I've had a rattling heat shield for the last year. When I got my 245 I think the rattle was slight then, but the welds finally all popped off and since then the cursed thing has rattled loudly, signalling my approach as if I was Fred Sanford in that crappy red pickup. Well, a friend who works at a garage cut the thing off for me tonight, and man is the difference heavenly. Plus I no longer have to worry that my cat might be disintegrating, since the exhaust no longer makes any noises other than normal ones. Now for my question: I've been thinking about putting in a K&N filter but I'm wondering if the horsepower increase claims warrant the price of the filter. If I'm right, does the K&N filter for a 200 series consist of simply the K&N version of the regular paper filter. If so, how can they claim something like 10 - 12 hp increase when you're not increasing air flow into the filter box? The K&N supposedly passes air better than a conventional filter, but that wouldn't seem to make much if any difference unless you increased the size of the intake going into the airbox. Right? Maybe I'm wrong. I'm not a major gearhead, but I just want to know if a $45 filter is worth it. What do you guys think?

Matt Campbell '87 245DL 194k and runnin' strong