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Air Filter Too Small?

What I am finding is the airfilter box is an extremely poor design. There is so little area supporting the filter media, it is asking for failure. Yes any warp, even 0.05 inch is enough to cause failure. I think I need to modify the airbox. maybe add a ridge inside with some steel flat bar. I cant believe this design passed quality control.

The later airboxes, they are different, yes? do they hold filters better? I see that aftermarket new boxes are the later style, and dont have provision for the warm up hot air tube valve, no intake snout like the one on my 1990.
 
I added an all-thread just under the filter through mine with a nut on both sides. Used the nuts to squeeze in the box a bit and suck up the "bow".
 
I have a 1997 and a 2001 both with the "later style" air box and have never had an issue with air filters collapsing or not fitting. Over the last 15 years/ 400,000+ miles I've used various auto parts store filters from Auto Zone, Advance, and NAPA and never had a problem with any of them. Based on the pictures, the filter box seems similar to the "early style".

0.05" is a pretty small tolerance to have a problem with. 0.5" is more reasonable and may be from using the wrong filter, or having a distorted air box for some reason.

In one of the pictures shown, there is a noticeable gap where the air filter fits, allowed unfiltered air into the engine. This appears to be the incorrect filter size, rather than the air box itself.
 
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