SE Heavy Breather/K&N Aircharger vs Harley Stage 1 Air Cleaner

[amcmp]

Any idea how much Hp/Torque gains could be seen with the addition of a SE Heavy Breather or K&N Aircharger as compared to the Harley Stage 1 Air Cleaner. Are they really that much better? And which would you recomend?
2010 Street Glide, V&H Power Duals, Rinehart slip-ons, PC-5, Crane 1-6000 cams

[whittlebeast]

The goal of any air filter is to provide plenty of clean, cool, laminar air flow to the motor.  The HHB type AC is the only styleI know of that deals with the cool part of this, provided you are not running bodywork that messes with the airflow to the filter.  None of this air temp stuff shows up on a dyno but is a nightmare on the street.

AW

[FLTRI]

After tuning these bikes for many years, and testing virtually every intake breather available, I can report with confidence that, for a stage 1 build, the regular S/E Breather and SE Heavy Breather work very well.

While there is a bit of difference in intake air temp between the 2 it is mostly seen when the bike is hot and standing still. Once the bike has been moving for a couple minutes the temps are very similar as recorded during street riding in >90deg weather.

Once a build gets large enough (>103) the Heavy Breather is a bit better than the reg. SE breather.

The new (since Mike Roland) Kuryakin A/Cs actually work as well as HD breathers.

The K&N filter is no beter than the SE filter for stage 1 bikes.

There are other aftermarket breathers that work well.
HTH,
Bob

[Ken R]

Any idea how much Hp/Torque gains could be seen with the addition of a SE Heavy Breather or K&N Aircharger as compared to the Harley Stage 1 Air Cleaner. Are they really that much better? And which would you recomend?
2010 Street Glide, V&H Power Duals, Rinehart slip-ons, PC-5, Crane 1-6000 cams

Even thought the V&H Drak air cleaner with a K&N element worked just fine with my 2010 Limited, the air being drawn into the intake was 20 to 30 degrees hotter than ambient.  (measured).  So I went to the Heavy Breather.  It's air gets entrained into the system before reaching the engine.  I had no way to measure the intake air, but it looks to me that it will be the same as ambient (unless you're going backwards or riding into a fierce tailwind).   That's got to help.

The other thing I like about the Heavy Breather was the increased legroom.  My calf doesn't touch anything any more except when applying rear brake.   

On a personal level, I think the HB looks good. 

Ken

[FLTRI]

Even thought the V&H Drak air cleaner with a K&N element worked just fine with my 2010 Limited, the air being drawn into the intake was 20 to 30 degrees hotter than ambient.  (measured).
So I went to the Heavy Breather...I had no way to measure the intake air, but it looks ...

No measured comparison to the Drak?

The other thing I like about the Heavy Breather was the increased legroom.

I recommend it to anyone over 6' for the additional legroom if not for cooler intake air during idle and bumper to bumper traffic (warm climates)

Ken,
Sure would be a neat test to see if there is really any significant difference between the 2.
Results may be interesting or even surprising.

Record datamaster back-to-back IAT testing each A/C within the same hour (climate) at same ambient temperature done on the same bike run to same on the same road/course for the same period of time.

Compare the IAT data logs matched by rpm/spd for the test between the 2 and you will have accurate feedback to use to evaluate which A/C feeds the coolest air into throttle body.

Then after that is accomplished it would be interesting to see if the combustion temps go up if intake air is higher.

So I guess we will need EGT to do this...then we will have O2 and EGT to consider...just like top tuners in drag racing, IMSA, NASCAR (at test day(s) only.

Then we can start a new threat called AFR vs lambda vs EGT.
Bob