AIS filter kit

[Dale_Lakin]

Who has installed it?

Like it...dislike it?

I will start a FAQ that I get from customers and post it here this weekend along with any pertinent info I can find on it.

If you have input please add it here.

 

[BIG JOE]

I have it, I like it. I had an aftermarket, open air, conical gauze filter. I changed that out to the AIS. My AIS also has the additional air in-let and foam air tube that allows air to be drawn from the inter fender opening, as well as the >larger than OEM< style in-let

The AIS is (to me anyway) much more quiet than the open air filter due to the filter being enclosed, all air is drawn from outside, much like the OEM set up.

Probably my main reason for going to the AIS was: It's an authorized FORD part. (Giving FORD less reason for denying a Warrenty claim ?)

My .02

JOE

 

[Dale_Lakin]

Big Joe

Did you notice any performance gains or MPG gains from the use of this system? That is the #1 and #2 questions I get asked about this kit and there is no real world data that I can offer to the customer that I can find...

Time for my Q&A or at least the start of it. I am going to post the questions I get asked the most and if you have input please add it and I will later add my input and pull the thoughts from others and summarize it to the best of my ability. I am also going to pull some quotes from the "other" site as well to try and make this as comprehensive as possible. Doing things of this nature I feel will help this site grow and add benefit to users both new and old so if you have experience either good or bad please add it here and I will take the time later to pull it all together and summarize it

Will I get better mileage from using this kit?
Hopefully someone can add input here as I do not know

Will I notice a performance gain in increased Horsepower
Hopefully someone can add input here as I do not know

What is the advantage of using this over the stock air cleaner assembly?
Much better sealing housing that provides a much better filtration of the air through the use of the patented Donaldson "PowerCore" technology.
Click here for more information on "PowerCore" technology

I have an early build 99 and I have heard of installation troubles with the kit what can I expect?

Can I install this on a Pre-99 Power Stroke?
The answer to this is not that I am aware of the kit was designed for 99-+ Super Duty trucks.


I will add more as time permits

 

[Dale_Lakin]

Info from Dieselmann's site

"7.3 Severe Duty Air Induction System Kit:
Finally after five and a half years, Ford has released a larger air filter assembly for the 7.3 F-Series and Excursions. This replacement housing utilizes a Donaldson PowerCore air filter element similar to what is stock on the 6.0. The 7.3 AIS Severe Duty Kit is intended to provide increased filter surface area and filter change intervals when operating in high dirt/dust environments. If you have an early 99 built before 12/17/98, and still have the original air box opening into the fender, you will also need the clean air hose, P/N XC3Z-9B659-AA, that runs from the air box to the collar above the valve cover. Unfortunately, Ford is not installing these under warranty.
7.3 AIS Severe Duty Kit Brochure
Info on the PowerCore air filter can be viewed at Donaldson.com (Requires Adobe Acrobat).
May be a more desireable alternative to the previous fixes:
Revised Air Cleaner and Filter, 99-2001 F-series/Excursions built before 11-25-00:
This new air cleaner assembly is to correct lack of power concerns caused by a collapsed air filter element. The element now has a 3" pleat, and the air cleaner cover has a post to keep the element in position. May be used to replace any air cleaner from model/year 99 up to 11-25-00, at which time it became production. TSB #01-9-5.
Air Cleaner Assembly: 1C3Z-9600-AA; includes element FA-1710
Trucks built prior to 12-7-98 should use the air cleaner from TSB# 99-6-4 as the above kit is not complete for those trucks. It will come with the FA1710 filter.
Supersedes: TSB# 99-6-4, Air cleaner kit: XC3Z-9K635-AA
TSB#98-16-11, Air cleaner F81Z-9600-BA"

 

[rvassar]

What's the service interval on the AIS filter?

 

[Dale_Lakin]

Hello Folks,

Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Jordan Flagstad, I am a Senior Automotive Engineer at Donaldson Company in Bloomington, MN. Donaldson designed and manufactures the new AIS for the Ford 7.3 liter Turbo Diesel pickups that looks to be the focus of discussion along this thread and a couple others in this forum.

I was asked to join this forum to act as a technical laison (Talk Shop) with you folks concerning the new AIS for the 7.3 liter Power Stroke. I must say, I graciously accepted this assignment as being a turbo diesel pickup owner myself I think I share a lot of interests here.

OK, enough about me....Let's talk about this new AIS. With this new system, you are putting "Big Rig" performance under the hood of your pickup. This new system offers 3x more dust load, lower restriction and newer technology than the original system.


Some of the concerns / questions I have read in this forum are:

* Is the restriction of this new AIS higher than the standard system? The answer to this is no, the new systems restriction numbers are considerably lower than the standard system.

* Does this system provide a longer service life than the standard system? Yes, the new AIS has a service life on the order of 3 times the dust loading capacity of the standard system.

* What is the filtering efficiency of the new AIS? The filtering efficiency of the new AIS is 99.9%+. The system will load approximately 900 grams (just about 2lbs.) of dust to the trip of the Filterminder. With a 99.9% efficiency rating this would mean that less than 1 gram of dust would pass through the AIS to the clean air side. Competing with this new AIS on the market today, are various aftermarket induction systems that utilize washable filters. I have tested some of these filters and found their filtering efficiencies to be as low as 70%. This would mean on a 900 gram dust load, 270 grams (just over 1/2 lb.) of dust will be ingested into the engine. Now this would be devastating to any engine and more so to an engine with a 100,000+ rpm balanced turbo charger.

