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Corsa Performance Intake/Donaldson Air Filter

11K views 36 replies 13 participants last post by  Original_Junior 
#1 ·
I was recently speaking to the owner of GotExhaust.com about air filters, and Andy (owner) told me about the Donaldson filter available on some intakes. Not normally being a fan of "cold air intakes", I am, however, a fan of Donaldson filters. I have used them in farm and heavy equipment for years. They are among the best out there. I was given the opportunity to install one, and test its filtration, and other impacts on the Jeep (2013 JKRU). I will take oil samples, and compare them with samples taken from an oil change with the OEM filter/housing. I will also monitor engine functions, such as load, intake air temps, A/F ratio, etc., and compare them to stock intake operation. The tools needed for install are very few. You need a 10mm socket, 8mm socket, 1/4" drive ratcheting wrench,a small (3") 1/4" extension and a #3 Phillips screw driver. Parts needed to buy; 1 1/8" hose clamp, and (2) 1/2" rubber lined clamps. I DID drill 2 holes in the bottom of the box to allow for water to drain from the box, as seen in the pic.

Pull your engine cover off, then remove the 2 10mm bolts holding the intake to the radiator.

Pill the coolant over flow hose off the intake.

Using an 8mm socket, loosen the hose clamps at each end of the intake tube. 1 at the throttle body, and 1 at the air box.


Separate the intake tube from the air box, and slowly separate it from the throttle body, rotate it up, and disconnect the IAT censor from its harness.


Take the IAT sensor out of the intake tube. You will need to lift the locking tab over the plastic "hump" to rotate it counter clockwise, and remove. OR, you can go to the dealer and pick up a new one for 20 bucks.

Pull the crank case vent tube off the air box.


Pull the OEM Air box out of the vehicle. 3 rubber grommets hold it to the bottom, so just give it a good tug.

You will need to rotate the vent tube 1/4 turn to get clearance from the alternator.

With the new intake tube, install the IAT sensor in the rubber grommet provided. I found it best to remove the grommet, install the sensor into it, then install the assembly into the tube Use a small screw driver to work the grommet back to its location. The locking tab on the IAT sensor has to face the throttle body end of the tube.

Install the silicone couplings on the throttle body side of the intake, along with the hose clamps. Leave clamps loose.

Remove the 10mm bolt on the fuse box, as in the pic.


Install the flexible silicone to the air box, along with the hose clamps provided. Remove the lid of the new air box, and install in vehicle. You're gonna have to try a few times to get the box into the 2 OEM grommets, as its blind, and hard to feel their location. Use 10mm bolt to secure the air box to the fuse box. Tighten the air filter inside the air box with provided large hose clamp, then tighten the flexible silicone to the ir box with the hose clamp.

Install the intake tube into the air box, and check clearances. If something isn't right, manipulate the silicone attachments until everything is clearing. When all is good, tighten all clamps, and install the case vent tube to the intake tube. Use a 1 1/8" hose clamp (not provided). At this time, you can put the intake cover on, using the #3 Phillips screw driver.


Pull the vibration dampeners off the OEM intake tube, the spacers where the bolts for the radiator mounting were. Using the 1/2" rubber lined clamps, insert the coolant overflow hose, insert the 10mm bolts, then put the spacers on, and re mount to the radiator.


Results from the testing will be posted as they come available. Its gonna be a while before I get enough miles on for the oil samples, but I can update other details.


All in all, dealing with Andy at GotExhaust.com was a fantastic experience! FANTASTIC person, and always quick to respond to questions!
 

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#4 ·
After having this intake on for a while, and doing some oil samples, I have found some interesting things. First, the OEM set up was tested during a fairly average time of year, air quality, and such, was around the norm for the Desert AZ area, and 247 off road miles. Silica levels in the oil (Dirt) came back at 11 ppm. Best I have ever gotten from an OEM filter, was on a Toyota, and it was 10 ppm. The Corsa was tested during one of the driest times on record, driven thru a few dust storms, etc. Literally no rainfall during the test, Only 2 days of marginal air quality, and 283 miles off road. Silica levels on this test were 9 ppm. And I went about 300 miles over from the test with the OEM filter. MPG were about the same. Actually up .51 mpg, but not enough to consider this anything of importance. On one trip, however, I noticed a 2.5 mpg gain, however, I couldn't replicate it, so this could have been a fluke. Ive always been anal about what filter I run on my vehicles, as the filter itself is the engines first line of defense against contaminants. In the past, I have found dam near ALL gauze oiled filters are crap. When I tested a K & N Blackstone labs actually asked if I was running any air filter at all, or something in the intake tract wasn't connected correctly. Every other aftermarket filter I have ran has performed much worse than any OEM filter. This is the first filter I have found that BEAT the filtration of an OEM filter. Bottom line is, If you want to keep your Jeep for a while, and off road, or live in dusty environment, and/or want an aftermarket intake system (It does sound pretty good), consider the Donaldson filter to put on the end of it. From my research, one vehicle has 150,000+ miles on it, and still is flowing within specs. Now, this filter isn't cleanable, but you can take it out, tap the crap out of it, and run it longer. Donaldson says it will last over 100,000 miles.
 
