Cummins 8.3 Air Filter

This may cause some interesting discussion ?it has on another forum where I was taken to task for having never changed the air filter on my 8.3L Cummins?

My ?03 rig has an Apr ?02 mfg date. The original tires had Feb ?02 dates so I presume the Cummins engine also is an ?02 model. So, the air filter on my engine was going on 8 yrs and 60k miles. The filter gauge read about mid level. My owner manual refers to the gauge and says simply "replace the filter when necessary." Several service places over the years, including a Cummins location just a month ago, have always told me "don't mess with it as long as the gauge reads good."  Several owners on another list shared warnings they have received from Cummins techs at rallies that the filter element could deteriorate after 3-4 years, and then come apart and trash the turbo/engine/etc.  Since I had time to order a new filter and get it here and installed before we depart the area, and could spare the $$, I decided to go ahead and replace the (some would say) "perfectly good"/(others would say) "over due and very risky" filter on my engine and report back on the condition of the original filter I replaced.

I found the filter listing at most places online at anywhere from $95 to $120. I ordered the filter online from Spartan chassis for $75 plus $15 shipping. I replaced the filter late this afternoon. The old filter was dirty on the inlet side, but not terribly so. It looked pretty much like new on the outlet side. Even after rubbing and pulling on the paper element with my fingers, I found no evidence of any kind of deterioration.  In thinking about what MIGHT cause deterioration to the "water resistant" filter element, the only thing I could think of is a lot of excessive humidity ...perhaps that plus a lot of sitting around rather than being used might be the combination. If/when someone sees an air filter that has deteriorated and started coming apart, I would be interested in how old it is, and how much the vehicle has been used in that time period.

If interested, you can see more of my thoughts, and pictures, on my webpage at http://www.pjrider.com/Cummins.htm

Paul

Since I was one of those on the other forum who "strongly recommended" changing your filter, I would like to clarify some of your points.

I can't remember any Cummins seminar where the air filter was discussed. May have happened, but I don't remember any. Mike O'Neil is the service technicians trainer at Spartan and has been giving the chassis owners' maintenance seminar for over 8 years and always warns about replacing the air filter every 2-3 years. The main problem being possible deterioration of the paper filter medium and the glue binders. You may never see it after 8 years of use, but why risk it if it does.

You could have saved another $5 on your new filter. Members of the Spartan Chassis Owners' Chapter of FMCA (only costs $10 a year) get free shipping when ordering online.

It's always difficult to judge the risk of experiencing the worst case scenario.  And I suspect the techs who do these road shows love to tell war stories about esoteric problems they have seen, so they probably make them sound more common than they may really be.  It also seems to me there is always a "cause celebre" or two among the RVing community and this years crop includes air filters and fridge fires. Calling them a "cause celebre" does not make them any less dangerous, but the risk of experiencing them may get exaggerated in some quarters.

Few of us can afford to replace everything that might conceivably be nearing its failure point, so we have to pick and choose what we will be proactive about.

By the way, my filter just turned three...

Paul, I had a similar experience with the filter on my Cat diesel.  My coach is a 2000 model and I had no way of knowing, when I purchased it in 2009, whether the filter had been changed or not.  As a part of a bumper to bumper maintenance effort, I replaced it.  The little "indicator" that is supposed to give an indication of airflow/replacement time barely moved out of the green when the engine was running.

I replaced the filter (mine was something like 142 bucks) and the little indicator essentially read the same afterwards.  I then looked at the condition of the paper of the element and saw similar "darkening" of the paper at the inlet side and the outlet side looked pristine.  I too, tried to get the paper to flake off and it appeared to be in great condition.  My coach had been in Arizona since it was made, so humidity hadn't been a problem.  I live in soggy Alabama and had it spent its life here for 10 years, the paper may have been in worse condition.  I think it all gets down to what Gary says.  At some point, the risk outweighs the filter replacement cost and we do it.  That 75 dollar filter is dirt cheap compared to a multi-1000 dollar engine repair.  You have a good benchmark....April '02 to say April '10....8 years.  That equates to about 10 bucks a year if you replace it every 8 years.  I'm thinking maybe 2-3 on mine, given the humidity we have here.

The old filter was dirty on the inlet side, but not terribly so. It looked pretty much like new on the outlet side.

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To see how dirty an 8 year-old air filter is you really need to compare it to a new one.  Here's a couple of pictures of what ours (Cummins ISB 260 HP) looked like after what I believe to be 8 years and 45K miles.  And our air filter indicator never changed once in 8 years.  Of course it would never have changed no matter how dirty the air filter got because Spartan (or whoever installed the air filter system) hooked the vacuum hose up to a closed system.  When I discovered that there was no opening from the vacuum hose into the air duct leading to the engine, I pulled the vacuum hose off and punched a hole into the metal air duct with a hammer and a nail to make an opening where there wasn't one before.  So the advice to "don't mess with it as long as the gauge reads good" was actually bad advice in our case. 

To see how dirty an 8 year-old air filter is you really need to compare it to a new one.

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Which I did, but I didn't include pics of my new filter as it (both inlet and outlet) looked pretty much like the outlet/inside of the old filter ...pretty much the same color, etc.  In your pictures above, your old filter looks black inside while the new one looks pure white ...if in fact your new filter is identical to the old filter (same mfg, filter media, etc), your pictures show a huge difference while mine would have shown very little.

  When we bought our '04 C-7 with 9000 miles on it I thought the air filter would be OK since the indicator was slightly above mid range.
  After spraying out the radiator with the pressure washer and observing sand on the ground I thought it might be cheap insurance/peace of mind to replace the filter.
  After replacing the filter I tapped the intake on the ground and observed a small pile of sand.
  I cut it open and extracted more sand. ( the gen. air filter was not much better)
  Based on the $72 cost I'll replace it every 10,000 miles.
  The position of the air intake on a DP seems absurd to me when they could extend it upward and take advantage of clean air off the roof area and unaffected by the drives...IMHO. 

The position of the air intake on a DP seems absurd to me when they could extend it upward and take advantage of clean air off the roof area and unaffected by the drives...IMHO. 

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Be careful of generalizing your DP's design attributes to all DPs. There is a lot of variety out there.  The engine air intake on my DP is indeed up at the roof line. By the way, the bottom of the canister that holds the filter still gets some sand. And water (it has a drain) and things like acorns and such that are common at roof level.

bigskymt said:

  The position of the air intake on a DP seems absurd to me when they could extend it upward and take advantage of clean air off the roof area and unaffected by the drives...IMHO. 

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The air inlet on my Monaco is at the roof level.

PhilB