Air intake collapse

[Rocky Ranger]

Three weeks ago I put in a new fan clutch. While I was there I cleaned the K&N air filter since I had the air intake hoses off. last Saturday I was driving back from the store and wheni was going up through the gears the engine would go flat on its face well before it should. I thought, OK fuel filter plugged up. I changed it out and I still had the same problem. I opened the hood and revved up the motor and found the elbow that comes off the air filter housing was collapsing under well under 4,000 RPM and cutting off air to the motor. I pulled out the air filter and it stopped doing it. When I cleaned and after drying it in the sun for a few hours I reoiled the filter, I ran out of oil and thought I under-oiled the filter. I reinserted the filter and it does the same thing. I noticed that the elbow has ozone rot to it and the rubber has a fine black residue to it.
Has this happened to anyone else out there?
Thanks, Rick
95 XLT 2.3 5speed

 

[4b316]

Yes,when the intake pipe gets old,it gets soft and will collaspe.

 

[Rocky Ranger]

Update

I went and inserted a 3"PVC 45 degree elbow and trimmed it down. I fired it up and reved it and then the other sections collapsed. WTF
Well I decided to reclean the K-N filter and it was full of fine dust (I had cleaned it at the end of April.) Put it back in same thing. I pulled it apart again, and where I had trimmed the part of the intake hose inside the fenderwell it was sucking that part closed, causing the other hose'(s) to collapse. I trimmed it down farther and that fixed it.

DOH

On the brighter side, It got better fuel economy while closing down. I wasn't able to rev it up as high