lmfao Ryco made in the USA? Hahaha no. That stuff's going to be rubbish. You'll find the good Z154 filters are going to be made in China. We've had many filters cross-sectioned, and the Chinese and Taiwanese filters are by far superior in terms of assembly of the sprung filter mass, pleating of the filter mass, and welding around the case pleats.
It's just not a bad thing any more.
That said, buy Wesfil where you can. Owned by the same company as Ryco (GUD Holdings), manufactured in the same places, and to the same standards for most of the common filters. Half the price.
I'll put it to you this way:
In the last 6 years in the industry, I've had between 30-40 Ryco filters back for warranty, and 2 Wesfil that I can remember (mind you we sell easily 400% more volume in Wesfil). Ryco is all about marketing. Period. You're not paying for a superior product - you're paying for adverts on the radio, adverts in newspapers, adverts in magazines, adverts and billboards in workshops, and shiny boxes with nice print on them.
I can name three aftermarket parts we sell that come from the USA now: AC Delco spark plugs, Champion spark plugs, and a few other Ignition accessories. All have a bad reputation in the industry for being crap. Just think Chrysler/Jeep/Dodge/Saturn/Cadillac. Not names associated with quality.
Just my two cents