Air Filter Question

I am thinking of getting an aftermarket drop in air filter. Is there a big difference in performance using a stock that you buy every few thousand miles or getting one that can get cleaned out. Thanks

 

I got a K&N drop in. I saw about .5mpg increase. You can't feel a power difference. Just gotta keep it clean.

 

There's a noise increase, and spraying excess oil off of the MAF gets old, but general consensus is no power difference, and it has absolutely zero effect on mileage. There's a gov't study that concurs with that, and I did my own little test with a second super-restrictive filter over the airbox inlet (I actually had some of my best tanks during that test). The stock filter isn't even a restriction at full throttle because it's so massive, let alone the other 99.9% of the time when the throttle body is more restrictive by many orders of magnitude.

Denso filters from the dealer are only $17, which is in most cases even cheaper than aftermarket. Considering the K&N is 50+, and the thick Denso element should be good for 30k+ miles, there isn't much payoff.

 

You can change the filter every 30K, not every few thousand miles, check the service interval again.

No mpg gains.

 

How did you quantify a 0.5mpg difference? I vary by 1-2mpg from tank to tank.
Temperature makes a difference, as does the fuel blend (winter/summer).