[SD455DJ]

You bet Mike! You can even make a "poor-mans" open element air cleaner from a '70-up B-body short single snorkel 4-bbl, which are not that desirable (yet), by carefully cutting the sides off, easing the cut edges and reuse your open element lid you have already. Obviously, you can't use your passenger side valve cover vent tube for this, ala' the '67 system.

Dennis

[b-man]

For my 1964 GTO equipped with a 1971 455 HO I used a twin snorkel from 1970 I’m pretty sure, I liked the look and the fact that the PCV breather tube and everything else would hook up as intended.

When I was bracket racing it I found 2 of the ‘73 and up single snorkel air cleaners and robbed the snorkel off of one and made up a cold air setup using boneyard parts. I modified the PCV tube to extend it.

[b-man]

Some more pictures of the cold air twin snorkel and the pieces i fabricated from 304 stainless to utilize the heater blower and wiper motor openings to feed it cold air from the cowl vents.

[Shiny]

b-man, thanks for sharing that. Very creative and nicely done!

[Vid]

For around $150 from Jegs, I too went with the Chevy dual snorkel. Had my graphics guy whip up the Super Duty 455 vinyl decal to make it look a little more Poncho and so far nobody has called me out on it. As for the tube on the underside, I just capped it off and it’s not in the way of my 4150 style FST carb.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Shiny]

Originally Posted by SD455DJ

You bet Mike! You can even make a "poor-mans" open element air cleaner from a '70-up B-body short single snorkel 4-bbl, which are not that desirable (yet), by carefully cutting the sides off, easing the cut edges and reuse your open element lid you have already. Obviously, you can't use your passenger side valve cover vent tube for this, ala' the '67 system.

Dennis

Sorry to be slow on this but your images of the 67 HO intake don't show a breather tube from valve cover to intake. The comment above makes me think I missed it??

The breather tube on the Chevy base was attractive because it was a lot "cleaner" than the mess I ended up with trying to connect to the bass-ackward (points inward) fitting on the Moroso base.

I'd like to keep the tube so one goal is to find an open-style base with a reasonably-designed connection.

I looked at the Ames listing for the 67 HO air cleaner and it didn't show a photo of the base so I circled back here...

Mike

[Shiny]

Originally Posted by Vid

For around $150 from Jegs, I too went with the Chevy dual snorkel. Had my graphics guy whip up the Super Duty 455 vinyl decal to make it look a little more Poncho and so far nobody has called me out on it. As for the tube on the underside, I just capped it off and it’s not in the way of my 4150 style FST carb.

Thanks for posting. That looks great for the cost.

I went to Jegs and this budget flat open air cleaner base looks like a better design for airflow than the Moroso I'm abandoning... it also looks like the breather would work with a simple 90-degree elbow like the one NeighborsComplaint posted.

Link to Jegs Open Air Cleaner



Mike

[SD455DJ]

Originally Posted by Shiny

Sorry to be slow on this but your images of the 67 HO intake don't show a breather tube from valve cover to intake. The comment above makes me think I missed it??

The breather tube on the Chevy base was attractive because it was a lot "cleaner" than the mess I ended up with trying to connect to the bass-ackward (points inward) fitting on the Moroso base.

I'd like to keep the tube so one goal is to find an open-style base with a reasonably-designed connection.

I looked at the Ames listing for the 67 HO air cleaner and it didn't show a photo of the base so I circled back here...

Mike

Mike, Correct, the '67 H.O. engine doesn't have the vent tube. That base from Jegs looks like it would work...a lot smoother transition into the carb. Easy on the wallet too!

Dennis

[Shiny]

Thanks again Dennis

I'm going to try this base. It's painted and I like the elbow.

Hopefully it will clear the pump rod.

Mike

[KSZR]

Is the 67 HO base a good transition like the dual snorkel or is it flat and bad for air transition?

[SD455DJ]

Originally Posted by KSZR

Is the 67 HO base a good transition like the dual snorkel or is it flat and bad for air transition?

KSZR, the '67 base is well designed like the other factory 4-bbl bases.

Dennis

[Shiny]

Well, the Prize Patrol kept driving right past my house today.

The repro Chevy open-element base did not work out. I liked it a lot but it interfered with too many things - the throttle bracket, a vacuum line, and my ignition coil were all "in its space". It had a nice slot that keyed the base to the QJ but this locked the vent tube in an awkward spot to route the breather hose.... so I'm sending it back.

I did order a molded/channeled rubber gasket I was going to use with the Chevy base but it also fits the Moroso base I still have. I'm hoping it adds enough height to eliminate the interference with the QJ pump lever that was one motivation for making a change. I'll know tomorrow...

https://www.moroso.com/air-cleaner-b...hanneled97331/



Mike

[Shiny]

Better today... just to close off, the rubber gasket did raise the base enough to clear the accelerator pump lever. The U-turn breather mess is ugly.

For now, I've got bigger fish to fry so I'll leave this as-is until I get motivated to spend what it takes to do it right.

Thanks again for all the help.

Here's my bad plumbing to fix a bad design. Good enough for now:

[lust4speed]

That large tube on the bottom of the stock air cleaners was for the A.I.R. air intake, but really no reason it can't be adapted for the vent tube. Most of the time the crankcase vent was outside the air filter element with just a small horsehair filter attached inside the snorkel air filter top.

I remember seeing a plastic clip-on piece on the late 60's Chevy's that went outside the open element filter and was clamped in place between the top lid and bottom base plate and sat up against the element.

[Shiny]

Thanks!

That sounds useful and simpler than my mess of parts.

Can anyone point to that part? I'll look...

[Shiny]

I looked for a chevy part that clips onto the outside of an open-element air cleaner but it occurs to me this makes no sense.

Isn't the breather in the valve cover an "entrance" to let air in and all the air coming out should go through the PCV valve?

If so, then a breather that feeds air from INSIDE the air cleaner makes sense. If it feeds air from outside the air cleaner, what's the point of clipping it on? It could just be a filter at the valve cover, right?

[lust4speed]

If you are not incombered by smog laws it would be hard to argue that a proper breather in the valve cover isn't the best solution. The PCV system operates under varying manifold vacuum conditions and was originally plumbed to two intake ports on the Pontiac manifold with smaller 3/8" vent hose. The valve cover venting sometimes inhales when the PCV valve is doing its thing and at other times expels crankcase pressure under heavy acceleration. The car manufacturers must have had a reason for keeping it on the outside of the air filter element but I haven't an idea why they did.

On my '67 that I'm going for the box stock look I have the original snorkel air cleaner and the original tube from the valve cover. My other Pontiacs have an open element air cleaner and simple baffled breathers stuck in the valve covers. All the street cars have a working PCV valve since they help with keeping the valve cover area under breathers a little cleaner.

["QUICK-SILVER"]

Originally Posted by Shiny

Isn't the breather in the valve cover an "entrance" to let air in and all the air coming out should go through the PCV valve?

Only true when intake vacuum is high enough to out run crankcase fumes.

No intake vacuum under heavy load and the crankcase fumes come out the valve cover vent.


Treed by Mick
Clay

[J.C.you]

Spliced a couple together with drop base, made this

[lust4speed]

Originally Posted by J.C.you

Spliced a couple together with drop base, made this

Is the drop base steel? Everything I've seen is aluminum. Source?