Justin: I'm Justin with americantrucks.com and on this episode of The Haul we give you
a tour of K&N and show you how they make their legendary filters and intakes.
We're here in beautiful Riverside, California, home of K&N Engineering to check out how they
make all their killer products.
I'm joined by Ross.
And Ross, for the few people out there who don't know K&N, can you tell them a little
bit more about the company?
Ross: Sure.
So, K&N's original washboard reusable performance air filter.
We not only make performance air filter intakes here but also air intake systems.
Justin: You guys been doing it a very long time as well, right?
Since 1969 I believe?
Ross: Since 1969.
Justin: I know it started out as a motorsports company back in the day, but now you're making
everything from F150 air filter and intakes, while we're here today, of course, in addition
to Mustang stuff and even from mom's minivan out there, right?
Ross: That's right.
Justin: We're happy to be here today.
I know we have a lot to check out.
So, let's stop talking and get after it.
What do you say?
Let's do it.
All right.
All right, Ross.
So, this is ultimate garage goals I guess you could say, man.
Tell me a little bit more about what goes down in this room.
Ross: Well, we're real fortunate that we have our own race shop, our own garage to test
out our products on a regular basis.
Whether it's on a road race course, and our full dragsters over here.
It's neat to see us compete in the horsepower challenge.
You know, the same technology that we're racing, whether its NASCAR or NHRA, that's the same
technology that we're putting into every customer's products on a daily basis.
Justin: That's awesome.
And it is important to point out too that, you know, you guys started in motorsports.
It's in your heritage, it's in your DNA.
Ross: When Ken and Norm founded K&N and for us to be able to carry that torch, I'm very
passionate about what we do, and it's exciting to know that we continue that every day.
Justin: Well Ross, I appreciate you bringing me in the race shop, man, showing the heritage,
the racing, what you guys are all about, but now it's time to check out the other side,
right?
Ross: You got it.
Well, no problem.
I'm gonna introduce you over to Adam now.
Adam's gonna take you on a tour of all of our production from air filtration over to
intakes.
Justin: Awesome.
Thanks, dude.
And Adam, what's going on?
Adam: Nice to meet you.
Justin: Nice to meet you as well.
Let's check this out.
All right.
So, Adam, this is our pleading shop, right?
This is essentially where all of your legendary K&N filters are born, correct?
Adam: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
This is where it all starts.
We bring in these giant rolls of cotton, and its cotton gauze like you would expect to
see from a medical supplier or something.
It's just layers of woven cotton.
So, you'll either bring in four or six layers of cotton depending on the application.
And then they'll run through this epoxy-coated screen mesh here, and then they'll run through
this pleating machine which actually kind of weaves them together and creates that...
Justin: Gives you that texture, almost.
Yeah.
Adam: And then once that's done, they'll cut'em into length, roll'em up, and then they go
crossover to actually made into filters.
In the '60s, Ken and Norm, K&N, you know, they invented this type of filter material.
You know, they were desert racers and they said, "We gotta come up with something better
than, you know, these traditional disposable filters.
They just aren't working in this desert environment."
So, they came up with this oiled cotton, and, you know, 50 years later here we are.
But high flow filtration so you get the performance of the high air flow for your engine but also
doing everything you need to do to protect that engine, keep it safe and all the environments
your racing or driving in.
So, if you want, we can actually go check out one of these machines that's running,
and you can see how it is actually done.
Justin: Yeah, let's do it.
All right, cool.
Adam: So, you can see here, obviously, we got our cotton media, and this is running
a four-layer ply right now.
And then our two layers of epoxy-coated mesh, one on each side, then it's gonna run into
the pleater where those teeth are gonna weave it into that filter media.
Justin: Makes it look like that big accordion, right?
Adam: Exactly.
You can see after those teeth do their things, everything's pleated together just like you
would see on a finished filter.
All they have to do is just trim it to length, depending on the application, and then get
your oil applied and put it into a filter.
Justin: And for now, we'll get to go see some CNC and maybe some capping, correct?
Adam: Right on.
Let's do it.
Justin: All right.
All right, Adam.
So, what do we got goin' on in here, my friend?
