Ram with no air filter!

[RamTough863]

I was troubleshooting this weird noise coming from my front passenger wheel well area. I popped the hood and was shocked to see my K&N cone air filter had come off and was just flopping around in the air box.

It’s probably been this way for three or four months. I haven’t noticed anything wrong with performance or engine noise.

Is there any concern and/or anything I can do to clean up what dust may have sucked in?

 

[Stefud]

I don't think there much you can do now.

 

[HSKR R/T]

I was troubleshooting this weird noise coming from my front passenger wheel well area. I popped the hood and was shocked to see my K&N cone air filter had come off and was just flopping around in the air box.

It’s probably been this way for three or four months. I haven’t noticed anything wrong with performance or engine noise.

Is there any concern and/or anything I can do to clean up what dust may have sucked in?

You can start by opening your hood more often. I couldn't imagine going that long without ever opening my hood. Have to check the oil at some point

 

[Clv22p]

Get the oil changed. Other than that there is nothing to do.

 

[Rick3478]

One friend had a "dirt theory" of internal combustion engines, which went sort of like: Each engine is designed to ingest a fixed amount of dirt before it dies - you can do it all at once and probably have a lot of fun killing it quickly (he loved dirt bike riding), or you can filter it out and get a lot of boring practical work done over a longer period of time. You are still well on the latter end of that spectrum.

 

[Rlaf75]

I have had my 21 ram for 1 year as of just a couple weeks ago. I pulled the air filter out expecting to change it but it was absolutely spotless. I smacked the filter against a post to see if anything was falling out and absolutely nothing. It looked brand new. Moral of my story is, it depends on where you drive. If you live in the woods or drive down dirt roads or in dusty environments then I'd be a little concerned. If not then I wouldnt worry too much about it and reinstall it and make sure the clamp is tight.

 

[SD Rebel]

When you do your next oil change, take a sample and send it to Blackstone labs for analysis. It's worth the $30 for the test, they will tell you if you got some damage, usually in the form of abnormally high metal count caused by debris. You won't likely see any unusual debris in the sample because the filter will usually catch it. But you can possibly catch any damage caused by it.

This will at least give you some comfort or warning about any issues you could have now. Go to Blackstone Labs Oil Analysis website, order their kits, usually arrives in about a week. The kits are free and come with postage to return your sample. You just pay for the analysis being performed.

I had a similar thing happen to me. I bought a used weekend car recently. After driving it for 100 miles, I notice the air filter box wasn't fitted correctly over the intake, so it was likely sucking in some unfiltered air. Then I noticed the air box which houses the air filters has broken fasteners, which means even the filters weren't seated in the box correctly and even more unfiltered air was reaching the engine.

I was freaking out about it, it could have been run this way for thousands of miles. I did an oil analysis and it showed nothing to worry about, no unusual wear or debris in the oil. Very relieved to see a good sample and to know my engine seems to be running fine. I highly recommend that as your next steps.

 

[beetlespin]

Drive it.

 

[CopterDoctor]

I would check the inside of the tube going to your throttle body to see if it has any dust or light debris stuck to the inside of the tube. Since you had been running a K&N filter this would also give you a chance to see if the filter was over oiled as you would have a bit of an oil film on the inside of the tube. Take a good look at your throttle body and make sure it and the inside of the air tube are clean. Since there was no performance issue or weird noises observed while driving it may not have been off long. Many guys racing their rides at the strip will remove their filters before making a run with no issues.

If all looks good, drive it like you stole it and keep an eye on things for a while.

 

[Scram1500]

You've been sucking in dust the whole time if you're using a K&N

 

[Yankee Echo]

I agree probably not worth the effort to try and clean the air intake. Ditch the KN and go back to OEM air filter.

 

[Orion10182011]

Your probably fine OP. Put the filter back on and sin no more.

 

[HSKR R/T]

All these K&N filter haters, who must be airflow engineers.

They have been around for decadesz and I can honestly say that I have never heard of an engine failure caused by the filtration of a K&N filter.

