yeah... i'd much rather it be that than something else bigger.
i'll put a new filter on after work tomorrow & see how that does.

wait... how does a leaky filter explain having larger clouds of oil smoke when i get on the gas?
would it be that the system's under more pressure (spraying more oil out onto my oil-caked header y-pipe) & causing a larger amount of oil to get burned on a hotter (higher revs = more hot gas = hotter pipes) exhaust?