Adam: Well, we are in our CNC shop or machine shop where we build all of our molds to manufacture
our filters.
So, we have all these CNC machines going and what they're gonna do is take these chunks
of aluminum and they're gonna mill them out using our CNC machines based off the designs
that our R&D department comes up within our CAD and SolidWorks programs.
It's basically a negative mold for the filter itself.
So, you can see, these are teeth where the actual pleats of the media will sit.
What happens is every one of these is part specific for a specific filter.
Justin: So, it either be your cone filter or your drop-in filter.
Adam: You got it.
Justin: All right.
Let's check one of these out.
Adam: Cool.
The pleated material that we saw earlier gets cut down into the correct length, and if it's
a cone filter like this one is going to be they seal the edge so that it's round instead
of flat.
And then they take these pleat packs, is what we call them, and then we come over to these
carousel machines here where you can see one end is the base, the part that's gonna be
going to the throttle body or the end of the intake tube, and then the opposite end is
gonna be the cap, which is the top with the logo on it that you're used to seeing at the
end of the filter.
It's usually urethane, plastisol depending on the type of filter, sometimes we want that
to be a real rigid mold and sometimes we want it to be more pliable.
So, it depends on the type of filter that we're making.
The table is actually heated to help cure that material, so as it comes around, the
material cures, they get to the other side where one of the workers here pulls the filter
out and that side of it's cured, then you'll flip it over...
Justin: It'll get its cap put on.
Adam: Once they're done with that...
Justin: You got a completed filter.
Adam: You end up with a finished filter.
Justin: There it is.
Adam: And the only thing missing from this is oil, which I can show you.
But first, I want to show you the other type of filter manufacturing, which is injection
molding.
So, let's take a look at that.
Justin: All right.
Let's do that.
Adam: These guys make up the majority of our drop-in and panel style filters.
So, all these are done through injection molding.
The different style of mold, they'll put the filter material actually in the little teeth
that I showed you earlier, and then this will close up and a nozzle will inject the urethane
or plastisol material in.
And then when it's all done, it'll come out and this is actually where the material is
injected in.
You'll see there's a lot of excess that they'll trim off, and when you're done you end up
with a nice clean filter like that.
Justin: Look at that.
So, if you have a stock airbox in your F150 or something like that, and you don't wanna
commit to a full-blown aftermarket intake system, always go with the tried and true
K&N drop-in filter, plop it right in your airbox and you're good to go.
Adam: You're good to go.
Justin: That's awesome, man.
Very cool.
Adam: As you mentioned earlier, this one's still white so we gotta get that red color
to it, which is an oiling process.
So, I wanna show you that now.
Justin: All right.
Adam: So once the filters are done being made they come over here to oiling, where as you
can see, they are getting their red coloring.
Justin: I see that, but it looks like you missed a spot or two.
Adam: Yeah, it definitely looks like that at first.
When you look at the machine, there actually is a pre-measured amount of oil for each filter,
depending on the size of the filter, type of cotton.
So, they measure out exactly how much oil should be sprayed on there.
They put it on there and they're not really worried about making sure they get every inch
of it because what happens is over time the red-soiled [SP]...
Justin: [inaudible 00:06:40] expand a little bit.
Adam: ...oil will start to expand throughout the filter.
Just like if you were to spill oil on a cotton t-shirt, it spreads throughout it because
it just absorbs into the cotton.
Justin: I know that feeling all too well, my friend.
Adam: Exactly.
So, what happens is after about 20-30 minutes this will be completely red throughout, and
then that way you're good to go.
Justin: All right, good stuff.
Well, it looks like we're pretty much done here with you, right buddy?
Adam: Yeah, I mean, we're pretty much done.
We just gotta package this thing up, put it into our conveyor system, and then it goes
out to the customers or stores.
Justin: I like the sound of that.
Well, I know we're missing half the equation.
We got our filters, but we're still missing intake tubes, correct?
Adam: We are, so why don't I take you back over to Ross and he can show you how that
part of that process gets done.
Justin: I appreciate the help, man.
Adam: All right.
You got it.
Justin: Thanks, Adam.
