"hot rod" air cleaners on your daily?

Those cheap paper filters (if large enough) do an excellent job of keeping **** out of your engine. The reason K&N's flow better than paper is that they let more air through, this means they let more dirt through also. Old school looks kewl. No doubt about it. But your engine won't live as long. I think the best solution (for me anyway) is to do a ford style (i.e. 427 dual 4V) oblong air cleaner with a large perimeter 1 1/2- 2" tall paper element. May not be be old, old, school, but your engine will last longer and run better. As a gearhead and a performance oriented type looks are important, but form should always follow function. Mike

 

Kev, piss the paper ones off....depending on on which ones you have, many could'nt filter your lawn mower properly, let alone your firebreathing flathead.

This is a prernnial problem - either have an aire cleaner element that looks **** and flows real good, OR have one that looks totally correct but flows like ****.

Somewhere in the middle there can be a compromise.

You need the correct surface filtration area for your total CFM being used. Then try to design a filter housing that looks cool /trad but flows welland will accept the right sized element.

You'd prob have to raid the K&N catalog to see what's around.

Rat

 

I am going to watch this thread with great interest. I also have had nothing but headaches out of those ****py little paper filters, to the point I am thinking of retireing the tripower. My little 283 hates the way rich condition which dirtys up my oil in just a few hundred miles.

 

Ain't nothin' like good old traditional hogs hair. They keep out Dragon Flies and the like.

I'm a city boy and rarely run down dirt roads. Flame arresters are cool but they don't do a lot of filtering. There is no filter element at all just a bunch of zig zag plates nested together. They are made to keep any flames from a backfire from getting out into the bilge. Not normally a lot of dust out on the lake.

If you live in the country with dusty dirt roads, what you use might be different from me and my all paved roads. Just something to think about.

 

I had a good set of filters on these scoops. Found they too block at least 30-40% of the air. I believed they were K&N's. You can see with the design of the unit the whole rear is exposed but still not working. After rich fuel issues last year I drilled 1 inch holes into the element and slipped over a pair of womans stockings. The difference was unbelievable. A tight weave pair of nylons work great. And don't smell your wifes underwear while your in the drawer.

 

Anyone ever run the rectangular ones O'brien truckers offer? They seem to be the max sized ones out there.

 

And they flow great according to some recent dyno work a dealer did recently.

If you have the room, we also have a 6 7/16" round open a/c with a flat top with fins down the center. It will even flow better but you need 6 7/16" beteen centers.

Dennis

 

Was looking at some old air cleaner posts and came accros this one, the foam filter thing kinda reminds me of the edelbrock triangle foam one, one back fire and shes gone!

Kevin, keep an eye on those studs, i had a 283 in a 53 f100 with a chrome louvered 4bbl intake, i was on lunch one day and the motor just quit, so i fired it back up and it blew a **** ton of white smoke out the exhaust, then it quit again, i tried to crank it over, it wouldnt, it was hydrolocked, i figured it had blown a head gasket or something, i got it home and went to start taking it apart, went for the wingnut for the aircleaner, it was gone, and so was the stud, somehow it manage to work its way thru the carb, down the intake port and thru the intake valve into the cylinder, needless to say, it wasnt a pretty picture when i tore it apart. here s pic of the the stud, it was punch sideways into the combustion chamger of the cylinder head!

so basically the stud unscrewed itself

heres a pic of the stud!

jeff

 

This was my answer to the small filter quandry with my Tudor. I made it from salvage aluminum store sign material I've been dragging along for years, a filter from a Datsun 240Z, and a wooden buck made by a friend, and some short s****s of 3"x.125 wall aluminum driveshaft tubing.
I never bothered with the common small filters. I felt like I could come up with a different answer that should work well. I'm happy with the marks that show I hammerformed the aluminum over a wooden buck and the poor boy metal polishing that started with 1200 grit wet/dry sandpaper with penetrating oil as a lube.
Maybe this will spur an idea that fits your build. I had fun MAKING mine.

 

Kevin - Now that it's 9 months later...did you ever come up with any better elements?

I was using Baldwin paper elements and fought the rich condition the whole time my RPU was on the road...I want to come up with something better when I put it back together.

And what's up with the Model A roadster?

Neal

 

Yeah I was gonna run this on my 59 but am afraid of dusting the engine..

 

I made velocity stacks for my royal enfield and capped them with stainless steel splatter screen you can buy in housewares department. Just keeps the big stuff out mostly and i don't ride it much. looks cool thou.

 

Hey fellas I am a designer at a performance intake manufacturer and while we mostly make late model stuff I am always planting the seed for more traditional stuff. I will see if we have a small round filter that would work for these setups.

On Kevin's scoops I would recommend using as big a chunk of foam as you can fit in the scoop without it looking ugly, and also using filter oil on it. Foam without oil will not catch nearly as much dirt. Foam can filter all the way through using every cell, but the problem is that instead of clogging like a pleated filter (AIRAID, K&N, etc), once foam is loaded up with dirt, it just starts letting dirt by. Obviously you need to keep an eye on your foam element and clean it before it lets dirt by. I would look for a solution like a UNI dirtbike filter and make sure you oil it and clean it regularly. I think if you call UNI you could probably even buy a big chunk of foam and cut it to the shape you need to fit those scoops.

 

I couldn't agree more. This opinion is from experience. Use thin cutout foam element material and change it every 500 miles.

 

Get washable air filters for them and if your using the paper filters replace them often. But I would be looking for something different because the paper filters do not work well. What ever you decide to go with check them often.

 

Oil a little black yesterday?