Oily Air Filter???

[TXANGLER]

Just checked my OE filter w/4K miles and it has black oil/soot all over it. The MAP sensor (wire probe in air box?) is also oily. What's the deal? Is this normal? What are the solutions if any? Was going to replace OE filter with ??? brand but not if I will be cleaning it every 4k miles!!

Thanks
TXANGLER

[PSDinOKC]

I also have this problem and that is why I have not gone to the K&N yet. I also notice some oil and "crud" in my air tube that shoots to my turbo. The turbo blades look fine and the truck runs fine. I am at 44k miles and this was first noticed about 20k miles. The truck uses no oil and I really have no idea where it is coming from. Ideas are welcome!!!

[qadsan]

Yes, unfortunately it's normal for our air filters to have black oily soot caked on it along with some oil in the air tube & intercooler tubes, but I don't think it's right. All Excursions and Super Dutys do this from what I know.

From what I recall when looking at this a while back, the crankcase vents after the air filter. When the engine shuts off, fumes will fill the cavity between the filter and the turbo and then condense. The engine side of the filter gets oily and this oil seeps through the air side of the filter. The dirt and other crud coming into the filter combines with this oil to form this greasy crud build up that you're seeing. You'll also get oil building up in your intercooler tubes, which can then impair the intercoolers heat transfer and there's no pet**** on your intercooler to drain this oil.

Some people have fixed this problem by venting their crankcase to the outside world which is how International does it with their T444 engine. A few others have made their own filter systems or installed a CCV filter from Racor, etc. Here's a link to Racor's CCV filter if you want to read further about it. Racor was supposed to make a filter specifically for our PSD's, but I don't know whatever happened to that effort. Their current filter doesn't easily fit in our engine compartment which is why they were someday going to make a medium sized filter for our vehicles.
http://www.parker.com/racor/cat/engl..._filtr/ccv.htm

[H ED S]

Gents here is a link that has a lot of info. and some homade solutions. Plus a lot of discusion on thei subject. No it is not good.
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Take care - Ed -

[POLR BR]

Quadsan is right on the money with his comments.

I would not be detered by the accumulation of oil in the air box from converting to a K&N filter. The K&n requires an oil application to filter properly so oil, within reasonable limitations will not impair its operation. In contrast, an OEM dry filter will be adversely effected by oil penetrating the pleats. It may well be that you will have to clean the K&N a little more frequently, but it is more suited for the application because it requires the presence of oil to function properly.