donaldson air cleaner and economy

hi all,

have just had a chat with a VW factory trained mechanic who claims that by installing a Donaldson air cleaner our kombi would breathe better and thereby deliver better performance and (crucially for me) better economy.

Does anyone have any experience with this?

Cheers,
Tom

yeah, i had one (gave it away not long ago), didn't notice any difference but that was with a 009.

bus914 wrote:yeah, i had one (gave it away not long ago), didn't notice any difference but that was with a 009.

what kind of economy do you get out of your bus as it is? (or what kind of economy did u get?)

T

last time i checked it was around 11L/100km at 110kph on the open road, and 15L/100km in city traffic. (its injected now) i got pretty much the same consumption before with dual stock carbs and the donaldson, just less power.

ok, that's interesting.

I have a rebuilt 2L engine which is delivering almost identical figures to yours.

I always thought that fitting the efi would help with economy! Shame that it doesn't seem to. Same with the air filter.

How much did it cost you to fit the efi?

Cheers,
Tom

too much.
if it (microtech) was tuned for economy and nothing else it could surely do better.

go megasquirt ,so much cheaper than any other and plenty of tech support,too easy on a bus with most of the stuff you need already there:beer

Is that a donaldson air cleaner or the pre cleaner which works wonders in very dusty conditions...

The Donaldson paper air cleaners have a large breathing area and last a long time.... probably many years and can then be blown clean with low pressure air....
If You don't go off road or on gravel dusty roads it would last You forever....
I can't see it making any difference to Your VW engine..

I have seen the Donaldson precleaners on Kombis in the country... they usually have a black metal top then about 75mm of clear plastic and then the cast metal base...
They are on Most tractors dozers graders irrigation pump engines etc... The dust collects in the clear plastic piece so You can see it....
But the precleaners do not stop all dust...
You still need a proper air cleaner between it and Your engine....
This info is for people who don't know what a Donaldson Precleaner is....

Lee

Don't make the mistake of thinking "Bigger is better" as this may not be the case as Donaldson aircleaners need a fairly quick flowthrough of air to work effectively. On a VW a 1.5" (38mm) would probably be adequate.
A lot of 4 wheel drives use air cleaners that use the same principal and may be cheaper and easier to get filters for.
Cheers.

I had a Donaldson on my buggy. It gave me better economy than the cheap little non-standard filter that was there originally. I had an oiled foam filter and an outer foam filter in it (I can't remember its name, they are well known and good). I used to check it every 6 months in city driving and it was never in need of cleaning and re-oiling.

I used to get about 10 l/100km around town.

I had one on a '72 camper 1600. Very cunningly stuffed up the LH wall leading up to the cool air louvres (and a remote oil cooler up the other side- prev owner was a serious guy!!)
Absol no diff in economy!!