what would be the positive/negative effects of running my edelbrock carb with no aircleaner?

a negative would be allowing dirt, and debris to be pulled into the carb which will eventually gum it up and make it less efficient. It may even, after a good deal of time, get stuck open or closed. Another thing that the air cleaner housing is there for is to prevent fires. One good back fire with no air cleaner on there and you may very well blister the paint off your hood and risk a dangerous condition called engine fire.
A positive would be a minimal gain in air flow and a tiny increase in horsepower.

i would not run your engine with the air cleaner off. like loki said, it will 1) allow dirt and crap to enter your engine and may cause serous damage and 2) there will be nothing to stop a backfire.

Please note that it has been proven to reduce horsepower when running a Carb car with no air cleaner. It will help the air flow through the carb easily there for adding HP. Not to mention the cost of rebuild on the carb for sucking in all that dirt.......we didn't even get far enough to tell how the dirt will hurt your motor.



Brian

Actually, no air cleaner WILL give you minimal gains.... but the 1-2 HP is not worth what you are risking... old school racers used to do it back in the Smokey Yunick days..... but they also rebuilt their engines after every pass / race.

check the latest Car Craft.......................they lost 4 hp on a Deamon carb with no air filer.



Brian

I've run without an air cleaner for months at a time (had to untill I could afford a cowl hood, my setup wouldn't fit one). Nothing drastic happened, but it isn't really advisable. I had to blow dirt out of my airbleeds maybe every 2 weeks on average. It will also increase wear on the engine from dirt getting in the cylinders.

If you have a decent sized open element, running without it. is not worth any gains. Might even gain a little with the filter on.

http://firbirdgta.tripod.com/cars/id11.html
here is the thing in car craft that shows the different hp gains and losses

I test drove a grand am yesterday. I mashed it to the floor and it would just almost die. I knew somethin was wrong, wasn't gettin gas air somethin. I took the cap off the air filter compartment and there was no air filter there. In its place there was about 1 and 1/2 inches of **** clogging over top the throttle body. I pulled all this crap off and there came the power right back. Don't run without an air filter man, it's not worth it. Youll ruin your car. But I do have one question, How does k&n boast you can gain up to 15 hp switchin to their airfilter if running none will only boost you less than 5. Is this BS, or is their somethin special with it????:rockon: :rockon: :rockon: :rockon: :rockon: :rockon:

Just curious why you would really like to do that????

How bout sucking up some rocks flying around while you drive & shoving them down into the compution chamber....

You never know what could happen.......take your pic but my motor see's nothing but a big, fat K&N.

"up to 15 hp" is the key. All they are actually saying is that you will gain no more than 15 hp.

If you're just planning to take it off when you go to the drag strip, I see no harm... you might as well if you use an open element... you could test the gains on a dyno... to see if there is a gain or loss caused by it, I'd imagine it all depends on the engine setup if you get a gain or loss. In the Edelbrock users manual it even states that there should be no danger in running without an airfilter as long as it's not dusty where you drive... so taking it off at the track should offer no problems.

I ran my Edelbrock 600 for about a year with no filter. No probs at all. Sure it got a bit dirty. I sold it and bought a Edelbrock 800. Should have the motor back together soon. I did drive it for a day with the 800 and a T5. I loved it. But I'll probably put an air cleaner on it this time cause I'm putting a cowl hood on it.

Brad...

The K&N FIPK adds 21 hp to an LS1 but that is merely due to the bad and restrictive design GM came up with for the entire housing.

On any engine where there is no significant restriction due to bad design, I can't see a K&N adding anything except longevity between cleanings. The Car Craft article proved that.