Well, the results are in and it doesn't look good
Check out ... http://community.webshots.com/album/78464371PcGaFz ... These pictures are of two OEM filters that were purchased at the same time. The first 4 are of a never used filter that was still contained in unbroken shrink-wrap. The second series is of a companion filter after 12,000 miles. They were both sent to mdrag (Diesel Page moderator) to cut open. His comments can be found over on that site. To quote George Morrison's response to these pictures:
Thank you so much for those superb "cuts" (as always!) and photos.. This filter is totally uncacceptable for use in our engines. The sub-micronic abrasives that would be released with use would cause considerable damage to a fuel system. It looks like we should do some more "new" filter inspections as we know there are very few true manufacturers of our filters; we need to make sure they aren't all like this..
It is my understanding that all OEM fuel filters for our trucks are produced by the same manufacturer and then labeled for sale by various companies. If this is the case, we could clearly have a problem. One can't help but wonder if (as per George's comment above) this couldn't be a contributor to some reported injector problems. Results like this have confirmed (for me) the need for post OEM filtration .... Jim

Thank you so much for those superb "cuts" (as always!) and photos.. This filter is totally uncacceptable for use in our engines. The sub-micronic abrasives that would be released with use would cause considerable damage to a fuel system. It looks like we should do some more "new" filter inspections as we know there are very few true manufacturers of our filters; we need to make sure they aren't all like this..
It is my understanding that all OEM fuel filters for our trucks are produced by the same manufacturer and then labeled for sale by various companies. If this is the case, we could clearly have a problem. One can't help but wonder if (as per George's comment above) this couldn't be a contributor to some reported injector problems. Results like this have confirmed (for me) the need for post OEM filtration .... Jim