#5 ·
This is great, thanks for posting! I'm interested in hearing about your long-term results. I've been considering Volants intake just for the Donaldson filter.
Are you noticing a difference in sound and/or throttle response compared to the OEM setup? That seems to be the response most provide when switching to an aftermarket filter (mainly sound).
 
#6 ·
Thanks for doing this. I have also been a big fan of Donaldson filters. Power cores where in both my Vette and my Duramax.
 
#7 ·
its a lot louder when you get into the throttle. But it sounds nice, a nice low aggressive tone, rather than a raspy tone. You don't hear anything on the freeway at cruising speeds. throttle response is dictated by the intake tubes diameter and length going into the combustion chamber. Nothing before the throttle body is going to influence fast the engine revs or response. many people think their engine revs faster, and that's simply due do them actually being able to hear it. for those interested in purchasing the filter only, to use it on an existing intake system, contact Andy at GotExhaust. Com. he has the best price on these filters. In the meantime, I'm considering to try and see if this filter can be retrofitted to the stock intake system.
 
#11 ·
I sure wish I had deep pocket. I would buy one of these if I did.
Talk to Andy at GotExhaust.com. :)

Sounds like it's a really good filter. Do you know of a way to just fit a Donaldson cone filter to replace a K&N in the Banks CAI I currently have? I have no complaints, love the sound, but if the Donaldson has that much better filtration I'd be willing to give it a try. But I am bewildered by the breadth of options they have and couldn't even find anything that looks close to fitting in the place of a standard big K&N cone.
There are plenty of adapters out there. If you want, I can give you the I.D. of the filter itself, and the adapter is has with the Corsa intake. From what I have found, seems most all aftermarket intakes I have used, seem to have the same size filter mounting point. One reason you can now buy those Gauze filters at places like Auto Zone, Pep Boys, O'Rylies, etc.
 
#9 ·
Sounds like it's a really good filter. Do you know of a way to just fit a Donaldson cone filter to replace a K&N in the Banks CAI I currently have? I have no complaints, love the sound, but if the Donaldson has that much better filtration I'd be willing to give it a try. But I am bewildered by the breadth of options they have and couldn't even find anything that looks close to fitting in the place of a standard big K&N cone.
 
#14 ·
Donaldson powercore filters are superior in filtration efficiency, there is a reason they use them on the military versions of the J8:

 
#16 ·
Im always skeptical of air filter claims, which is why I do an oil sample. Easy as pie. If the silica levels are higher than average, odds are, the filter sucks. Given that the Donaldson filtered BETTER than the OEM filter, in WORSE conditions, It surprised me.
 
#19 ·
I'd like to suggest the R2C Off Road air filters for both the stock systems and as replacements for the intake system filters.

These are designed for severe/military use and will keep the intake system spotless while providing less pressure drop than the Donaldson and offer an easy to maintain filter that never requires oiling and can be cleaned with compressed air from inside out or even vacuumed. It will last for years and perform beautifully.
 
#21 ·
Donaldson

We used these filters in our off-highway equipment for a short period.

We immediately began to experience driveability concerns. We removed the filters and the trucks ran fine. The filters were sent to a lab. The results are below.

At only 30 grams of dust the restriction was off the charts. We installed the r2c units and it cured the problem. Massive dust holding capacity with low restriction and cleaning takes 30 seconds and the filters are restored.

Donaldson can make good filters. These are not that. Plus the efficiency was only average at 98.5%. That beats something like a KN but nowhere near what off-road applications need.

We run r2c in all of our Jeeps now.


CFM D.P. Dust Fed Minutes 400 8 0 0 400 10.6 11.33 1 400 13.5 22.66 2 400 18.3 31.47
 
#23 ·
We used these filters in our off-highway equipment for a short period.

We immediately began to experience driveability concerns. We removed the filters and the trucks ran fine. The filters were sent to a lab. The results are below.

At only 30 grams of dust the restriction was off the charts. We installed the r2c units and it cured the problem. Massive dust holding capacity with low restriction and cleaning takes 30 seconds and the filters are restored.

Donaldson can make good filters. These are not that. Plus the efficiency was only average at 98.5%. That beats something like a KN but nowhere near what off-road applications need.

We run r2c in all of our Jeeps now.


CFM D.P. Dust Fed Minutes 400 8 0 0 400 10.6 11.33 1 400 13.5 22.66 2 400 18.3 31.47
Interesting. Completely different from what I found.
 
