Is this normal for a standard air filter?

TXGREEK · August 26, 2019

I haven't seen heavy duty filters before in my general parts store but thank you for the warning.

Sent using Tapatalk - 2014 5.3 WT

Next time you go to your local auto parts store, ask them what’s there for your vehicle and they’ll bring up the heavy duty one. Factory will be your best option if you’re looking for a cheaper alternative but factory filters are more than half the cost of Performance filters.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

TXGREEK · August 26, 2019

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

TXGREEK · August 26, 2019

Here’s an unbiased test.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GS69owXpGdY

Sent from my iPhone

16LT4 · August 26, 2019

1 hour ago, TXGREEK said:

It’s true that you can over Oil one of the K&N filters but almost 30 years of using them with zero issues. You know, you can also buy a performance dry filter. You’ll always have the auto industry think less of anything in competition to their crap. Especially being that an enormous amount of aftermarket products completely out perform ALL Factory installed parts.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

And how many miles did you take those engines with no issues? Run compression tests at beginning and end? Any oil wets the maf. Because physics. Flow rate and filtration are inverses. Because physics. My 20 years of dealing with them shows them to be junk. But whatever...who cares about getting over 200k with no oil loss, these trucks get tossed long before that. Long live bragging rights and back window stickers!

TXGREEK · August 26, 2019

And how many miles did you take those engines with no issues? Run compression tests at beginning and end? Any oil wets the maf. Because physics. Flow rate and filtration are inverses. Because physics. My 20 years of dealing with them shows them to be junk. But whatever...who cares about getting over 200k with no oil loss, these trucks get tossed long before that. Long live bragging rights and back window stickers!

It’s not whether you think there’s room for their existence, it’s just a product that was designed to improve performance and being that performance dyno tests prove that their existence is beneficial for improved HP/Torque as well as longevity of an engine due to easier engine breathing. To each their own and for obvious reasons, performance products will always attract skeptics. I for one have had as advertised results as have a great many more.

Anyway, as I’ve already mentioned, there are “Dry” performance filters too. Today, Oil has been used for over 100 years and still being used today in order to filter out contaminants for million dollar machinery. Kudos to those that have learned to harness the benefits of it as a performance enhancing product, rear sticker optional lol

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Darksky · August 26, 2019

Greek beat me to it.

I was just posting to say that there are now DRY washable cone type high performance filters. I’m sixty thousand miles in on mine with no issues yet.

the intake tubing appears clean and dust free for the most part. But, I live in a very dry, dusty environment. So, I don’t expect it to be pristine. My MAF seems fine, isn't crapped up. It seems to be filtering the air adequately. I can slip it apart and wash it, inside to outside. In a few minutes and never dry it with a blo-gun or air nozzle. It seems to be doing its job.

But, no I haven’t disassembled the top end and inspected it.

OP- to me, it looks like somehow some water got in the piping and washed a section of the dirty side of the intake tubing, then that dirty water got aerosolized and sucked into the filter along those pleats. Drying and leaving behind the stain. It would be even more so likely if the stream of water had soap or some other surfactant in it. Maybe an errant stream of high pressure water at the car wash was pushed into the fender well opening of the intake.

jpinoy · August 26, 2019

55 minutes ago, Darksky said:

Greek beat me to it.

I was just posting to say that there are now DRY washable cone type high performance filters. I’m sixty thousand miles in on mine with no issues yet.

the intake tubing appears clean and dust free for the most part. But, I live in a very dry, dusty environment. So, I don’t expect it to be pristine. My MAF seems fine, isn't crapped up. It seems to be filtering the air adequately. I can slip it apart and wash it, inside to outside. In a few minutes and never dry it with a blo-gun or air nozzle. It seems to be doing its job.

But, no I haven’t disassembled the top end and inspected it.

OP- to me, it looks like somehow some water got in the piping and washed a section of the dirty side of the intake tubing, then that dirty water got aerosolized and sucked into the filter along those pleats. Drying and leaving behind the stain. It would be even more so likely if the stream of water had soap or some other surfactant in it. Maybe an errant stream of high pressure water at the car wash was pushed into the fender well opening of the intake.

I agree about the filter probably catching some washed section(dirty part) and getting sucked into the filter.

I also have been using a Dry filter(AEM, in my TB since 2013) and it still looks great and I give it a wash every other or so oil change. I have the AirRaid JR kit with the Dry filter on my 2017 as well.

