My neighbor has 4 2018 Duty’s on his farm and they have a huge air box along with a huge filter. Why Ford go backwards with the air intake in ‘22? This is exactly the issue I had on my ‘19 L5P Duramax. On a farm your doing pretty good to get 1,000 miles out of one of these little filters. Amazing how all these manufacturers engineers can @#$& stuff up when they have a good thing. Now the Ford has an absolute worthless air filter. They last maybe a week and their collapsed. Junk

 

I can’t compare the 22’s to other models, but I didn’t think there was that much difference. However, I did switch over from the stock CAI to an S&B CAI, which is a larger air filter. And now Banks has an even larger air filter too.

 

Put a prefilter on the filter. It's like a foam sock that you can put over the filter. If you look at farm equipment they all seem to have prefilters on them because of the dusty conditions they operate in. You will have to find them someplace but Ford for sure doesn't make them.

 

Are you changing by appearance or restriction indicator? You have my curiosity, can you send a picture of one of these filters - curious to see!
None of the light duty segment, and most of even the larger class, use any separation before intake air hits the filter which means almost all contamination is trapped by the filter. So if you are in straight dust, then yes they def did not account for you. Typically those environments would use some type of cyclonic action which can spin and throw up to 98% of incoming dust right back out. We simply don’t have the room for that and unfortunately the vast majority can go close to or over 100k on an air filter if they trust their restriction indicator (most people choose not to because it doesn’t move quick enough for them so it’s deemed not working). The filter does have a lot of surface area so I’m just very curious to see what it looks like and the conditions you see

Added- the 19 and earlier trucks did have that swoop and drop for intake air to go through before hitting the filter - this did let a lot of water and really heavy stuff to drop out - packaging eliminated that unfortunately so now 100% of everything hits the filter - that’s why they added the fleece covering in the ‘20+ design, it’s for rain/snow.
GM kinda did the same thing with their hood scoop and drain, but it’s more of a gimmick. Cyclone/centrifuge style is the only thing that will hold up in straight dust which I can imagine you are in

 

It's a panel filter. Prefilter is built in.

 

Yup, pic above. I have that on my 450. Works well. catches a bunch and I have cleaned it off once. filter was in great shape.

When I did so I even removed the tubing going to the turbo and it was perfect.

 

My 22 came with the pre-filter, I have no issues with it. In fact, I like that they moved it where it is, and I think it's a real good filter for a stock air box.

 

Im changing because it’s collapsed.

 

I understand - but have a curiosity and would love to see pics. There is a restriction indicator on the air box - is it in the red when these filters are collapsed?

I understand the frequency of changes may be an issue, but that aside, you should not be collapsing air filters. So either there is another issue or the gauge is indicating full restriction and the truck is being driven beyond that. Keep in mind maximum airflow (which will create maximum restriction) is when the engine is under full load, not RPM, since it is turbocharged. We have farms here as well and some pretty aggressive environments, I have never seen a filter collapse except when one customer ignored the restriction indicator and kept driving it - it was a construction truck and had 145k on the original air filter.
I understand and would be upset if the filter indicator is indicating a filter change is required every week but my bigger worry would be the filter collapsing and possibly allowing contamination into the engine.

 

I don’t have a restriction indicator under the hood. It’s within my maintenance monitor in dash. But it is either displaying “ok” or “change filter soon” or something like that. I just drove it back to the farm shop and it was sucked up. The filter is at my dealer along with an oil sample. Only option I have is a cold air. Same deal I had to do on my L5P

 

They get rid of that too - haven’t serviced a 2022 yet.
next will be the engine oil drain plug

I know they have the electronic sensor but I guess I’m getting antiquated - I like the mechanical gauge you could visually see the progress

good on the oil sample - very smart move
Please post results of sample if you can and what you end up with

 

The 22’s don’t have that gauge on the air box like the previous MY’s. Like mentioned it’s in the maintenance settings in the dash now.

Like I mentioned above, I went to an S&B CAI with a larger filter, and I will be adding a sock to mine with hopes that it prolongs the filter life. Maybe something similar would be a good option for the OP, however, weekly, or even daily cleanings if the conditions are that bad, may be necessary.

 

None of the 22s have hood liners, restriction monitors, or hood lights, amongst other things depending on when in 22 they were built. I find it irritating that they deleted the (useless) restriction gauge but NOT the digital monitor in the dash. It always reads good because there's nothing to read.

 

Must have been a last thought deletion - the 2022 service info mentions it and then I saw Seijirou's photo on his '21 and there was the gauge - my apologies for assuming the mechanical gauge was there. The maintenance minder air filter display is a page out of GM's latest book - they do the same thing. It shows percentage which is completely arbitrary and based on miles - it counts down on track to a 100K replacement ( I am sure there is no coincidence with warranty wink). But there is a MAP style sensor in the intake as well that monitors vacuum and will flag the need to change the filter ahead for those in unusual conditions. So its either 100K or max restriction - I am certain Ford monitors vacuum on the intake side and that message states to change filter when a predetermined restriction is reached as well- it is pretty much essential as is demonstrated in OP's case, if go long enough, the turbo will suck the filter in and Ford needs to protect themselves from that given the 100k engine warranty. OP mentioned his truck stated "change air filter soon" - so maybe the bigger issue is it does not give adequate warning. On some of the newer off road stuff, you get "change filter soon", then if you go long enough, it says "change filter now."

Not sure why you would say "useless" - that is a whole separate argument as people either think they work or do not think they work, and those who don't think they work, can never be convinced otherwise and insist on appearance of the element. That's fine - but when you start servicing equipment that uses $200-$300 in elements, you learn to trust that the gauge works. It takes air filters a long time to reach restriction and they become more efficient as they load up. There is plenty of reliable resources out there from the majors (Fleetguard, Donaldson, etc) that have already written about this.

Added correction - it is in the MAF - "The IAT sensor is integrated with the MAF sensor. The MAF / IAT sensor is located in the intake air tube between the air filter housing and the turbocharger intake. The TCIP (turbocharger inlet pressure) sensor and a relative humidity sensor is integrated with the MAF / IAT sensor."

 

Farm equipment doesn’t have “pre filters”. They have inner and outer so 2 separate filters. The larger primary filter installs over the secondary (inner or safety filter). Even our new tractors with these flat panel type filters also have a secondary flat inner filter behind the main. Anything gets past the primary the secondary “should” catch. My Ford filter has a foam pre filter affixed to the paper element already. I understand your point, I do but Ford is far from protected compared to AG equipment and the farm equipment’s environment is exactly where my truck lives. Our trucks are just merely….asphalt princesses