It is so appalling reading the advice of so called 'engine experts' on this forum. Why does the owners manual say to "tap out" the filter? That is because it is paper and any compressed air will damage it. Can you blow through a piece of paper? Only if it already has micro holes in it, like the media of any air filter. How low of air pressure will not change the size of these tiny holes? My guess is probably not a lot.
If it needs to be blown out, it probably needs replacing. The manual says to not oil the pre-filter. Why? Because oil attracts dirt. And, there is no need to order an illegal aftermarket air filter system, if someone would have ordered the correct engine for the job to begin with.
Kawasaki offers a 3 year warranty on all engines against manufacturing defects. Dirt ingestion is not a manufacturing defect.
Yes I agree
However in a civilized society people can have different opinions and while I try to point out things that are bad or incorrect it is not my job to change peoples minds
In many cases a mower engine will run fine for a very long time with no filter at all
Motorcycles rarely had a filter on the carb till almost WWII and even then a lot of sports bikes ( and cars) had nothing more than a coarse screen to stop sticks & stones
Mower engines do so few hours that abrasion from dust ingression to the point of engine failure is highly unlikely to happen before the mower parts themselves fail .All of the ring failures have been on ZTR's with baggers that exude a massive amount of very fine dust very close to the air intake and when bagging people tend to mow slower so a lot of that dust gets sucked into the blower housing then blasted into the filter chamber
Filters should not be blown out with compressed air unless that air has been eletrostatically filtered before being compressed
The filter shop I use that "dry cleans" filters used on earth moving equipment has $ 20,000 worth of gear that microscopically cleans the air down to 0.1µ and then pulse blasts the air filters from the inside out .
The maximum number of times they will do this is 11 and they test them prior to sending them back with smoke ≈ 2µ particle size .
OTOH this gear can ave filter that go better than $ 100 a pop and can clog up in less than 8 hours of use .
I fit FS engines because they are over $ 1000 cheaper than FX's which are over kill for domestic customers
RGS supply the upgrade filter kits for about 1/2 the price difference and without the steel blower housing that comes down to a 1/4 .
They are not "ILLEGAL" they are authorised by kawasaki and come with a warranty continuation certificate , if fitted by a recognised technician.
As I have tried to emphasise the biggest problem is in the fitting.
Clamping onto a plastic tube is not a good idea as you can easily deform the tube and create an air leak .
The purpose of the foam is not to filter dust bit to hold back grass clippings that block off large sections of the paper surface so no need to oil them
Foam only filters do need to be oiled but they are very thick and work by causing the air to follow a turbulent path so the dust will hit the oiled surface thus stick to it .
This does not happen very much with prefilters because they are way too thin to do any effective filtering , they are a screen and are only foam because foam is cheaper than wire mesh
Pople see stuff on the web that dose not apply to them or their situation then blindly apply it where it does not belong because they have not thought it through properly to start with.
. It is 100 here. If it helps any, the mower is a Toro MX5060, model 74641, with a Kawasaki 23hp engine. I "think" the mower came with just the paper filter and not a foam sleeve over that filter. But thats 12 years ago and I've changed filters 2 or 3 times. I don't recall but it may be another brand filter thats on there now. I really don't know. I put that foam sleeve over it that came with a prior filter. I figure as thin as that foam sleeve is its not going to hurt in any way.