 

[SD Rebel]

Depends on the filter application. The problem is some K&N filters in the OEM drop-in style don't fit into the stock airbox properly. Loose enough for dust/dirt to actually get past the filter.

I personally had this issue with my first F150 and Jeep. However, the one on my SV650 bike fits perfectly and always shows great oil analysis.

However, there are plenty of testing that shows quite a bit of dirt getting past K&N pleats. If you hold one to the sun, and you can see light through it, dirt will get past it.

On street applications it's probably fine. But high dust and off-roading, no freakin way. With my 5th scale 2-cycle RC trucks, if you try to run a K&N filter, your engine is gone after a couple of tanks of fuel. So much fine dust gets past them that they destroy the cylinder walls and will need a top end rebuilt. We only run oiled foam filters in that high-dust application.

Of course a 30cc single cylinder toy engine isn't the same thing as a 5.7L V8, but I wouldn't want the dust that gets past the filter for any reason. It may not be enough to destroy your engine, but its not likely good for it either.

 

[HSKR R/T]

Depends on the filter application. The problem is some K&N filters in the OEM drop-in style don't fit into the stock airbox properly. Loose enough for dust/dirt to actually get past the filter.

I personally had this issue with my first F150 and Jeep. However, the one on my SV650 bike fits perfectly and always shows great oil analysis.

However, there are plenty of testing that shows quite a bit of dirt getting past K&N pleats. If you hold one to the sun, and you can see light through it, dirt will get past it.

On street applications it's probably fine. But high dust and off-roading, no freakin way. With my 5th scale 2-cycle RC trucks, if you try to run a K&N filter, your engine is gone after a couple of tanks of fuel. So much fine dust gets past them that they destroy the cylinder walls and will need a top end rebuilt. We only run oiled foam filters in that high-dust application.

Of course a 30cc single cylinder toy engine isn't the same thing as a 5.7L V8, but I wouldn't want the dust that gets past the filter for any reason. It may not be enough to destroy your engine, but its not likely good for it either.

There's a small percentage of these trucks that will ever see dusty condition bad enough for most owners to be concerned. And those that do go into those situations they probably know well enough to use better filters.

A properly oiled K&N filter does a fine job of filtering. Problem is most people either over oil them, or dont use enough.

 

[SD Rebel]

There's a small percentage of these trucks that will ever see dusty condition bad enough for most owners to be concerned. And those that do go into those situations they probably know well enough to use better filters.

A properly oiled K&N filter does a fine job of filtering. Problem is most people either over oil them, or dont use enough.

Absolutely, that's why I run one my on street bike, no complaints with that one.

Just whatever you do, if you get a K&N for your stock air box, make sure the gasket fits nice and tight.

 

[Jake103]

I agree probably not worth the effort to try and clean the air intake. Ditch the KN and go back to OEM air filter.

I agree switch back to oem, when I seen vehicles, when I did work on cars, come in with those oiled k&n filters I would just laugh. You are not gaining anything from it and plus why have to worry about cleaning and oiling a filter when the factory one does just aswell. I would say they are about as useful as a throttle body spacer A.K.A "Paper weight" now a days lol

 

[Dewey]

All these K&N filter haters, who must be airflow engineers.

They have been around for decadesz and I can honestly say that I have never heard of an engine failure caused by the filtration of a K&N filter.

I used the same K&N on my last two trucks over a 9 year period. 230,000+ miles and zero issues. Washed and oiled every 6 months or 12,000 miles.

 

[HSKR R/T]

I agree switch back to oem, when I seen vehicles, when I did work on cars, come in with those oiled k&n filters I would just laugh. You are not gaining anything from it and plus why have to worry about cleaning and oiling a filter when the factory one does just aswell. I would say they are about as useful as a throttle body spacer A.K.A "Paper weight" now a days lol

If you aren't one of those people who get a new vehicle every 3-4 years, over the lifetime of the vehicle it's cheaper to have a cleanable filter instead of buying a new one every year. Of courses there are those who will go four years and never even look at the factory air filter to see if it needs changed.

 

[Snekpete]

Unless you've been driving on dirt roads, desert sands or off roading it doesn't make any difference.