I'm thinking about doing a custom cold air intake on my '04 Z71 5.3L Sierra. Anyone know anything about the oil in the air filters messing up the MAF sensor?

 

No but if i where you i would go with the new brute force by AEM : http://www.aempower.com/ViewProduct.aspx?ProductID=130
one of my freinds hade a K & N and and changed it out for a brute force and he said it runs and sounds a hole lot better

 

yes, overly oiled gauze filters are known to grease the MAF.

Do yourself a favor and pick up a can of CRC MAF sensor spray cleaner, then get a Volant PowerCore or AEM dry filter. Flows much better, cleaner, and more consistent.

As much as I used to support and back K&N, technology has simply moved on and so have I.

The K&N intake kits do fit very nice though, and are high quality, but the filters are just old fashioned.

 

I have always had k&n filters and or intakes. The last one I had was the 77 series and I loved it. I have never had any problems, you just have to make sure you do not over oil it when cleaning. I followed the directions and everything worked as it should. I had a superchip, dual exhaust and the cold air intake on an 02 Z71 Tahoe and I feel that the intake made the most noticable difference. Hope this helps!!

 

I had problems with any aftermarket filter that needed to be oiled. I could see it on my MAF sensor filaments. I rubbed my finger down the side of the metal pole and sure enough, it was as if I had rubbed it inside a used brake drum. So I cleaned my MAF sensor quite frequently. Love the CAI set up but the maintainance goes up. When you do clean the filter, give the filter plenty of time to dry. You spray oil on a damp filter, it will for sure stick to whatever it comes across( the filaments on the hot wire sensor), then comes the dirt after.