All right, man.
So, we've seen how our filters have been made here with Adam, but now we need the other
part of the equation, right, which is tubing.
Ross: Sure.
So, with our cold air intake tubes they all start here with a raw 20 feet piece of aluminum
tubing, and then we cut it down to size so it'd be very purpose built with those intake
tubes, those straight pieces.
Then we put 'em right into our mandrel bender so we can actually have the perfect air flow.
Justin: Absolutely.
So, a nice smooth flow, that's what you want, right?
And predominately, aluminum is what you guys deal with, right?
For the most part?
Ross: Absolutely.
Just because it's not sensitive to all the heat, and we can make sure we're optimizing
the best cold air performance and capturing the most dense cold air to maximize horsepower.
Justin: I think a lot of people forget about that too, right?
Heat is the enemy of horsepower, right?
Ross: And because that, that's why we've been able to see such great performance gains in
all of our air intake systems.
Justin: Very cool.
Ross: After the tubes are mandrel bent then we're adding in the [inaudible 00:08:11],
we're adding in mass air flow sensor elements into it, and then bringing the air intake
tube into to this area to be sanded and [inaudible 00:08:19] and to get all the hard edges off
of our intake systems so that they are ready to go get polished and then powder coated.
Justin: Very nice, cool.
So, they're just roughin' them up right here.
Ross: And then it makes for a better powder coat and better polish.
Justin: Very nice.
So, let's go check out the powder coating and polishing.
What do you say, sir?
Ross: All right.
Let's go.
Justin: All right, Ross.
So here we are, man.
Last part, basically, is paint and powder coat, right?
We don't have any intake tubes on the conveyor now, but we just have heat shields.
Ross: That's it.
So, we've got the raw metal good going on the conveyor belt.
They're gettin' some powder coat onto it, and then into the oven to dry and cure.
Justin: That's awesome.
But you guys are more than just aluminum and metal products.
You guys also have plastic stuff as well.
I've always heard the term, know the term rotomolding.
I've never seen it actually done, so can I check that out?
Ross: Here we go.
Let's go check out that one.
Justin: All right.
Let's do it.
So, we made our way over from the aluminum facilities over to the rotomolding basically
the plastic intake tubes.
Can you tell these guys at home a little bit more how these things get made?
Ross: This rotomolding process with these giant cast aluminum tubes are set up basically
to take all the resin [SP] specs [SP] out for each cold air intake system.
That system then goes through this process spinning around heating and curing until we
have a final cold air intake system.
Once it's pulled out, then it's cut down opening up both sides of that hollow intake system.
Justin: That's pretty wild.
And this is the original building of K&N over 50 years ago.
This is where it all started.
Ross: Yes.
We're real fortunate that we still have this on our campus and we do use it on a regular
basis.
Justin: So, we've had the luxury of seeing a very top-secret room here, their filtration
lab.
Corey, how you doing sir?
And Corey, if you can, explain to these guys watching at home in a nutshell what the purpose
of the filtration lab is.
Corey: This particular test that we're doing here right now it's for quality control purposes,
and we do a full ISO 5011 industry standard test.
This particular airbox, this is one that a customer would have in their vehicle and that's
what we try to do is we try to do all our testing to simulate what a customer would
see in their vehicles.
Justin: You have an airbox, you have it basically in a big vacuum or a pump, and at some point,
you actually crank some dust through this thing too to really check how these things
are flowing, correct?
Corey: Correct.
We actually call this the dust feeder, and it has the dust and a auger assembly here
to mount it on a scale so that way you know how much dust you drop throughout the test.
It drops into this assembly here.
Pulls it through.
There's the air.
Here's where the dust is coming in.
It mixes here, pick up in the dust stream and kinda atomize however it wants to atomize,
and then hit the filter however it wants to hit the filter.
Justin: Let's show these guys what kind of dust might end up on your filter at home during
a test like this.
Now I know this is a power sports filter, but it kinda gives you a better idea what
these things go through in a test like this.
Corey.
Yeah.
And the initial test pretty much is what the average customer would see when they actually
clean their filter is what I see on it.
