Foam air filter

[IFMT 36]

I had a little wake up call last week. Did my regular preflight including looking under the hood. Fired up my soob and warmed up until it was up to 160. When I taxied to take off and went to full throttle the engine bogged but caught up and I took off. Everything seemed normal but maybe just a little sluggish. I flew down the valley climbing at near full throttle. Levelled out and cruised for maybe five minutes. I throttled back for cruise. When I went back to full throttle the engine stumbled big time. I had a real moment of OH $#!T. Thank Christ it throttled up and I made the hasty return to base. Opened the cowl and took a close look at everything. First I thought ignition. Went to town and picked up new plugs. Put them in the next day. After I fired it up it would barely run without choke. When I looked real close at the air filter I noticed a very small hole eroded through the front. It is a washable foam type with a metal support grate behind it. When I removed the filter it was seriously eroded on the back side where it rubs against the metal grate. All the foam that broke away went straight into the carb. I took the air box off completely to see. The carb was visibly contaminated. I took the carb off(Holley 5200) and gave it a good cleaning. Be careful about what jet came from where. There is also a spring and check ball that need to go back in the right place. Put everything back on and ran it up. Purrs perfectly again. Ordered new filter foam from Bracket. The gentleman explained to me that air filter foam needs to be changed out every 2 years. I ordered 2 filters. Cheers. B

 

[tcj 150]

Ooops, I posted in the wrong thread.

Edited 2 Nov 2014 by tcj

[RDavidson 183]

Wow! Thanks for sharing! That could have ended a lot worse!

I've often thought about just washing the foam filter out and using it for as long as I can. I have not done that and replaced it at every conditional inspection just because that made it easy to remember to change it.

I'm glad you were able to fix it easily and get back in the air! Thanks again for sharing!

Ron

[akflyer 1427]

Do they make something besides a foam filter that will work?  K&N or something?  Sucking chunks of foam into the carb does not sound like my idea of a good time!  Glad you nursed it back around and got her on the ground in one piece.. all too often it does not work out that well.

 

Bet you didn't need a seal belt either   When mine quit I had that seat sucked so far up my a$$ that I don't think a 5 point harness would have held me any tighter

 

[EDMO 1078]

I believe you can adapt the K&N filter to mate up to the Soob Carb intake if you have room - there may be an adapter?

One suggestion I read said to use the carb cover from a Horizon, and cut it down to minimum height, and the filter was in the snout (What kind I donno) - you could cut the snout and put the K&N on - the snout, or lower part of the cover, has a trap door for heat riser air which can be converted to manual setting.

EDMO

Edited 3 Nov 2014 by Ed In Missouri

[SuberAvid 617]

Glad you made it back safely.  I would definately change to a K&N type if you can find one that will fit.  A few years ago I sucked one of those cheap filters through the turbo on my Ford; it became a real expensive filter.  I went to a K&N in it after that.