How does it cost more if it will outlast the car?
Mine lists at $25, which adds up to a $46 K&N real fast.
The fact that it's sold somewhere for $25 as an inflated list price is not relevant when we all know that in the real world you can get one for half that.
TD air filters are NOT cheap around here, unless you want some cheap no-name, white box vato-zone, or O'reilly garbage...
I'm convinced I could make a living out of selling stuff like this. Around here they sell the Mahle OC51 filter for the TD engine for under $5 if you know where to look. IIRC you said they were like $10 where you are.
IDK dude.. they run K&N filters on rigs that run the Dakar rally, the Baja 500 and 1000, as well as plenty of other dusty races..
im gonna stand by what i said, if they are cleaned and oiled properly, they will filter almost as much dust out of the air as a paper filter, but with ALOT more flow..
im gonna say that the guy you got your truck from, was an idiot, and probably used compressed air to blow the junk out of his K&N filter, and blew the gauze apart, leaving big holes in the filter media, just letting dust RIGHT THRU..
ive run K&N filters on ALL of my ATVs and motorcycles.. they are often times ridden in VERY dusty conditions.. and ive never had a dirty intake duct, or dirty carb throat either..
But that's different. That's a race. The object is to go fast and with the 1000, just getting to the end is an accomplishment. Who cares if the engine only lasts 5000 miles! It's a race engine and the race is only 1000 miles long! As long as it doesn't suck in a cactus it's the 1000 miles of dust isn't an issue for an engine that's going to be torn apart and inspected after those 1000 miles. It's totally different for a daily driver. you can't compare the two. I want to get to work every day on time. I want to keep my truck for a long time. I don't want to rebuild my engine. Fortunately it was a low mileage truck even with the dust. For those reasons, I will take a filter that does a better job of filtering the air, even if it takes away a few HP and even if costs more in the long run, I want the best filtration, not the best air flow or lowest price.
But as I said, at least I think I said, K&N filters
do have a place in the automotive world. I forgot to mention that I had one on my FIAT spider. And that was after I took it off the Jeep (but not the same filter). That car wasn't a daily driver. A few more specks of dust didn't matter. But over 100 or 200 thousand miles on a daily driver that does matter. On a boat, they're fine in my book. Even on a dirtbike, a K&N filter is fine, because how often are you riding the thing really? A few hours a month maybe? But to put one on your truck that takes the dirtbike to where you ride it? Hell no.
As far as the previous owner of my truck? I have no idea. I never blew mine out with air or brake cleaner, but the Jeep did get dust in the intake, although fitment with that filter was in issue too, something else I've noticed with their filters. They're made of wire mesh and rubber, they don't squish nicely into an airbox, at least some of them don't, so I think you can get leaks around the edges of their filters.