I currently have a closed air cleaner but wanted to switch to an open air cleaner. Having little to no knowledge there is a tube/pipe that runs from the engine to the closed air cleaner at the moment and wanted to know if its even possible to switch to an open air cleaner? My car is a 1985 Camaro z28 V8 5.0L. If any more info is needed will provide. Thank You.

 

Put a breather there. Run a drop base air cleaner

 

Ah ok cool thanks for the info. As for the other whole where the silver stretchy tube connects to the front of the air cleaner do i leave it open?

 

I recommend you keep the enclosed housing you have. No benefit to an open air filter housing, as it's just a hot air intake. I have one on my car and wish I had the original enclosed one instead.

 

I agree. Back when I first got my car I put an open air element on it. Car sounded cooler but ran worse. I put the stock stuff back on.

 

Thanks everyone for the input i appreciate it. Probably should of waited before pulling the trigger on ordering the parts haha definitely will see how it goes for a bit.

 

One has as many plus and minus as the other. You will get more air..it may be hotter air...You won't tell a difference and it won't hurt. It comes down to what looks best to you. Now if you were going to take a dual snorkel air cleaner off to replace with an open element i would advise against that ofcourse.

 

The stock single inlet air cleaner is a compromise between emissions, cold and warm manners, etc. It takes air from outside the engine compartment, but the path it has to follow is restrictive and limited. An open element trades cold manners, and emissions, engine noise, etc for simplicity and air flow. Considering that most people on the forum a) Don't drive a thirdgen on cold days, b) Don't give a rip about emissions c) Enjoy the roar... That negates most of the reasons to keep the stock aircleaner. Now if a person put a car with the stock single inlet air cleaner onto the dyno, then did nothing except changeover to an open element, I'd tend to expect the power to improve a bit. It'd definitely sound more powerful.

The dual snorkel air cleaner from the L69 was probably the best compromise, it has all the benefits of the single, with the added benefit of TWO inlets, and each of them is about 3 times the size of the stock single inlet. It's only limitations come from the flame arrestor ring, which is a bit of a restriction and the small paper air filter. The only catch is a person has to find one, and they're not too terribly common, and most are missing the ram air ducts, making them pretty much a wash with an open aircleaner.

 

And if you have the extra room, you could add a 1" taller lid and 1" taller filter element to the dual snorkel base like on the carbed Monte SSes.

 

I think OP is already ahead of us on that one. But yeah, sometimes there's room,

 

You're right. I didn't see the taller lid.

 

It's for the PCV system and it supplies the fresh air into the crankcase. You can use a chrome breather, it'll look prettier and is easier to deal with but it will emit oil vapor onto the vicinity of the breather. If it's not a an engine you try to keep clean this may not bother you but I became tired of wiping it so I drilled a hole in the bottom of my open air element and connected a line to it. No more oil coated valve covers. Some aftermarket open air elements have a knockout hole you can just punch out and connect the tube or they come with a little, cheap thermostat looking piece to use.

 

If you look inside the aircleaner, that tube jsut slips onto a breather that's clipped in the aircleaner (clip missing in OP's photo), so the fumes and whatnot are recycled through the engine, ie Emissions. Really you could just punch a hole in the bottom of any aircleaner and just slip the old breather through the hole and hook up the tube/hose. It's just easier to get the push in chrome breather next to the aircleaner and chrome valve covers and hippy foot gas peddle at the parts store. Just make sure the breather is the same size where it pushes in the valve cover grommet as the old tube. Whoa, I almost forgot the ******* boy-racer work around from the 70's and 80's... Just take the breather filter out of the aircleaner, push it back on the tube and swing it out of the way... The things you'd see on highschool hot rods......



Hey it'd look cool sticking out of a sludge covered valve cover under about a zillion miles of vacuum and AIR injector tubes, all anyone would notice is the SUMMIT RACING! logo chrome aircleaner and that pretty white paper filter that you got free with any order of a Holley or Edlercrack Carburetor.... Actually I'm thinking they'd practically send those aircleaners out like they used to send free hats, and a swag bag of so many stickers everything in your garage would be Summit Equipped or Eldoborked.

 

I was wondering if I have to take the valve cover off to remove the PCV hose in order to put in a breather. Thanks in advance.

 

No, but the grommet is probably hard, so you might have to work at it to remove it.
A breather will use a different size grommet.

 

I used same grommet in several different cars swapping to breathers just have to check the fitment. Yours may be different though, I used a Spectre Performance 4300 3/4" Standard push in breather. Amazon has them.

 

Ah ok because I gave it a little tug but it wouldn't budge and didn't want to pull any harder without breaking something. Thanks for the advice.