Best air filter? Mods on the cheap?

[Poppa Wheelie]

So I love my rig to death, but need more pulling power to drag around our toy hauler. I know that with my heavy-a$$ tires and steel wheels, I really should get my gears done, but that has to wait for now.
So I am looking at doing a few things to get a little cheap hp/tq. I already have a big-ol flowmaster on there. I am doing the gotts mod today, and cleaning the MAF. I did a hackjob airbox mod years ago, but I think I will "reverse" it after the gotts is done.
I need a new airfilter really soon, so which is the best? K&N? Others?
What should I do next? remove the rear cats? What I'm hoping is that for a little cash, I can make enough of a difference that I can convince my wife (the accountant) that it will be worth it to do the gearing. "See honey, the little mods helped that much, I bet the gearing will help even more!!"
Maybe a tuner before gears? Do the tuners adjust for different gearing or does it matter?
Thanks,
Matt.

 

[runningwater]

Hey Matt,
I just did the Gotts mod to my expo and noticed a difference right off the bat. I used a Spectre air filter for the mod at half the price of a K&N and I am really pleased with it so far.

 

[Poppa Wheelie]

Good to know, I'll look at those.
So I was out working on my truck and got tired of sanding the ABS pipe, so I started hammering the hole in the fender to get a little more clearance. My older neighbor comes out and says I sound like Noah building the ark and do I really think it's a good idea to put lions in my truck?!? What? I love that guy, same weird sense of humor as me.
Anyway, I did feel a slight difference, both in pickup and in throttle response. Hard to say how much from the Gotts and how much from cleaning the MAF, prolly both. I'll get a better idea next time we go camping on how towing performance has improves, if any at all.
EDIT: Just ordered the Spectre. Hope it's good cause it's like 1/2 the cost of a K&N.

 

[Nokturnal]

I have the Spectre also, and I like it. Actually seemed like a really good filter for the price, comes pre-oiled and everything.

One thing though, after you get the filter in driver around for a while then open the box back up. There's gonna be oil all over inside, I actually had a small puddle. Dry it all up and spray a bunch of MAF cleaner in there and do a quick spray off of the MAF.

 

[markNtennessee]

i removed my 2 rear cats on my 01 and i noticed that i dont have as much low end power.

 

[panda24619]

i have a k&n and i love it. gotts mod helped. my new non cracked manifolds helps a lot too. and my new bullet muffler helps more. but i think the best was the gotts mod. so many people doing that since i posted that thread. haha but my k&n helped a lot too. but i did also noticed a small puddle of oil when i took out my air box to do the mod. maybe to much oil from me. ive cleaned it twice all ready. now i need more cleaner. it needs to be cleaned again since the last off road trip.

 

[Poppa Wheelie]

So now I have done the Gotts mod, already had the Flowmaster, and got my Spectre air filter last week. Gotta say, I can definitely feel the difference. On the other hand, the paper filter that was in there was really dirty, I am sure that wasn't helping.
Next thing is deleting the rear cats, then a tuner, THEN gears. 456 Ohyeah