Now that's a good question. I have to admit that my cover has not fallen off yet. So, you can feel free to question my 'crummy design' comment. I made it because in normal maintenance/handling of the filter cover, I noted to myself that it most likely was going to be trouble some day. That's because the locking tabs hardly make enough contact to stay in place, and retainer 'rings' look very fragile. The way the filter assembly stands out from the engine, you have to keep it in mind when cutting under bushes/obstructions on the carburetor side, because one good hit on the filter housing might break a retainer ring. At that point, you could rig a makeshift keeper for it but the filter housing should be replaced. This opens another can of worms because the housing screws are self-tapping in the aluminum, and might strip out easily. Does it sound like I have been there with this? Indeed I have. My LB 22271 I got from Wise Equipment was poorly packed (they had set it up on display and repacked it for shipment) and the filter cover got knocked off, breaking a retainer ring. I had to get them to send a replacement along with some other parts. There were no more 22271s, and I didn't want to deal with shipping it back anyway. So, that's when I found out about the housing screws which brought lots of aluminum shavings out with them. They tightened back up, but I was holding my breath. Next time they probably will strip. If that happens, I hope to be able to tap a slightly larger size in those holes and use conventional screws.

Not to hijack this thread, but I changed the oil and filter for the first time today in my 20hp Kohler engine in my 42" lawn tractor. I've changed many oil filters over the years in many types of engines, auto and otherwise, but that was the toughest filter I've ever had to remove !!!! I almost tore it in two before I got it to start coming loose. Then I installed the new filter, ( I danged near fell over when they charged me $13 at Sears ! ) but to get that filter to seal without leaking, I had to tighten it way beyond what I should have had to do. Has anyone else ran into this problem? Krazy~

heri_cles, the sentence should have been "This means that the filter is located between the fuel tank and the fuel pump". I'm sorry for the error. A fuel pump has 2 "ports" through which liquid flows. One is the suction or inlet, this port must be connected to a hose that leads to the fuel tank. The other port is the pressure or outlet, this port connects to a hose that leads to the carburetor. Vacuum or pulse operated pumps also have the third port for the pulse hose but the part about the 2 liquid ports is true for ALL fuel pumps no matter if they are mechanically, electrically, or vacuum operated. I would bet that the filter assembly you have is meant for use on the suction side (between fuel pump and tank). Most of the filters I have seen that are for the pressure side of pump are constructed of metal. As to your other concerns: Length of hose.....With a run of about 4 feet and an inside diameter of 1/4" (and assuming the horsepower of the engine to be less than....say....50HP) your fuel pump would not even know it was drawing through a hose. At the low rate of fuel consumption of your engine...the fuel line might as well be considered as an "extension of the fuel tank". As to the height of the pump above the fuel tank....this is always a consideration BECAUSE these small diaphragm pumps are very weak in the suction aspect of pump performance....but in the application on a lawn or garden tractor you would really not have a problem because in most cases the pump only has to "lift" the fuel something less than 10". As to the size of tank vent........so long as the vent allows air to enter the tank at a rate that matches (or exceeds) the rate at which the fuel is being drawn out of the tank....increasing the vent size will not increase pump performance. Having too large a vent can lead to dirt and debris entering tank or fuel sloshing out of tank. I visited the website of your link and the fact that they included a warning not to use this filter with fuel injection systems supports the idea that it is a suction filter. I noticed that it has 5/16" hose nipples, does your tractor have 5/16" hose? Lastly, you DO NOT want to situate your filter between the pump and carburetor because then you lose the benefit of keeping the "crud" out of the fuel pump.

K&N filters, (and other "performance" filters as well), will provide no benefit on applications such as this. They're marketed as "less restrictive" and they are "less restrictive", but it's to a point that the *less restrictive-ness* doesn't matter. I can put a 2" spray nozzle on my 5/8" garden hose and it will be "less restrictive" than the nozzle it has now. I can wire up my house outlets with welding cable instead of the "restrictive" wire they have now. But at what point does it not matter? ;-) Parts stores that sell them often have the ridiculous ping-pong ball demo set up on the counter. You can put an OEM filter element over the inlet to a small fan and turn the machine on and see how high the ping-pong ball floats in a clear plastic tube. THEN, you can put a K&N element over the fan inlet and try the "test" again. The ball floats higher in the clear tube, (which convinces many folks that haven't really thought about the whole thing), that their current OEM filter is costing them hp and mileage. It's funny really. OEMs spend lots of $$ designing and building machinery, and then screw up when it comes to doing the math and figuring out how much air flow is appropriate for the application? Proponents often point out that some vehicle manufacturers have used "performance" filters in some factory applications...and they have. But if filters *in general* were "too restrictive", why aren't the performance filters used across-the-board? Small engines aside, take a look at the dyno snippets that are included in these products' ads. The hp gains that are promoted occur at higher rpms than where the vehicle in question will spend any of its time. Money savings over the vehicle's lifetime? Perhaps....if you don't count your parts and labor for washing and "recharging" with oil at certain intervals, or, you don't consider these filters' proven lack of effectiveness in fine dust conditions. This is amusing as well: "Since very few people have their L&G rides correctly jetted (everybody doesn't live at sea level) they are running rich already. Starving the airflow usually will gas foul plugs. " If your mower is running fine and you're not fouling plugs and your eyes aren't watering while you're out mowing, then your jetting is just fine. I think you'll find that nowadays, small engines in general run lean if anything. You used to be able to set the choke and then turn the choke off as soon as the engine started. Now, you have to feather it for a minute or two. Take the "lean already" engine we're talking about and start it up cold without the air filter on and see if it's worse. It will be. Your mower doesn't need more airflow, nor is your OEM filter "too restrictive". It's marketing.