Alright. Welcome to the next installment of the

Topic of the Week
to run from 3/8/02 to 3/15/02

The subject for the week is Air cleaners: Open elememnt, dual snorkles. etc.

This covers a wide range of discussion:
- open elements
- drop base vs. non-drop base
- L69 air cleaners (aka dual snorkle)
- custom cold air jobs
- open element cold air boxes
- relocation of sensors
- cowl and ram air hoods
- hot air from the open element vs. GM housings

Subjects not to be covered:
- intake manifold swaps
- Nos
- engine swaps
- non air cleaner assembly talk

since this topic already has 3 or 4 threads of the board lets all focus on this for the Topic Of The Week. Feel free to show lots of pictures to show the differances.

 

Cowl hood and an open element, what are the advantages. A cowl allows cold air into the element right?

 

This is a d@mn good idea, Tas.
I'd have to admit, I cringed when I saw that you were made a moderator, but if you clean up the million repetitive posts into one, I'll be pretty impressed.
I'm glad that somebody else noticed that the entire board gets fixated on one topic for a week.
Last week it was LT1 cams (everybody and there mother is aparently getting an LT1 cam "as soon as the next paycheck comes in!" )
This week it's the debate between air elements. "Which one is going to get me the extra 0.87 of a horsepower?"


Oh well, we were all newbies at one point. :lala:

 

thanks I can't take all the credit. Someone emailed me about doing something similar, and I got the format from the jeep board on www.pirate4x4.com

 

Well, here is a link for those that are interested reguarding the L69 dual snorkle and such... https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...threadid=89671
There are many pictures of a 1/2 L69 air cleaner (larger ducting, but not dual)...Take a look...

 

Has anybody ever taken the air cleaner set up from a tpi and put in on there tbi. You would have to find another snorkle to weld onto your existing air cleaner then run hose to the tpi air cleaner without a filter in the tpi air cleaner, then take some hose or something to go down the nose so it makes a ram air effect through the fog lights.

 

I remember seeing someone on the boards with a TPI setup connected to his TBI air cleaner housing. You can probably search it.

 

I AM LOOKING AT OPEN ELEMENT AIR CLEANERS AND AM TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHAT IS THE BEST FOR MY CAR (I HAVE A 91 W/LO3):

1. SHOULD I USE A DROP OR FLATE BASE?(ADVANTAGES OR DISADVANTAGES? IS ONE EASIER TO INSTALL THAN THE OTHER?)

2. WHAT WOULD BE THE BEST BRAND TO USE?(K&N, EDELBROCK I NOTCE THEY HAVE A PAPER ELEMENT, SUMMIT, MOROSO ETC...)

3. WILL A 14X3 FIT UNDER THE STOCK HOOD IF IT IS A FLAT BASE?

I'D APPERCIATE ANY OTHER INFO YOU MAY THINK IS HELPFUL.

 

just get a flat based open element with a paper filter, then when the paper filter gets all dirty you can get a K&N or whatever filter you like

 

I CALLED SUMMIT AND WAS GOING TO GET THEIR FLAT BASE AIR CLEANER WITH THE REUSEABLE ELEMENT FOR $40(PART NO. SUM-239431). I WAS TOLD THAT THE FLAT BASE WOULD NOT FIT MY CAR PROPERLY AND TO GO WITHTHE ONE WHICH HAS AN OFFSET BASE (PART # SUM - 239432). IS THIS TRUE???

 

flat based will work just dont use the spacer ring

 

What exactly is the ring spacer??

 

Oops...I meant spacer ring...

 

Something I've always wondered about with ram-air systems of any kind, but grill-mounted intakes in particular, is water ingestion. I remember seeing an article on some Corvette-related website which talked at length about the trouble Chevy went to designing their intake, with one of the really important problems being water ingestion, particularly a "splashed by oncoming traffic" situation. Seemed that, unless carefully placed, the forward-mounted type intakes (down by the grill, for instance) could pick up enough moisture to stall the engine. For my application, I'm puting a 327 w/ a late-model TBI setup into a Datsun Z, and am toying with including a front-mounted or spoiler-mounted ram-air of some kind. Anybody have any thoughts, warnings, considerations? Am I making a mountain out of a molehill?

