I wanted to get an edelbrock open air element from autozone but the guy said it wont fit at first place and this conversion wont do any good for the engine (he said it will do even worst) and then he said i dont need it because i have cold air intake...(my car is stock,i dont think i even have it)
So iam wondering was he right about it? Or should i just get K&N filter for better breathe

 

I don't know about Texas, but here in California, an open element, IIRC, is not smog legal. If you want to get some cold air into the engine you might want to think about adding an L69 dual snorkel. They aren't available from the factory anymore, only used. Go to IROCZDAVE's website. He usually has the dual snorkel air cleaner housing available.

 

no they arent smog legal, but it only takes 30 seconds to change the air cleaner

And open element is a ****LOAD better than your stock setup. the dude in autozone knows nothing about 3rd gen LG4s.

But the L69 is even better.

 

okay first thing... i was curious about this mod as well, so I did some research. Come to read a bunch about the Edelbrock aircleaners, and how if they backfire it will melt the aircleaner and then you'll have little chunks of aircleaner riding down your throttle body that you'll have to clean out.

Will you notice a difference? YES! Sure will! Your stock air cleaner is crap in it's finest form. An open element will give you an unlimited amount of air.

Downside to open element -- the "unlimited amount of air" is actually an unlimited amount of HOT air that you'll be sucking in. Hot air is not as dense as cold air. So at low speeds you will probably have a off-idle, but when you get going, probably around 35 it will pick up where it's most needed.

You will notice engine noise thanks to the open element, but they arent a bad thing.

Reasons to keep your original air cleaner -- none lol. It's cold air, but not good after like 3500 RPM.

Want to keep cold air ? Get the H.O. air cleaner with dual snorkles... five7kid did a test with an open element, and a H.O. air cleaner, and the H.O. outperformed by .1 on the 1/4 (IIRC). Since I dont go to the track (yet) I decided that the 15 dollar open element was alot cheaper than the 90 dollar H.O. dual snorkle air cleaner.

You can also MAKE your own dual snorkel air cleaner. Here's the link to the tech article .

I decided against making my own because dual snorkles clutter up the engine bay more... and I'm not that confident in my fabrication skills at this point. I hope this helps you

Btw, the guy at advanced auto knows **** about your car hehe.

Another btw... you will want to buy a longer stud to screw into your carb, and carb spacers while you're there. The air cleaner wont fit otherwise. Expect another 20 dollars for those.

 

Get it. Anything is better than the single snorkel, and it does fit. I have exactly the same one (if you are talking about the 14" one?) and it fit fine on top of my Qjet. It now fits fine on top of my Holley. Cleared the hood fine too, although it is a bit taller.

 

Allright,thnx alot,i'd get it

This guy from auto part was like,you might lose as much as 30hp,i was like wtf....

 

LOL... if anything you're going to gain a bunch of torque... espescially if you've already got your exhaust done up.

 

About the autozone guy,


Yeah, be careful who you take advice from. When I was buying some ducting for my car at a hardware store, a sales guy there tried to tell me that hot air was better for the engine.

Okaaaaay.

 

You will want to tweak your carb some from all the extra free flowing air.

 

I searched info about open element on this forum and i see alot of people have it installed!
P.S. Just got one,gonna install it when i come from work

 

Once you get it on there go for a drive. Leave the radio off and just stuff it to the floor and hold it there. Let the car rev out n shift each gear on its own.

Listen for ping or what may sound like noisy lifters. If it doesn't make any noise, you should be ok on the carb settings. If it get a little noisy at the top of each gear, then do some carb tweaking.


It should though sound very nice,lounder and mean, as you can now hear the engine as it gulps down all that extra air.

 

You shouldnt have to do any carb tuning at all. So its basically just a ten minute minor mod that frees up a little bit of power and gives you a little better sound as well. Hey where in texas are you? I was just wondering because a bunch of the houston are guys are having a meet at the end of the month and if your around there you should go it will be fun. Check out the south central region board for more info.

 

I think i gonna hit distributor if i gonna put this in...anyone know how to deal with it?
P.S. iam in San Antonio and i'd like to meet and hang out cuz iam bored,i cant find any real car enthusiasts around here only ricers in my school

 

Jacka -- did you buy the carb spacers? If so then just use a higher spacer to clear the dizzy. My problem wasnt that it would hit the dizzy, it was that it would sit crooked from the carb arms heh.

There's a great walk-through tech article on how to install these.

http://snflupigus.tripod.com/tech/op...tep1/step1.htm

go there and you should be set Follow every instruction to the tee and you wont have any problems.

 

Yeah I cant believe what some guys behind the counter try to tell you. The Kragens in my area tell me that all 87 Camaros came with 350's

Glad you got the open element. It helps out alot. What I was thinking was getting a tpi air filter setup and then getting some tubing so some cool air gets in too.

 

It is very close, but it doesn't hit. Mine fits a large-cap HEI just fine. Might have to rearrange the wires a little, but its not a big deal.

