First Gen cold air intake

So I just bought a 2.7l 98’ 4x4 and whoever had it before me installed a cold air intake system. I know these do practically nothing for the truck other than letting a little bit more dirt into my engine. I’m looking at getting an AEM dryflow filter to reduce any risk of messing with the MAF. But do you guys think it’s worth it to just look for an OEM air flow system instead? It would be more expensive that way but would it make my engine last longer? I don’t live anywhere super dusty but I want to keep this truck alive as long as possible. It has 170k miles on it

 

You mean your truck has "warm air intake", where the filter sucks air from the engine bay? If so, I would toss that POS in the garbage and get OEM intake (cold air intake, just like in all modern vehicles)

 

i think you're best off just running the dry filter, and calling it good.

fyi, the best filtering is going to be in the air filter used, not the intake piping method. high-flow filters will always trade less filtering for higher air flow. i don't believe that any aftermarket filter does the job of filtering any better than any factory-spec filter.

the aftermarket intakes aren't all that different piping wise from the factory intake system, so changing for either is largely not worthwhile outside of personal preference.

i think you're on the right track with the dry filter. the main well-known issue with most aftermarket filter is the oil-type, and the oil has the potential to blow off the filter and mess up the MAF. dry filters eliminate that issue.

you could consider running a pre-filter over the dry filter to further increase the filtering media, but honestly, if longevity is the goal, once you change to a dry filter to eliminate the possibility of an oil filter messing with the MAF, you'll find better results chasing proper fluid and bearing maintenance processes.