Thread: Alternative air cleaner for Puma Defender?

The Puma air filter box is notoriously finicky to fit and hard to get sealing correctly.
I often smear vaseline around the edges of the filter, dunno if this makes any difference whatsoever but it makes me feel better!!

The only alternative air filter box I am aware of is the nugget stuff one, which does look like a very neat piece of kit.

Originally Posted by DieselDan

The Puma air filter box is notoriously finicky to fit and hard to get sealing correctly.
I often smear vaseline around the edges of the filter, dunno if this makes any difference whatsoever but it makes me feel better!!

The only alternative air filter box I am aware of is the nugget stuff one, which does look like a very neat piece of kit.

I use the nugget stuff one. It’s a good bit of kit.

Alisport make very nice ones for the 300Tdi and TD5 as well as a few different 'universal' ones. You could also just get a fabricator to make one for probably a lot less, they're hardly rocket science.

Thanks fellas.

I'll check the Nugget Stuff option out.

Any other thoughts about potential dust entry points to check out? I need to make sure I knock the problem on the head. As I mentioned there was only a small trace of dust evident in the air cleaner.

By the way, refitting the air filter and lid is quite easy, if you take the plastic cover off the top of the RH guard.

just a note about using vaseline - it's a petroleum product so it will damage rubber over time. If you want to use something like that probably go with rubber grease unless you know for sure the seal isn't going to be damaged by vaseline.

I run the nugget kit. Its good but its a step back in air filter element effective area compared to the puma filter element. The puma filter effective area is 121sq” for comparison its much larger than the toy 79 series and gu patrol filter. With a tune i can cause a new nugget style filter to trip into the red on the vacuum gauge.

That all said, i dusted a turbo with the factory box which led to an early demise of my engine.

Long and short, keep puma filter element in a custom box or work out how to seal the box properly.

I have always used silicone grease smeared around the face of the air filter box to help seal, also on the intake tube going to the turbo.

does it need to be silicone grease? no, your air filter is not in the vehicle long enough to break down the seal.
heavy plant i used to work on, we just used a smear of whatever grease or crc spray.

Originally Posted by DazzaTD5

I have always used silicone grease smeared around the face of the air filter box to help seal, also on the intake tube going to the turbo.

does it need to be silicone grease? no, your air filter is not in the vehicle long enough to break down the seal.
heavy plant i used to work on, we just used a smear of whatever grease or crc spray.

Thanks Daz

So no other potential points of dust entry to check for?

Cheers
Brid