i would safely assume that the engineers at ford, chevy, dodge were thingking of the safest and best way to filter the air to their engines. the aftermarket people just make what they can. and the oil is a bad sign for any filter. ruins many maf sensors. and on a 2003 6.0 that is a bad deal.

In all my years and vehicles owned Ive never found that any manufacture installs the best products performance or otherwise on the assembly line, I guess if that were the case the aftermarket parts industry would suffer signifcantly! As far as the oil, I did say they need to be serviced correctly. my duramax uses a MAF sensor and so does just about every GM car Ive owned, And I have never had a problem with getting oil on the MAF, including the 156K miles on my duramax, I have heard some people over oil the filters and ruin the MAF, Nothing is idiot proof.

touche... but with performance anything comes know-how. We all mess and tweak our boats. it takes that know-how to keep them going. they are nothing short of maintinence hogs. but when it comes to a tow unit. something that kind of goes in the backs of our minds and something that has so many aftermarket cheap and crappy mods. then it just goes gray. there is so much more in automotive engineering than that of boats. there are so many out there for everyone, the every day driver, the hauler. i work every day and i fix diesels even worked on a few duramaxes. and i can tell you that 100% of trucks with an intake have dirt in the turbo. right in the air inlet where the crankcase vent exhausts the oil. makes a nice muddy little ridge.

a BBC can run a long time at 250hp. throw a blower on her hop her up and run at 800hp. you are going to need to go through her earlier. who wants to do that with a tow rig? I dont.

I say exhaust all day long. chip if you get pre and post egt readings and make sure you are not crushing your trans. and just watch your air filter minder. replace as needed. (which can be way over 100k)

not raggin on ya formula455

I never took it that way. I think good conversation with knowlegable people is a great way to learn. Its kinda like racing, its no fun to win if you dont have competition.

Back when I had my 2004.5 Chevy 2500HD Dmax LLY I did a lot of research on everything from CAI kits to exhaust. I ended up staying stock on the intake side (using the factory AC Delco filter) as flow/filtration testing showed the stock setup to flow as well as any CAI kit and filtered much better.

done alot of research on the intakes and decided to go with the donaldson (napa) filter 6637. This filter is easly adapted to the cold air intake on the psd 7.3 and nothing flows or filters bettery. I'll probably put a nice 4" turbo back exhaust on so i can hear that turbo wine and im done. Im not gonna put a programmer or chip on the truck. Don't want to hurt or shorten any life. the intake and exhaust mods are good helpers for mpg, hp and torque. That engine has plenty of power 4 what im using it for! By the way, for you all thats not familiar with the donaldson filter, its used on tractors and heavy equipment like that and is huge!

call a ford dealer and look into a rough service air filter. but good luck with what you found. always good to do research. good lucj buddy!

I have an 03 7.3 and went to NAPA and ordered an agriculture filter and 3 feet of 4" exhaust pipe. Cut out muffler and used pipe to straight pipe the exhaust and saved a 4" long piece of the 4" dia to use to couple the intake hose to new air filter. For under 60 bucks and an hour I made a cold air kit and freed up the exhaust.