My son wants to run his rod with no hood, ever. I'm concerned about the air cleaner ****ing in water. I've seen full covers, with louvred sides, for old single barrel carbs, and theres an aftermarket one for 14 inch. But we only have room for a 10 inch. Anyone have a source, or better yet, some cool original idea I can fabricate one out of?? So far, a round cake pan is my best idea. Not to cool, but it's teflon coated!!!
In 1990 a friend and I drove T roadsters to the 20th ANN,. NSRA NAtionals in ST. Paul MN. We were in a horrific rain and windstorm from Big Cabin OK to Joplin MO. His car is Track Car with nose and hood, mine is an open engine car with early AC Pontiac louvered air cleaner. Both are small block Chevy with points distributor. We stopped at a WalMart to buy rainsuits and the McDonald's to get breakfast. When we went out to the cars to leave, my car started immediately, his car had condensate in the distributor because of the hood and required a dose of WD40 to get started. Open hoods are no problem as long as you have a real air cleaner with a lid, not a stack or scoop with screen wire.
I run a t-bucket with a blown six in it and have been caught in some downpours here in Fla. The only problem I have had is the car gets squirrley in the rain, the scoop on my blower has never caused any problem.
One 2" mandrel bend One Datsun 240 Air filter element Two pieces of sheet metal A couple days after work Voila, guarenteed to keep water out during a monsoon. Well it seemed like a monsoon inside a leaky Model A.
Go to Night Prowlers (http://www.execmall.com/Night%20Prowlers/NP-Engine Stuff.htm) they have two chrome domed air cleaners that might work for you. One's 11 1/2 inches and the other one is smaller.
Like the others have stated there is little problem with the rain entering the air cleaner scoop while running ***uming you arent driving under water etc. WD-40 will make an ignition system water proof! Spray some inside the cap and all over , wipe excess off with rag then soak the wires ,plugs and outer cap with it. We used to drive dune buggys under water for a few feet with a wd 40 soaked distributor.!!
wd-40 does work GREAT i learned that offroading with a chevy sb... also the "points eliminator" (i thinks thats what it's called) it seemed to help alot
One of my cars was usually hoodless all thru high school, and also stored outside that way. #1 problem, your air filter will always look like ****. First time it's started wet, or just driven on wet roads the filter element will look 20 years old. #2 problem, ignition. Never had a problem actually, but always ran a HEI chevy in those years. Other types, use at your own risk. #3 problem, actual air filter clogging due to water. Had a couple instances where it would idle rich and funky, but never an issue once it got moving. Certainly nothing that would disable the vehicle. Driving in the rain would not clog it, however sitting in the rain would, thus causing 5 minutes of idling poorly until the engine ****ed some of the water out of the filter. I took to just running around with a small plastic bag under the seat. If it was gonna be parked in heavy rain, bagged the air cleaner before walking away. Here's a tip, don't allow any taiwan chrome stuff in the engine compartment, they'll turn to rust in no time. Knowing what I know (which isn't much), and doing what you're doing......consider one of those old caddy air cleaners with the 2 scoops. It would be cool looking, yet fairly enclosed Good luck!
Supposedly... According to Jeff Foxworthy... studies have proven that a "mother's spit" has the exact same chemical composition as WD-40
My friend did the americruise in a hoodless 33 dodge coupe with a blown 440,2-4's and a scoop.....when he hit heavy rain out in the midwest he just turned the bugcatcher backwards...I'm thinking he had a bigger problem with the fat mickey thompsons and very narrow rear!
Most of my cars have been runnin for years with no hood. Never had any problems. I say give it a try. Eddie
Ok guys, we'll let er rip and see what happens. But now that I have the bug up my a.. I'm still going to look for something cool, like that caddilac air cleaner idea.
Driving is no problem. When parked if you have an open sided filter you need a base that has a ridge between the filter & the carb to keep water from draining down the carb. A rubber gasket from a garden hose under the wing nut will keep water from getting in that way.
Also washable type filters like a K&N will hold up much better than a paper type. I run an open filter on my harley and haven't had any problems in the rain.
chopndrop - that is exactly what I had in mind. I'm emailing them to see if they have the right size. Thanks.
I drive both of my hoodless cars in the rain, both with pertronix? Dizzys and 97's with helmet type aircleaners. Both the flathead and Hemi run great!!
Ive been running this setup for over 3 years, no hood at all, been in rain heavy enough i couldnt seee out the windshield and running 65-70 mph , never even skipped a beat with Velocity Stacks at that. A drag racing buddy of mine once told me they used to run about a cup of water down the carb every now and then to clean the carbon off the pistons...so everytime i get caught in the rain I just tell myself I'm cleaning my engine internally!
You may want to run a dab of high-temp silicone around the plug/coil wire boots on your distributor and plug wires too.... just my $.02
No problem at all and I am running velocity stacks in fact it will clean the carbon of the valves for you. This was coming home from Hotrodarama. It rained there and I did put a plastic shopping bag over the velocity stacks while sationary Also notice I am not running rubber boots on the plug leads either, it did rust the bare metal
I've run my pickup in some severe rainstorms with absolutly no problems. No WD40 sprayed on my cap, silicone to seal it up or covers on my aircleaners.
get some silicone spray ,put a good coat on the plug wires and dizzy,K&N makes a cover that goes over the filter element.designed for dust but helps with water.. i used both in offroad racing..... with the silicone sprayed wires you can run a motor underwater as long as the air intake is above water....done it!!!! also drove a car with no hood for 2 years ....snow was the worst..keep a tarp handy...
i have been running this for 2 seasons with no problems at all (even in the winter as pic shows) i have been in real downpours , and the old hemi runs perfect , the k&n filters seem to do very good job with the water .
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