Should I pull my K&N? If yes, what should I get?

[david_ES2]

ive seen some of my friends run with a completely open throttle body without a problem for years and that's something to lose sleep over and cringe about. not a properly oiled K&N that has a good seal.

mine is always spotless on the filtered side of the intake system. I'll leave it in.

 

[dvancleve]

Well, I had to pull some of the air intake to get at the starter and backup light switch plug today. I pulled out the K&N and took a few (not great) pictures of things with my iPhone. I don't have anything to compare with, having only changed a few air filters and mostly on my wife's Prius which is 9 years newer. I thought things looked pretty clean and nothing that seemed to matter rubbed off on my finger when I ran it inside. The engine is going to be pulled soon to replace the head gaskets and all this stuff removed, so I just tapped out the loose debris and lightly re-oiled as K&N recommends. Here are the pictures (throttle body, box that attaches to TB, clean side of filter housing, dirty side of filter, clean side of filter):

Doug