I just put a new Fram toughgaurd air filter in. It says on the package that it is oiled like a cotton filter. How much mileage is gained by just swapping out the filter for a cotton one like a k&n on our trucks?

 

Bringing up the K&N vs. regular filters is opening a can of worms here on the forum, it seems. There are people on both sides with strong arguments.

The K&N claims it can go 50,000 miles without replacement/re-oiling (depending, of course, on where you drive). The stock paper filters I used to replace every other oil change or so before I went the Volant route.

 

Thats true. I was just wondering if anybody on here uses the fram toughguard filter over a traditional fram paper one.

 

FWIW, we (my son & I) have always used the std Fram air filters on our 360/5.9 Rams.
He just turned over 200,000 on his '99 4WD. I have 168,000 on my 2001 2WD Ram.

No engine problems. Neither rig burns more than the 4 oz or so that we top off every 500 miles. The downstream sides of our air boxes are always squeaky clean.

Like I said, FWIW. I'd NEVER use a Fram oil filter!

 

To do this test correctly, you need to go a certain amount of miles (5,000 miles) with the Fram filter, and another with the Spectre. At the oil change you should do an oil analysis to see how much silica is in the oil. The higher amount of silica in the oil means that the air filter is letting more dirt in.

But we all know this, K&N filters flow more because they let in dirt, too. Paper wins. Hands down.