Originally Posted by ChrisGSR

Silicon, right, not silicone?

Silicon is the primary constituent in much of the naturally occurring fine sand and grit that a filter is supposed to stop from entering your engine.

Silicone, with the trailing "e", is the artificial material that is a polymer built up out of elemental silicon (plus oxygen, and occasionally other things).

I have also heard a number of anecdotal accounts which suggest that the K&N oiled-gauze filter has problems with allowing excessive silicon grit to pass by into the intake.

A trick I have heard recommended to test this is to spread a thin layer of a heavy heat-resistant grease on the inside of the intake, downstream of the filter. If you run for 1000 miles or so and then roll the grease between your fingertips, a properly operating filter should have left no gritty feeling behind.

If there is enough grit to be detectable this way, there are serious problems with the filter's efficiency! Silicon, ground finely, is a great abrasive, and will happily eat your bearings and cam faces as it circulates in the engine oil.

So, Timmy, if I am reading this right, you had low silicon levels in your oil analysis while you were using the Comptech/Uni filter? I had wondered if the oiled foam filters had the same weakness that the oiled gauze ones do.