But then the actual last part of the test where it really puts a lot of dust on it,
you know, we really kill the thing and as you can see it's nice and clean in there.
Justin: And even given this thing looks like hell, still flows pretty darn good.
Corey: Yeah, I mean, obviously it's not exactly what it did new, but I tell ya, it's pretty
dang close.
Justin: Well, you got a pretty cool job here, and I know it's very scientific, and I appreciate
you giving us a brief look into a typical day here in the filtration lab.
Corey: It was nice having you.
Justin: Thank you, sir.
All right, Ross.
What's this secret room back here, man?
Ross: So, this is pretty exciting.
This is our carbon fiber shop, and I'd like to introduce you to Mike.
He's gonna walk you right through the process.
Justin: Thanks, Ross.
Appreciate it, Mike.
What's happening, man, what are we doing over here?
Mike: So, we are creating the five-inch universal top that goes on our cone filters.
And what we have here is a prepreg carbon fiber and we're gonna place this into the
mold here.
And it's also backed up with fiberglass.
Justin: Yeah, it's crazy that something soft and pliable like this goes to this.
So, let's check out the next step of how we go from soft to hard, essentially.
Mike: Yep.
That would be the vacuum bag.
What that's doing is it's pulling out the air, and it's also forcing these plugs into
the cell.
Justin: Then from here we go on to that big oven we saw outside.
So, we go check that out?
This is called your autoclave, correct?
Mike: Correct.
This is where the parts go after we vacuum bag them.
It's basically a pressurized oven.
So, if you have a pressure cooker at home, we do this electronically.
Yeah.
Justin: And this just kind of cures that resin we were talking about earlier.
Mike: Yeah.
It takes it from a sticky resin, turns it liquid, and then turns it to the hard state
after about an hour and a half.
Justin: And this is crazy.
We're seein' scoops off like a Sportsman dragster and structural parts, so you guys do more
than just intakes, correct?
Mike: That's for sure.
If it has something to do with automotive, you know, we're trying to get there, so.
Justin: Well, I appreciate you showing me the ropes today, brother.
Very cool stuff.
All right brother, well we've seen how things are made, now where you taking me?
Ross: Now we're coming into our intake development room.
You can meet Wayne.
Justin: Now you got some cool toys in here, man.
Brand new Mustang, Raptor and a bagger.
So, what exactly you do with all these toys?
Wayne: Well, we develop intake kits for them.
We actually develop four brands in this building.
Even though they are done in this building they're completely different.
Every one of these kits you see here are the F150 3.5 EcoBoost.
We engineer every single kit for that type of brand.
This is the K&N brand.
Guaranteed horsepower.
This is the Airaid, closed air box.
AEM dual two kit.
And then our Spectre.
This is our valued [SP] one.
So, this will meet every consumer out there.
Justin: Absolutely.
I like that, man.
And I see the Spectre is definitely a little more value line because you're not getting
that much with that.
Airaid's, like, definitely for the higher end market, right?
Wayne: Exactly.
Justin: And then K&N's a name we all trust, but honestly, Wayne, there's something behind
us here that, listen, I'm a Raptor owner, I haven't seen a K&N out for this thing yet,
but it looks like you got one under the hood.
What's up with this thing?
Wayne: It is basically taking the existing design on the Raptor but modifying it to 2017
Raptor.
Justin: I like it man.
So what do we got?
The rotomolding plastic tube it looks like.
You need a tune for this thing, or no?
Wayne: No tune for this thing.
But you do get that million-mile filter.
Justin: Very cool, man.
Now you guys actually have a couple of dynos in here from what I understand, right?
So, you get to play with cars all day long?
Wayne: All day long.
Two chassis dynos and a motorcycle dyno.
Justin: Nice.
Wayne: All the fun toys.
Justin: Appreciate it, man.
Thank you for showing me the new products and some of the old cool products as well.
We really appreciate it, buddy.
Guys that's gonna wrap us up here from K&N.
We hope you enjoyed this episode of The Haul.
Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more great content like this and other
great F150 stuff.
But the meantime, I'm Justin.
Thanks for watching.
And for all things F150, keep it right here at americantrucks.com.