 

jordanz28ss, yeah, my brother did the same exact thing you are talking about. we relocated the snorkle intake on the air cleaner to the front and welded the old hole shut. The TPI intake bolted right up and we used a band clamp to secure the delivery ducting to the relocated intake. You can use either the tpi or tbi air filters with this mod. If you could make a flat base air cleaner work it would be twice as good cause then you could do the ultimate TBI stuff to the trottle body AND have less restriction from the spacer ring!!!

 

The spacer ring is the ring that actually encircles your TBI unit. If you take your breather off you can see it quite easily. You can take it off without any problems and put a new open air element on there...just make sure it doesn't hit your coil.

 

Has anyone checked out the TBI bonnet on the 4.5L Caddy motors and plumbing them to a TPI airfilter assembly in front of the radiator. This would clean the engine compartment up a little plus provide a cold air solution. I just know how well the setup would flow. So just throwing an idea out there.

 

The tpi air cleaner set up seems like a good idea. I want to do it to my car but I can't find a tune port in any junk yards. I think the air cleaner box for those are about $100.00 or so.

 

Just finished putting a 2 1/4" cowl scoop on Zepher WS6's old hood. Looks great, and should let all the cold air I need in. I shielded the Open Element with aluminum flashing (roofing material)

Open Element all the way

 

I got my TPI air filter assembly on ebay for $35. I am trying to figure out the best way to plumb to TBI.

 

maybe flexible ducting like a dryer hose or something similar....

 

I run a 14" Edelbrock drop-base with a 6" tall element on my '93 truck. My 1" tb spacer gives me clearance over the coil. Ever since I put the spacer on though, I get a slight whistling noise from the air cleaner and it seems like the injectors are noisier.
I looked at a Cadillac 4.5 tbi aircleaner set-up. Looks like an "AirRaid" style set-up less the polished tube and cone filter. You guys should check it out.
SC

 

Guys, you HAVE to read this month's (April 2002) Car Craft. Look on pg 72!!! It tests various sizes of filter elements drop base vs. non drop base from 2 in to 6 in tall and does a DYNO TEST on EACH Air cleaner. Turns out that air cleaner size has virtually no effect on horsepower! That's right. A 14 x 2.25 makes as much power as a 14 x 6 as a 7 x 3 drop base or not. They also dyno tested with no air cleaner and it actually made slightly less power! Granted, these were all K and N filters, but it goes to show that 'bigger' isn't always 'better' when it comes to air cleaners. Seems like the best choice is whatever fits under your hood!

 

The same cannot be true of paper filter elements though, because of the nature of the medium.

 

Bigger is better because the bigger it is, the less it will restrict your engine when it gets dirty.

 

I did Its been on my website forever now.

 

I agree about paper. The smaller you go, the more restrictive it would be. Bigger is only better if you don't plan on cleaning the filter regularly. I posted the info for guys (like me) who will have limited hood clearance but are worried that a smaller element will restrict their airflow/power making ability significantly.

 

i have the open element setup all complete however the stem to which i want to screw the wing nut is not long enough, i did remove the spacer ring and the element is a flat base element(14x3 summit part # sum-239431). what should i do????

 

try to unscrew the stock one as much as possible. If its still too short, like mine was, go get a carb stud from an auto part store. Until I got a new stud, I had flipped the lid upside down to screw it on. When I got the carb stud back to work I saw it was too long, I cut the end of with a hacksaw and smoothed out the edges on a grinder so the flynut could go on easy

 

??? Tas, how did you get a carb stud to work? First of all, they are threaded differently. Second, the TBI studs are bent so that they will fit through the center of the air cleaner lid, while carb studs are straight. Is there a special carb stud I don't know about? I only ask because I tried the same thing myself. You can also go to a junkyard and find a late 80's early 90's GM pickup and use the stud from that. You will definitely have to use the hacksaw to make it fit though.

 

ya I forgot to say I had to bend it to a similar shape as the stock one. The one I got had the same threads. Went right in.

 

If you need a longer breather stud go to a hardware store or Home depot or the like and get a length of all thread rod. I think that the size is 1/4-20. You can cut and bend it as needed using the stock one for a bend template