TXGREEK · August 26, 2019

You guys are making me want to test out the dry filter too. Hopefully OP has some better ideas for future air filter purchases.

I strongly believe that it’s a must to use a performance filter especially more so if your vehicle has a tune.

I wish GM had a better filtering system for the cabin filter, swear there’s barely a difference between recirculating and fresh, I switch mine out every 10k miles and still smell the outside pollution. My BMW and Porsche SUVs have amazing recirculating air, zero smell.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Grumpy Bear · August 26, 2019

15 hours ago, TXGREEK said:

It’s true that you can over Oil one of the K&N filters but almost 30 years of using them with zero issues. You know, you can also buy a performance dry filter. You’ll always have the auto industry think less of anything in competition to their crap. Especially being that an enormous amount of aftermarket products completely out perform ALL Factory installed parts.

You would think, right?

https://www.gmtruckcentral.com/articles/air-filter-study.html

Then again, maybe not.

TXGREEK · August 26, 2019

You would think, right?

https://www.gmtruckcentral.com/articles/air-filter-study.html

Then again, maybe not.

Thank you for posting, Damn it! I knew I should’ve just stuck with everything being Amsoil! But, no drop in Amsoil filter for my truck. Ok, just called my local auto parts and ordered a Wix filter. Grumpy, thank you for posting this! I highly recommend you starting a new thread and informing everyone of this, really think it’ll be great!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Eddie 70 · August 26, 2019

3 hours ago, TXGREEK said:

Thank you for posting, Damn it! I knew I should’ve just stuck with everything being Amsoil! But, no drop in Amsoil filter for my truck. Ok, just called my local auto parts and ordered a Wix filter. Grumpy, thank you for posting this! I highly recommend you starting a new thread and informing everyone of this, really think it’ll be great!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

O'Riellys carries Wix as well as Amazon. I use Wix for every filter I can on my vehicles.

TXGREEK · August 26, 2019

O'Riellys carries Wix as well as Amazon. I use Wix for every filter I can on my vehicles.

To top it off, the word is that Amsoil filters are made by Wix, now ain’t that a booger!

I change my air box filter out ever 10k miles. Also, returning the K&N filter. Shop asked why I’m returning it and I told them cause The Great Grumpy Bear (otherwise to some known as Grumpalump)showed me the way, scientifically proven lol!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Grumpy Bear · August 26, 2019

1 hour ago, TXGREEK said:

To top it off, the word is that Amsoil filters are made by Wix, now ain’t that a booger!

I change my air box filter out ever 10k miles. Also, returning the K&N filter. Shop asked why I’m returning it and I told them cause The Great Grumpy Bear (otherwise to some known as Grumpalump)showed me the way, scientifically proven lol!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Grumpalump??? :crackup:

16LT4 · August 27, 2019

I'll put longevity over performance any day, especially "performance" that won't be felt in a 5500 lb truck. Non-oiled cotton is a horrible filtration medium. My '04 F150 had a dry Air Raid filter in it and suffered from sporadic misfires; I tossed it in the trash (only had a few thousand miles on it) and replaced with a Purolator, and the misfires went away. The less than perfect fit resulted in improper air swirling (as per the Ford TSB) that led to abrupt changes in air across the MAF, resulting in misfires (look at a 5.4 3v wrong and it'll misfire). It also had one of those garbage Tornado TB spacers, which also got tossed in the scrap pile (for different reasons). IMO, there's FAR more potential to be gained from opening up the exhaust rather than the intake side, without fear of sandblasting the cylinders. We had a powerstroke 7.3 in a work truck that had a hole in the intake boot downstream of the filter; within a few thousand miles, it didn't have enough compression left to start. That poor 7.3 died by 75k miles, a first for a 7.3!

As cheap as they are, the air filters in my fleet get changed every year whether they need it or not, and NOT with a "performance" filter.

16LT4 · August 27, 2019

On 8/26/2019 at 9:35 AM, TXGREEK said:

I wish GM had a better filtering system for the cabin filter, swear there’s barely a difference between recirculating and fresh, I switch mine out every 10k miles and still smell the outside pollution. My BMW and Porsche SUVs have amazing recirculating air, zero smell.

If your BMW (and presumably Porsche) is anything like mine, it has carbon in the cabin filter. Just a filter itself isn't going to block a smell, the molecules causing the smell are too small to be captured by a filtration media alone... you can smell something rotting inside a ziplock back, can't ya? Carbon infused into the filter is necessary to block the scent; I know the cabin filter I replaced in my truck didn't have any.