I was under the hood useing some degreser and i realized what if i took the air duct off and left the bare inlet. i think it would be like an open element for free! lol i know it came to me when seeing old chevy air cleaner asymblies and i thought well it would work but the aera that the air would be comeing in though would be a little less restrictive but then all you donig is sucknig in gobs of hot air. so what do you think this would do? would it have positive or negitive effects?

 

I dont think it matters since the door (look inside you'l see a little door) is always open when its warm.....unless you removed the little door. Or you can just flip the top of the air cleaner cover over and you'll have about 1 extra inch all around.

 

It still wounld't be an open element. It would have to be open on all sides. Flow will be about the same it you take the duct off.

 

yeah thats what i though it was jsut a stupid little idea. while im here id like to ask you a quetion shift when i get ready to drop the 327 in with a open element (say a k&n extreme lid) will i need to buy a cowl or just barley clean or would it be better to buy a smaller shorter air fliter?

 

You do not have to buy a cowl hood but your air lid will be useless without one. I have an extreem lid on top of my 14x3 element and the hood shuts down right on top of it. Even it the element wasn't as tall there isn't much air that circulates on top of the TBI unit. I have it for looks only.

 

That solves half the problem, but you're still restricted by that (*%)(ing spacer ring. It's even more restrictive than that little inlet.
And open elements are really cheep. especially the flat-bottom ones
If you just want to maintain the stock appearance, you can probably find a suitable donor for a better air cleaner in the junkyard....
I should go have a look-see...