Spotlight: K&N Filters

Jan. 1, 2020

K&N Engineering, based in Riverside, California, was founded in 1969 as a family business. The company has now grown to become a global company with offices in the U.K. and the Netherlands.

K&N Engineering provides state-of-the-art filtration.

K&N Engineering, based in Riverside, California, was founded in 1969 as a family business. The company has now grown to become a global company with offices in the U.K. and the Netherlands. K&N is both the sales leader and the brand leader in the performance filter business and now offers more than 3,500 part numbers that include factory and drop-in filters, fuel injection performance applications, and oil filters.

When it was time to build a state-of-the-art air filtration laboratory, K&N first went to Southwest Labs, a noted independent testing laboratory, for suggestions. With those suggestions in hand, company executives came back to Riverside and built it. The lab houses technicians who test mass airflow sensors and an intake development team. K&N's 350,000-square-foot research and development and state-of-the-art filtration labs, manufacturing facilities, and offices house more than 600 employees.

Featuring a high-quality check ball system, better-quality filter media, and higher burst strength than most other oil filters, K&N's sophisticated oil filter line is one of the most extensive in the industry.

With its intake systems, K&N has claimed and verified outstanding increases in horsepower. For example, the K&N high-performance air-intake system for the Ford Shelby GT500 Mustang offers an incredible 53-horsepower increase. By comparison, K&N's system for the 2007 Toyota Camry offers a 6-7-horsepower increase. "We have the dyno sheets to back up our claims and we are up front about what our systems do," said Tim Stewart, merchandising director at K&N.

"What we do know is that even if the measurement of clean to clean is pretty close, it doesn't take long for the original filter to begin to clog up and for our filter to continue to provide optimum airflow," Stewart said.

An internal combustion engine is basically an air pump; the more air you allow in, the higher the performance. K&N intake systems are used by many turbocharger and supercharger manufacturers in the U.S. Surprisingly, OE manufacturers have yet to offer "free" horsepower for their customers. Fortunately, you can let your customers know it and make the sale.