If you are using one of these type air cleaner bases - stop, and throw it away

Am I looking at the graph correctly? The with and without lines (red/black) are almost on top of each other, is the horsepower difference really that much?

 

I ran a ram air setup from under the bumper when I was running in low 12s. Never had it in a sealed setup just had the hoses retained right off the filter.....it was worth about .2. But the hoses were constantly in theveay or melting......this was with a stk gs hood, but just an open element.

We now have a cowl fiberglass hood, and when I run it with or without seal pan I don't notice any difference.........my pan does fit up tight on the hood...the pan is secured and sealed to the filter base from my k&n flow control filter assembly.......its not the open top element but the plastic top with a contoured cone to direct airflow into carb.

https://www.knfilters.com/racing/flowcontrol.htm

I never ran just the filter without the sealed pan???

 

I for a long time in the past ran the Poston set up with the 4" hoses running from there GSX front spoiler with the cut outs that the hoses hoked up to. Mid tens at 128 mph with that set up.
Still have it!

 

Thanks guys some day ill get to the track to test, here on Long Island NY all our 3 tracks have been closed for years about a 130 miles away to atco NJ and heard its next its BS

 

Hot rod did a test of about 20 different air cleaners and bases on their Engine Master series. The filter tops performed best when the sides were blocked off with tape, they surmised that direct flow straight down was key. To prove it, they cut a hole in a salad bowl with a filter lid on top and it made top power for their testing.

 

Guy, did you ever try an open air cleaner?

Back in the late 80’s or early 90’s, I made a homemade system similar to Poston’s. I used a big Olds filter housing, got some “scoops” and 4” flexible vent piping from the home center, and went to the track. I lost 2-3 tenths and a couple MPH with that system, and I promptly installed it into the dumpster! Removing it the same day and running no air cleaner picked the car back up. I don’t know if the convoluted vent pipe caused too much turbulence, or if the housing was too restrictive, or if ingesting 120° air 6” above the surface of the pavement was the problem, or more likely a combination of the 3. This was on high 12-second car.

 

Maybe that is why Motion Performance put these on all their cars. Just watch out for backfires...

 

Where did you mount the scoops, below like the Olds did on the 442?
Old used them quite alot like we know. It had to do something or was it a gimmick?

Edit: ok I see where mentioned 6" above the pavement, still Olds did it so wondering.

 

Bob,
Unfortunately I never experimented with anything different from that setup back then on that car. Dang, now reading your post, wish I would have. Interesting...

 

I went with this from Amazon "Ultra Flow Air Cleaner Kit Top and Bottom" from Bryke Racing ~$42. It was the least expensive setup I could find that would accommodate a tall 4 inch filter, B4B and Quadrajet. I can switch to a shorter filter if I go with a TA intake in the future.

 

Does anybody have a source for the rubber seal that goes on your air pan & seals it to the bottom of a cowl hood?

Thanks

 

Cowl Hood Design Air Cleaners (spectreperformance.com)
try calling them maybe they sell the seal they use

 

I

I have that. It does not fit my GS w 455 and edelbrock performer. The base hits the throttle bracket in back. Not even close to fitting.

 

I have a new 1” qjet spacer.
But just got my Rob Ross killer and that’s where I stand.
A 1” spacer works.
But....
Just running as is now.

 

I found the seal on AmaZon, works great & was only 10 bucks

 

I realize my original post was confusing. So here it is organized a little better, hopefully. The air cleaner base pictured was tested. The plots are A-B-A, i.e., base not installed, installed, then not installed again. The red line is with the base installed.

My original post was a plot of hp/tq for a radiused OEM style base (not pictured yet), showing minimal loss. The carb is a Qjet

 

I have noticed that some of these bases,like the one pictured above,has a tall flange at the carburetor. Mine is very short,almost non-existent,and I had a tall one like that and trimmed it down. I didn’t do any testing with it without it trimmed. I simply did it at day one,to get the hood clearance I needed. Things might hit with a Q-jet though. Let me mock one up before anyone does any cutting.

 

no one watches "engine masters" on motortrend? on episode 27, they dyno tested 19 air filter combos.

the velocity stack with the mesh cover someone here posted, killed 72 hp!

factory, single snorkel killed 95 hp
factory duel snorkel killed 53 hp
factory duel snorkel with lid flipped killed 11hp!

the 14x3 drop base with k&n only killed 12hp
the 14x3 flat base only killed 7.2hp

them edelbrock "flys eye" foam filters killed 71hp! i threw mine out the day i saw this.

there are more but i cant find how to put the pic on here of the results.

 

Makes sense. The majority can’t run the least-robbing setup because of hood clearance. I’d be curious to know if that same flat base with a 2” filter would make less,more,or the same.