 

I just installed it and drove it for little bit,i think there is a bit of diffirence but i couldnt notice anything huge(got better sound maybe) but as long as its good for my car And i got some few last questions, what do i do with vacuum hose? I just closed other end with bolt,lol
And do i have to reset computer? My dad said i dont have to,so i was like w/e and i dont have any check light engine warnings when i start it,so i assume everything should be good and set up now

 

Your probably still has the stock insulation on your hood??? I assume so as it would muffle the engine sound. Most people rip it down after 8-10 years.By then it has so much dirt n crap in it, its now very flammable. Also leaves dirt makes on your back.

You should hear a definite different sound when your gettin on it.

 

Removing the insulation does make it sound a hair louder but it isn't bad. People claim your paint will chip and stuff because of the heat but I have never had a problem.

Open element made a HUGE difference when I installed one on my lo3. Now I have a 350 and what not but I still use the same air cleaner.

 

I was thinking to remove this stuff under my hood,cuz its so dirty and old and i'll just probably rip it off !

 

the holley i bought and stuck on my TBI came with a stud and a top screw thing... but it doesnt fit a TBI so you need to modify it or just use the stock stud and butterfly even tho it looks like crap....but yes the stock air cleaner setup is just pointless garbage... and as for it taking in colder air over a open element... i think thats false also.... because heat from the engine will heat up any air cleaner the same way and make any air hot thats going into the engine... (wow that was an extremly hard sentence to word ... lol)

 

heh, ok... the stock air cleaner is considered a "cold air intake"... the H.O. air cleaner with dual snorkle is also considered "cold air intake". The air that is coming from the stocker comes from right infront of the radiator where air is cool. In an open element it grabs the closest air, which is right around the block which is obviously hot.

Air gets sucked in so fast that it doesnt have enough time to get as hot as it would if it had been lingering around the block (like the open element). It has been track proven that the H.O. dual snorkel (which would put in more cold/dense air) compared to the less dense/hot air from the open element.

So... wanna argue it?

 

track proven huh? id like to see these numbers... if this is so then why dont all drag and performance carbed engines have these type of set ups? even if it is "better" its still ugly as sin and the numbers are nothing significant

 

Exactly, I think Ill sacrifice the 3hp gained from the dual snorkel and save $100+ instead. Plus as stated above it looks better.

 

owned

 

That's exactly why people use the open element instead of the dual snorkle. It cleans up the engine bay, and costs about 100 dollars more, if not more than that.

In my eyes there is no choice between the two... open element all the way, best bang for the buck. But if you want top performance you go with the dual snorkle... I'll dig up the thread to prove the track performance. Five7kid did the test so I believe it.

 

When my 83 Z was stock the first mod I did was upgrade to the dual snorkel setup. I noticed a nice increase. I sold that and then got a 14x3 open element and I noticed a better increase with the open element. Both are nice setups. I think I will benefit even more with the open element since I have a cowl hood. I just need to get a carb spacer so the open element gets more cooler air.

 

Believe I found it. He calls it "ram air" but if you read down it's just cold air intake.

https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...t=open+element

 

I think it was RB who pointed out that even little things such as synthetic oil and dual snorkel air cleaners might determine the winner of a race between two cars of equal power. I'd rather have the hardware to make my car faster, even if it is just by a bit.

 

My experience was .05 sec off ET and .01 sec off 60' in runs where I was changing from one to the other between each run. That difference was calculated using the worst cool-air number when the air temp was rising as the day wore on, vs. the best open-element run when the air was cooler in the early morning. Using the closest to each other runs, it was more like .1 sec off ET and .02 sec off 60'.

Engine temp is typically held down as much as possible, which reduces the under-hood temp effect. However, most drag cars use a scoop or cowl hood around here. The slower street/drag cars use open element, when you get to the faster race-dedicated cars, more often they have some means of getting air into the engine from some place other than under the hood.

Eye of the beholder. Personally, I'm a "function over form" kind of guy.

I need to slow the car down a little when I go to Pomona in two weeks to stay above the 13.00 minimum allowed dial-in in the Sportsman class. An easy way to do that would be to take off the cool-air system and put on the open element. The only reason I hesitate is concern over the effect if hot-laps are required. Most likely, that won't be an issue with only 3 rounds to champion.

 

I've since changed to saying "cool air inlet" per RB's "correction".

 

IMO, the L69 setup looks great. Has a really hairy, old school strip car look to it. Think " '63 Ford Thunderbolt" and you'll see what I mean.

Its obviously functional too, because Five7 actually proved its functionality with his numbers. Thats proof that it works.

If you want more proof, use an L69 setup for two weeks in a dry summer. Look how fast the filter gets dirty compared to an open one... sounds dumb, but that shows that it really is taking in outside cool air, because that air is going to be dirtier than air under the hood anyway.

 

lol ok guys... ram some more air... ill stay with my chrome peice .. HAHAaaaaaaa