You can't oil the dry filter as it is a different filter than the blue filter. I am not big on oiling as that oil might end up in the intake if not done properly.
Gaps on the box are meaningless, mostly. Air still has to pass through the filter. The slight differential in air temperature with some ambient engine air being pulled could have a slight impact on performance, but in theory is also provides additional incoming flow versus what the intake snorkel can get. I'm leaving mine "as is".
Intereresting info from Cobb regarding the stock intake snorkel collapsing under high air demand, and more reason why a little extra air gap around the intake might not be a bad thing!
Can you post images about this?
Depends on what you want to see. The air duct is formed by the hood itself as the upper half and a plastic piece for the lower half. The big challenge is that the plastic lower half seems like it was molded for another model (I had to call and ask for it separately and when it arrived I had to do a lot of Dremel surgery on it to get it to fit). After a few efforts my best and final one was drill holes into the underside of the fiberglass hood fill with wet epoxy and then screw through the plastic into that. I can't really show you that because it's covered with a dynamat underhood reflective mat.....the picture is just the underside of a hood with reflective dynamat foam on it. The air duct opens up directly over the stock airbox, so if you just leave the upper window off of most CAIs, the air flow shoots directly at the filter.
I was hoping to see your truck with which Cervini hood on it, as there aren't many photos of 21+ with this. And then whatever you've got on how the CAI fits against this hood; I've got the AFe magnum and I'm skeptical about it's fit against the bottom of my stock hood. I'm also interested in either the Air Design hood scoop from Ford or the Cervini but torn.
Outside pics are easy, and I've been meaning to post them for a while regardless. I can take a pic of where the hood duct releases the air, but you'll have to use your imagination since the hood has to be closed to see them fully meet up. I have a Momentum GT, and that window hole matches the hood duct exit almost perfectly. The Magnum hole looks like it's about twice the dimensions of that, but with a turbo engine you're not really trying to make a fake supercharger as much as ensure that the turbos are never short of inlet airflow. My point being, blowing air AT the filter will do most of the good for us, where all someone with an NA engine trying to pressurize the cylinders would lose a lot of air pressure into the engine compartment though the same gap.
I kind of did a deep dive into this one and what I realized is that my AFE Momentum air intake includes a very rigid well built intake snorkel that isn't going to collapse.
I always choose the dry filter options.
There are no free lunches with filters. Increase area or increase the size of particle captured. On MAF equipped vehicles there's always a chance of oil contaminating it. Had a taco with a K&N on it and finally got rid of it after the 4th CEL from MAF oil contamination. Did take much to upset that MAF for some reason.
