the PRL filter apart and spread the gauze out on a bench. It measures roughly 3.75” wide by 72” long, which is 270 sq in. If it was stretched to 4x72”, your calculation would be nearly dead on! Nice work!Good questions, I have no doubt the PRL has greater surface area, but even if they were identical dimensions an oiled filter will have slightly better flow / slightly worse filtration than a dry filter.
But for fun, I did some quick and dirty cone math. Not accounting for pleat number and depth, the lateral surface areas are roughly:
AEM filter: 80.2836 sq inches
PRL filter: 81.96 sq inches
Regarding the pleats, the AEM has 51 pleats with about 9/16” depth, while the PRL has 70 pleats of about 7/16” depth.
Multiplying the pleat number by 2 (in and out) and depth, you get the following “pleat multipliers”:
AEM: 57.375
PRL: 61.25
And multiplying these by the pleat length, you have roughly:
AEM: 57.375 x 4.205 = 241.26 sq in
PRL: 61.25 x 4.7434 = 290.53 sq in
This does not take into account the curves in the valleys and crests of each pleat which are wider on the AEM, or that the AEM pleats are spaced farther apart, each of which might make for better flow through a single pleat.
Feel free to check my work, but yea the PRL filter has greater surface area and I would guess better flow than the AEM. Does the AEM filter provide better flow than stock? I would presume so.
Why'd you cut your PRL filter open? Thought I was the only one that did strange things like that!
Good question! I was just curious to see what the raw filter material looked like. It ain’t much. Just 2 strips of gauze. I’ll take a pic tomorrow.
I actually did the same. I've cut open an AEM dryflow and the PRL filter so far to look at the media. The description of the green filters, who makes PRL filters, says they use one coarse layer and one fine layer. But both layers look identical to me. Does yours look the same? I can't understand how this material can do much filtering, especially with the fine dust we have down here in the southwest.
Lol! I’m glad I’m not the only one to nerd out over this stuff. As far as I can tell, the 2 layers in the PRL filter look the same. I’m sure there are areas with less particulate in the air, but there’s always some crap floating around. I’m certainly not comfortable running the oiled filters.
The AEM looks pretty decent. The outer red layer is like a felt material and the inner white layer is like a thin piece of paper material.
Great info! Thank you!The AEM looks pretty decent. The outer red layer is like a felt material and the inner white layer is like a thin piece of paper material.
I attached pictures of the layers as well as when help up to the light. Threw in pictures of the PRL filter as well in case anyone is curious.
