Well, I just left the service of uncle sam. I've lived in Alaska, and more recently in West Texas in Abilene. AK had the cold, TX had the dust. I've looked at quite a few K&N installs, and I have seen the oil residue in intakes. I've seen it in AK, TX, and even in Kuwait in some of our military and civilian rental vehicles. In every case it was due to someone getting creative and putting WAY too much of that K&N filter oil on their filters. Its not intentional, I know but people think those filters need a lot of maintenence and they really don't. I've done off-roading in all three places, long hauling in AK and TX, heavy towing, and driving in dust. I've never had dust, oil, pitting, or anything else in my intake past the filter. Never
Take care of your truck, follow the (cough) directions and it'll work the way its supposed to.

1980 Ford Fiesta (poker money first car)
1979 Mercedes 300TD (good car for dates, good ride, lotsa room)
1995 Mazda B-3000
1998 Dodge Raider
1997 Subaru Impreza
1995 Ford Taurus
1998 Nissan Frontier (by far the toughest light truck I've ever owned)
1999 F-150XL (the telco truck, plain white, stick, 4.6, long bed. My FAVORITE thus far, power, room, height, mileage (better with my K&N BTW), and the ability to do what I want when I want.

 

Excellent post! However, I'm sure the paranoid naysayers will have their naysay.

Mark
SundayNiagara

 

Thanks for your detailed comments...and I agree 100%. Well maintained K&N's will do exactly as advertised.

...oh, I like the comment on the Frontier -- Throwing all my Ford pride aside for a sec--I had an '88 Nissan 4WD w/V6. I sold it to my buddy with 160,000 trouble-free mile (except the normal wear/tear items--clutch, brakes, timing belt, shocks, hoses...etc). I ran it VERY hard and even raced it off-road on several occasions.
He has over 200,000 miles on it, still working it hard towing, off-road ... and essentially total disregard for the vehicle. EXCEPT routine maintanance. He is just as religious with normal maintainance as I am. I see that truck hitting over 500k easily on it's way to 1M miles.

You hit the nail on the head...keep our vehicles maintained = longevity.

 

Thanks. That was my first post on this site. Never been here before about 1hr ago. And to think I've had my baby all this time. LOL.

Thing I really love about my rig is that is looks... un-interesting. I don't WANT people ga-ga eyes after my truck everywhere it goes. I prefer to blend in a little more. In West Texas, no one gives you funny looks when you pull up in a F-150 (of any kind).

Thinking about intercooling, maybe doing some exhaust work. I dunno about digging into the engine -too- much. I'm all for longevity over sheer power. Oh, I do like my tunes BTW. Stock stereos live (for luck) about a month in any vehicle I get.

About the K&N, leave yours ALONE (for everybody) unless you drive DIRECTLY through visible dust daily. For the normal driver, 20K miles is fine to wait to just -check- the filter. For extreme dust, I guess the paranoid can check at 5K or 8K. I check every other oil change, just to make sure there's no dead bugs in the can (hey, it happens).

1999 F-150XL
Sony Mobile ES headunit.
Sony Xplod! 300W 4ch amp
Xtant 12" sub
Memphis 4x6 Coax
0+4ga power wire
10 ga sub hook-up
12 ga coax hook-up
Crimestopper
K&N Filter

 

My frontier survived a night camping. A real bad one. I'd parked on a riverbank and went to sleep. It rained all night. It was break-up (spring) in the mountains north of Fairbanks, AK. I woke up to find my frontier 200 feet DOWNRIVER, inclined nearly 60 degrees (nose was in the riverbank on the OTHER side of the river).

I pulled my waders across and got in. Turned the key, and the engine started immediately. I put it in 4WD L, and put the tranny in reverse. Popped right outta the mud. Then I had to drive it back across the river (the bridge is 90 miles away over AK interior forrest). I've got a pic someplace of me sitting on the doorframe, with my rifle on the gas. I did this because I couldn't stand to sit in the flooded-out cab with the water that cold.

We'd been goldpanning. The gold I found ALMOST covered replacing the interior. I've got no wife and no kids.. and to this day thats the best day of my life.

 

I have run K&N on everything i've owned they made one for. In the Nevada desert and now is Kansas wheat dust. Leave it alone and let it do it's job, clean and oil only if you just have to.