Hello all, I have explored this forum/board for a long time and always had my questions answered by simply keyword searching in Google and adding "BITOG" to the end of the search, but I have not seen anything in all of interweb land regarding what I'm facing at the moment. Recently on a couple of higher performance cars I have worked on professionally and on my own time, I have cut open a couple) K&N HP series oil filters for inspection. I have cut open many oil filters in the past for inspection and never noticed the same thing as in these K&N's, in that there is a noticeable amount of white paint overspray on the inside of the canister. I have taken pictures of this concern but I do not have an account with a picture hosting website. I may open an account up if it's necessary. My curiousity is that if they are sloppy with the paint how can you trust them with the glue? Also, if this paint is on the inside of the can, how likely is it for the paint to make its way to the bearing journals during a filter bypass event? Not sure how long white paint can stand up to 200 degree F oil. The most recent K&N can I cut open is on a customer's 500+ whp Lancer Evo. I have used these filters for many years but I am now thinking about switching to Wix for my cars and customer's cars. All of my Ford personal cars have either had Motorcraft or Ford Racing filters, and I cut open the majority of these and they are perfect every time without fail. On a side note, the K&N off the Evo also had some dodgy pleat spacing, with one large gap in spacing near the seam. It wasn't compromised in any way but the Wix and Ford filters in my experience have always been spot on. Perfect spacing and beautiful inside. I'm a pretty loyal person but K&N is making it hard lately. As an anecdote, I've never had an engine failure as a direct result of any K&N filter but I don't want a first. Sorry for such a long winded first post, but thanks for any comments or advice in advance.