failed Donaldson Eco air filter

[bevans6]

Ever seen this before?  I clearly have to come up with a new cold air intake system.  Donaldson P537455, maybe 10K miles on it.  I can only hope it happened recently, I guess.

[luvrbus]

Yep old age and humidity,I don't use that type ECO I use the ECOLite with the tapered cone inside that has the plastic netting for turbo engines

[j.m.jackson]

If it doesn't have a wire or plastic mesh netting facing the intake of the engine, I would NOT use it. That's a pretty big failure, I hope it didn't dust your engine. You were one step away from the engine ingesting the paper element and costing you thousands and thousands without warning.

[Iceni John]

What is the CFM rating of that filter, and how many CFM does your engine need at full power?   When I see filters like this, I wonder if they're undersized.   Did it get wet?

John

[Scott & Heather]

Technomadia had this exact issue


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[j.m.jackson]

S&H,

That's exactly what I was thinking. An 8v71T moves alot of air at full bore. After seeing what happened to them, I'm fine with my 4 bowl oil bath air cleaners.

[bevans6]

It has a wire mesh bonded to the element inside, so that kept it in place.  I know what probably happened, on my last long trip I drove through torrential rain with standing water, since the air cleaner pulls from inside the engine compartment it could easily have pulled in water mist.  I'm going to get another of the same filter for now, since my install is based on that configuration of filter, and work out a better intake solution.  Clifford, what part number filter do you recommend?  The P537499 has 1500 cfm, but it's 24" long.  Can the ECOLITE's run either end as input?  This one is what was recommended in 2011 when I installed it.  It is rated at 1550 cfm, the highest rating of any of the ECO or ECOLITE filters.

Edit:  I was looking at the stock cold air intake, it is 30 square inches and the turbo intake is only 20 square inches so it should flow enough air.  I can adapt an input to the air filter.  The stock cold air inlet draws from in the radiator inlet area up high, and has a pretty decent water separator.

Brian

[Oonrahnjay]

     You're scaring me, Brian ...

[j.m.jackson]

It has a wire mesh bonded to the element inside, so that kept it in place.  

Brian,

Did you remove the wire mesh before taking the picture? I don't see it...

[bevans6]

You're right, the wire mesh in on the other side.  Obviously rethinking this whole deal.

[j.m.jackson]

Yes. There is nothing supporting the filter media when airflow is from the outside of the media to the inside of the media other than, basically, hot glue. As the filter media gets moist, and/or loaded with dirt and dust, it can separate from the outside mesh screen and cause pretty catastrophic failure.

[gumpy]

The filters I use have the wire mess on both sides. On the MC9, air is sucked from the inside to the outside. Dirty air goes to the inside of the filter. Clean air comes out the outside and goes to the engine. I though the MC5 was the same way.

[Zephod]

If water did that, you need to modify your air intake so that it won't ingest water. See my air intake... well out of the water.


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[Stormcloud]

I just installed an Baldwin 'Eco-Filter' equivalent in my 8v71NA MCI with fresh air intake up near the radiator fill.
It has the wire mesh both inside and out of the paper filter portion. 6" round in and out of the metal can but
actual fresh air opening is about 24 sq inches, and it draws air upwards, then right angle into the filter.

[kyle4501]

 It is rated at 1550 cfm, the highest rating of any of the ECO or ECOLITE filters.

I'm using the P537449  ECOLITE on my 8v92. I'll need to check mine soon . . . .

The P537449  ECOLITE is rated at 1500 cfm at 5" H2O.
The P537455 ECO-SM is rated at 1550 cfm at 8" H2O.

That is a significant increase in pressure drop.

Since the P537449 is 24" long compared to 16.8" for the P537455, I'm guessing it flows lots more at 5". 
Does anyone know why different filters are rated at different pressure drops?

I recently learned that paper air filters have a shelf life - looks like that deal I got on a spare wasn't a deal after all . . .