4" air cleaner on a 97

Anyone run these small air cleaners? Much of a choker on a 97?

 

anyone?

 

I think that should be fine, although a k&n filter would help a lot.

 

There was a thread about this the other week. General consensus was that anything other than a K&N is a cork.

 

and a k&n doesn't filter very well. Those work pretty well. The dome/helmet shaped covers do not work. Major choker.

 

Here's the deal, do the math and measure out the surface area of the air cleaners on ALL of the carbs you are running, now do the math for the surface area of whatever air cleaner you'd be running if you had a single carb. I bet you'd get a smaller but still ballpark number for the small ones on a 3 or 4 carb setup as you would on a single.

Worst case, change/wash them from time to time

 

Thanks for the replies. I dug out some old BSA air filters I'm going to try until I think of something more creative. Probably about the same choke factor as the 4".

 

Those certainly look cool but they may leave a bit to be desired as far as air flow

 

About 20 years ago, an article was written about the cheap imported 4" paper filters, and how to ID them. If there were 10 folds or more per inch, they were too restrictive and shouldn't be used. I had just purchased a few before I bought the flathead book the article was in, and found mine were all bad! That ID method may still be valid.

At that time, The 4" K&N was the best option, and still is, IMO. They're easily cleaned and re-usable, and in spite what some state, they filter just fine.

 

I have the cheap paper one on my A and it works fine. Never had a problem with it and the car runs like a top.

 

My sentiments exactly on the helmet shaped air cleaners. They look cool but really starve an engine for air.

 

Unless we do flow bench testing, we have no idea what we are talking about. Something to think about: how restrictive was the original oil-bath on top of the Holley/Ford 94? Do what David Vizard would do - flow bench it, and then publish your results.

 

With no flow bench...give the engine its tuning and test runs with no filters. Then put them on, and if anything changes toss them in the garbage and look for something better. Maybe 2 of the small type 4-barrel cleaners with offset adapters...?
Looks like you are running duals, probably the best setup for tiny aircleaners since without progressive linkage all airflow is divided between them, essentially doubling available area. With a single carb or progressive triple, most of the time all air will be going through one.
In any case, they are small, and even if they are OK when installed will fill up with dirt quickly.
I have Vizard's air cleaner tests handy at all times! Everything he writes is fully researched understood, flowed, and dyno'ed, no typical car magazine bull with him ever.
All of those good air cleaners, however, are very difficult choices to use on elderly multiple-2's.
My understanding is that the old oil-baths were not terribly restrictive (at least partially backed from experience, no sign of enrichment on plugs after long drives at 75-80, pausing only to accept speeding tickets), but they CAN become restrictive with long abuse because the designed system flows oil over the brillo in there, and if run with filthy oil for years the crud can remain lodged and slowly choke the thing off.

 

You don't really need a flow bench to show a restrictive air filter. A simple comparison of engine idle rpm with and without the filter will suffice. The 4" 10-plus pleat/" cheap paper filters I tested all dropped the rpm; the K&Ns didn't, both on open and louvered-helmet housings.
From what I've found, David Vizard thinks highly of K&N filters.