#25 ·
This guy is a vendor trying to sells his product. He has 2 post now. I checked their site out an I only see CAI systems for onroad cars such as Camaros, Nissans, Hyundais, and Challengers. Nothing offroad focused like a Jeep, Raptor, or Power Wagon. I did not see any diesel applications either.

I am not questioning your claims to filter superiority but I don't understand then why no applications for CAI systems in a Jeep or at least Raptors; I know there is a market for them.
 
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#26 ·
This guy is a vendor trying to sells his product. He has 2 post now. I checked their site out an I only see CAI systems for onroad cars such as Camaros, Nissans, Hyundais, and Challengers. Nothing offroad focused like a Jeep, Raptor, or Power Wagon. I did not see any diesel applications either.

I am not questioning your claims to filter superiority but I don't understand then why no applications for CAI systems in a Jeep or at least Raptors; I know there is a market for them.
That's what I figured. Ive been around the Donaldson filters, and never had any issues like he described. In fact, My Dad owned a construction company for a while, and Caterpillar used one of his machines as a test bed for a new engine, and part of the contract agreement was that only Donaldson filters were to be used on the engine. I asked one of the engineers why that particular filter, and he said that's the only filter they trust to filter the fine dirt, here in AZ, thus ruling dirt out if a malfunction were to occur. From that point on, we used Donaldson filters on everything we could. And the oil samples all showed lower silica levels. Being as I was the one who was overseeing equipment costs, I never saw any increase in fuel usage indicative of a more restrictive air filter.
 
#28 ·
Air Filters

I'm not a vendor for anything.

A friend asked me to comment because he knew we had experience with these things. We use conical filters on our Jeeps. I'm not aware of any replacement filters or intake system. We needed improved filter performance and that's what we got.

I said clearly that Donaldson makes very good filters however the retail Powercore is not one of them.

Easy enough to test on any flow bench or to have the test labs perform the same analysis they did for us.

Thanks
 

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#29 ·
OK, you are not a vendor, my apologies. But why does R2C not make a CAI kit for the Jeep or other factory SUV or truck? Why only on road cars? They have a nice website but what proof do you have that the PowerCore is not a very good filter. BTW, I have no dog in this race. I am running the stock filter until proof comes out that something is better in terms of filtration and water ingestion. I am a little sceptical of comments made about one product being better than the other from a new member with only a couple posts.
 
#30 ·
I agree. And from my side, Im just stating what I found on my own. Any restriction, I would have seen on my scan gauge, and fuel economy. Engine loads were dam near identical when running this filter vs. OEM. The only real big change I saw during my testing, was that the intake temps came down faster, after start up, with the Corsa/Donaldson set up, vs. the OEM intake.
 
#31 ·
The power core is what the stock Duramax Diesel and C6 (LS3 & 7) Corvette run. They have more filtration area than any other filter on the market by a long shot. In the 7 years I owned my truck I never changes the air filter and there was no indication that it needed changed when I sold it.
 
#32 ·
Filter performance

I would suggest that if you operate in an environment that doesn't cause the filter to load quickly or with a large amount of dust, use the Powercore or any other standard filter media.

If you drive off-road or in severe conditions, you'll soon determine that this filter design does not offer reasonable loading capacity and restriction is high.

Again, any simple flow bench will illustrate this quite easily. Test the filter when new and then add an ounce or two of dust to it and watch the results.

The Powercore is a very expensive filter with no better than average efficiency and very low dust holding capacity.

Much better choices for a lot less money in my opinion which is based on our experiences and the lab testing that followed. Remember, we had purchased and used them.
 
#33 ·
I would suggest that if you operate in an environment that doesn't cause the filter to load quickly or with a large amount of dust, use the Powercore or any other standard filter media.

If you drive off-road or in severe conditions, you'll soon determine that this filter design does not offer reasonable loading capacity and restriction is high.

Again, any simple flow bench will illustrate this quite easily. Test the filter when new and then add an ounce or two of dust to it and watch the results.

The Powercore is a very expensive filter with no better than average efficiency and very low dust holding capacity.

Much better choices for a lot less money in my opinion which is based on our experiences and the lab testing that followed. Remember, we had purchased and used them.
Do you have any data to back these claims up?
 
#37 ·
Doesn't this filter housing show that it uses a Donaldson PowerCore filter? What makes this better than the one that comes on the Duramax or one that comes with the many CAI running a PowerCore filter? Just trying to understand why this one pictured is better. This looks like an extremely dusty enviroment.









I submitted the ISO 5011 testing results in a previous post.

Thanks
 
#36 ·
If someone at R2C wants to push a new product, they should go through the proper channels and become a vendor or commercial member.
 
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