If you haven’t cleaned or swapped out your air filter for a new one, this just might convince you to get that done ASAP.

Rob Dahm just posted his latest video earlier yesterday (Sept. 26, 2018) where he took a little visit down to Anaheim, Calif to the home of Weistec Engineering, the home of arguably California’s best Mercedes tuners. While there, he decided to dyno his Cadillac CTS-V, which isn’t stock, by the way, just to see what his base numbers were. When his initial dyno pull numbers weren’t adding up, Weistec diagnosed a simple dirty air filter was the cause. And after they took off the old filter, the delta between the horsepower numbers will blow your mind.

Keep in mind that Rob Dahm’s Cadillac CTS-V isn’t exactly stock. At the same time, it’s not too heavily modified, either. In an earlier video last year, we got the rundown of what another tuning shop did to Rob’s Cadillac. This includes a Cookes header system, a smaller supercharger pulley, a 90 mm LS3 ported throttle body, ported blower, ported snout, ID 50 injectors, EW 300 series fuel pumps, Flex fuel sensor for E-85, and a complete tune. Stock, the supercharged CTS-V puts out a monstrous 556 HP and 551 lb-ft but after the aforementioned tune, his CTS-V was making 621 HP and 609 lb-ft to the wheels!

Going back to his dyno pulls at Weistec, his dyno numbers with a dirty filter were 577 HP and 598 lb-ft, a huge chunk of power lost because the engine couldn’t breathe properly. The air filter looked downright dirty. When he pulled his air filter off and ran it sans filter, his numbers not only improved, they were better than his earlier tune at 615 HP but 639 lb-ft. Everyone knows torque wins races so don’t @ me.

In his case, with a big forced induction car, a dirty air filter can rob you of as much as 50 HP.

For average drivers with NA 1.6L engines, that might mean a loss of 5-10 HP to the wheels, power you can feel. After a clean filter, you’ll probably see your MPGs shoot up as well.

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