* It looks like the Filterminder trips at a lower pressure, Is this true? This Filterminder is specially calibrated for this system. The Filterminder is calibrated to trip when the restriction at the outlet of the cover reaches 25" H2O. The Filterminder is not located directly in the outlet of the cover, so when tested with a vacuum pump, it may trigger at a lower pressure. As I stated above, it is calibrated to trigger when the pressure in the outlet is at 25" H2O, although the pressure in the location of the Filterminder may be somewhat different than that.

* Is the system worth the money? The answer to this question is really up to the person who owns the truck. In my own opinion, this system is a great bargain being that it was custom engineered for the vehicle, it is injection molded, and employs some of the best cutting edge filtering technology available today. It is also less expensive than some of the aftermarket induction systems mentioned above.

Hopefully I have answered most if not all of the questions I have found on this forum. In the future, I plan to visit this forum a couple times a week to check in and see if I can answer any more questions you may have.

Thanks,

Jordan S. Flagstad
Senior Automotive Engineer
Donaldson Company, Inc.

I hear you on the cost of the replacement filters, but take this into consideration. I have read a few posts on this forum of folks buying this replacement filter for around $60 (some have found it cheaper). I am not sure what the cost of the standard OEM panel filter is, but I think a good estimate is $20. Knowing that this new AIS provides a service life on the order of 3x, the cost is a wash. Also, you get more closed hood time, lower restriction, and you benifit from the 99.9%+ efficiency of the new AIS, exceeding the OEM's efficiency specification.

Jordan

You have some good questions here.

1a. The first question pertaining to the Filterminder being graduated and value assignable, the answer is both yes and no. The reason I say yes and no is, yes the Filterminder does freeze in 6 positions on its way to being fully tripped. The "no" part of this answer would be that we do not have data attributed to each click on the Filterminder with the exception of the last click which is 25"H2O. I would say that the intermediate positions could be used as a good reference for you to make an educated guess on the life you may have left before an element change is needed, but as I said we do not have the data to assign values to them, and we would need to assume that the spring pressure internal to the Filterminder is linear to divide into equal segments.

1b. There is another part of your first question that I'd like to touch on here. You had asked if the indicator were graduated in 25, 50, and 75% positions, would that mean that each would correspond to their respective percentage of the 25"H2O total? I think I got that right.. To answer this, I need to point out that we need to figure in a very important value into this equation. That value would be the "Initial Restriction". The initial restriction would be the restriction value of the system with a clean element at the rated flow. The OEM's adhere to a SAE J726 spec for dust loading of filter elements. That spec says that there should be a 10"H2O rise in restriction over the life of the filter. So the initial restriction will be the terminal restriction (25"H2O) minus the 10"H2O rise, falling somewhere in the 15"H2O area for a initial restriction value. So IF this were a graduated indicator that we could assign values to, the values would be distributed throughout the 15-25"H2O range when figuring in the initial restriction of the system.

2. Yes, the 25"H2O at the outlet of the cover is a Ford design spec for the max air restriction at that interface.

3. This question seems to somewhat the same flavor as the first question. Hopefully what I wrote there and what I will follow with here will give you what you are looking for. I can share with you, the method that I use to validate the trip point of the Filterminder. I begin with a clean element and system on the flow bench flowing at the rated system flow. I begin to mask off portions of the element until the 10"H2O rise in restriction is attained (simulating the dust load). When the 10"H2O rise is attained, the Filterminder should be tripped, that is the bench test. The other part of this test is the in vehicle test. The same masked element is installed in the vehicle and driven on the test track. The object is to get the vehicle to a full "Giddy Up" condition for maximum air flow and this will be at the point where we are asking it to produce maximum horsepower. On an unloaded vehicle, this point can usually be found at the top gear shift out at wide open throttle where the torque required to overcome the tall gear and the aerodynamic horsepower is the highest. I have found this method to very accurately align the results of in vehicle testing to bench testing.

Jordan

Borrowed this...

 

[JimmyDee]

I have one and like it. Filtering better is why I purchased and it seems to be working just fine. I noticed no improvement in intake temps or performance but these are not the reasons I purchased it either. It is a great filter that doesn't hurt the air flow. Highly recommend.
The filter is suppose to last 60k.
Jim

 

[roosterdiesel]

I have been wondering the interval in dusty conditions. Where I live, the wind kicks up the dust and I was cleaning my 5-layer cotton gauze filter almost every oil change interval. You could see the dirt and sand on the filter. I have a Napa 6637 now. We'll see how long before this one is dirty.

Anyone that see's dirt roads alot and dusty conditions have to change sooner than the advertised times?

 

[dmftoy1]

I'm on a dirt road next to a farm field and so far I'm at 16k with no noticeable restriction. In my opinion the performance is slightly less than the K&N Conical that I was running, but better than the stock airbox. (Much quieter than the K&N). I don't notice any difference in EGT's between the K&N and the AIS when towing. (which is impressive in and of itself). I'm figuring that a filter will be good for around 30k, but who knows? I do no that my silica is down by 50% with the AIS vs. the K&N. The K&N was staying right at the universal averages and now I'm 1/2.

Have a good one,
Dave

 

[Dale_Lakin]

Good info please keep it coming!