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Originally Posted by snakyjake
I thought the main reason was because the original stock filter housing had a defect that increased the possibility of not sealing.
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That's the reason today. By now the the stock airbox has warped all out of shape and needs to be replaced with something that will tightly seal between the filter and the airbox.
But several years ago that wasn't a big problem as long as you used the stock paper air filters. But a K&N replacement air filter was thicker and stiffer and wouldn't conform to the airbox good enough, so it allowed too much unfiltered air into the turbo. And the good intake systems allowed you to climb the mountain at a higher speed with a heavy load, so that's why so many aftermarket air intake systems were sold.
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People went with a Tymar because the AIS did not exist.
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That was true for the folks who didn't mind the increased NVH from the open air filter. But the TurboRamAir was a big seller at two or three times the cost of the Tymar. It was as quiet as the stock intake but increased intake air volume significantly.
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And today, they both exist.
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True, but the AIS has been available for only a coupla years or so. Before that the only alternative for a really good air intake system was the $500 aFe Stage II with the ProGuard7 filter. And it made almost as much NVH as the Tymar or the DIY open air filter.
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AIS and Tymar filter near equal, and the Tymar/Donaldson filter setup is $$$ cheaper.
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The Tymar with the expensive Donaldson filter specified by Tymar is cheaper, and louder, but if you think it filters as good as the AIS you are probably wrong. Also most folks don't use the expensive Donaldson filter specified by Tymar. Instead they use a much-cheaper filter that is not nearly as good as the real Tymar, but it looks the same from the outside, and it might even have Donaldson's name on it.
DoD bought the AIS which costs about twice as much as they could have bought the Tymar. I worked for DoD for over 30 years, and I know they don't buy something if something else at half the price will work just as good. They put the AIS on numerous SuperDuty diesel-powered trucks running around in the deserts of Iraq and similar places. It was developed by Donaldson and Ford to meet the DoD objective of clean air for the engines under severe conditions. The Tymar open filter design - regardless of how good was the filter element - simply didn't meet the DoD specs for enough clean air going into the turbo.
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The other benefits were lowering EGT's if you tow heavy, or need more airflow for a high performance engine.
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Or any combination of severe conditions. For me, it's dusty environment plus towing heavy with a hot-rod towing machine, without the "look at me" racket of an open air filter. So far it seems as good as the TurboRamAir, without the nasty mess of having to clean and re-oil the multi-layer foam filter media in the TurboRamAir.
