Cost-Effective Tunable Precleaner

The air precleaner according to claim I wherein said replaceable insert is replaceable with a different insert for the same said precleaner housing, said different insert providing a different flow area through said precleaner housing, enabling a selectable precleaner vs. restriction trade-off as chosen by a user for a particular application, enabling tuning of precleaner performance by said user for said particular application.

A method for cost-effectively tuning air precleaner performance for a particular application according to user selection for an air precleaner for a filter downstream thereof, said air precleaner comprising a precleaner housing having an inlet receiving incoming dirt laden air, vane structure imparting centrifugal force on said air to inertially separate dirt laden particles therefrom to preclean said air, and an outlet discharging precleaned air, said precleaner housing having a flowpath therethrough from said inlet to said outlet, said method comprising providing a replaceable insert removably mounted to said precleaner housing and altering air flow velocity through said precleaner housing by changing flow area of said flowpath through said precleaner housing.