Drop base for oval air cleaner???

[pmfranke]

voting for the bermblaster to cure what ales us. Go Go Go!

[RedBarchetta]

*** NEWS FLASH ***

I'll officially throw my hat into the "let's come up with a REAL solution" ring.

I just returned from the local CNC/machine shop place where I had the 3/4" risers machined off my air cleaner bases (both the 12" and 15"). I talked to the son of the owner, explained to him our dilemma, and was asking him what it would take to whittle a 1" thick x 9" width x 15" long piece of billet to create a drop base with a 3/4" drop? The overall air cleaner would then rest 1.5" below stock and on a 100% CNC billet piece (leave it satin or polish to your heart's content).

Well, to my surprise, he sounded interested in the project and is willing to work on a prototype! He does need about 30 days to get some other projects behind him (they do a lot of aerospace components) but he is willing to work with me!

After I drill my 1.25" holes to clear the float adj nuts, I'm going to take a couple pictures of the base on the car (so he can see what we're after). I will then return the base to him, whereby he will take some measurements of my 15" base unit and then get to whittling.

Not to spoil the opportunity, but I'm already forseeing some potential drawbacks. Since the center-to-center dimensions between the float adj nuts can vary slightly between BG (Street Demon vs Mighty Demon vs Race Demon), Holley (3310 w/one metering block, std 4450, other models with or without billet metering blocks) and a host of other aftermarket Holley experts, pre-drilling the 1.25" holes could become hit or miss. Also, you have non-Holley carbs like the Edelbrock "Q-Jet" styles, etc.

So one alternative would be to supply the CNC machined bases to the buyer and they add the holes and grommets themselves.

The other drawback might be cost. I have no clue what a chunk of aluminum (in the above proportions) costs, and with anything else in manufacturing, the more volume you can churn the cheaper you can sell something. But at least we can get a prototype made, test it on a real car (mine! ) and we can determine the actual market demand and the costs per unit. Other issues like having the float holes drilled can be resolved at a later phase (i.e. there will be a few standard sizes and then there will be the custom apps, which will require owner assist).

Should we build on this thread or do you want me to start a different one when I get closer to actually having a prototype to share?

-Dean

[MFE III]

I'm very interested as well. Maybe another thread would be better to be sure you get a guage of the interest level.
Matt

[Secret Squirrel]

Bermblaster41,

I used a Spectre Performance #4760, 14 X 3 inch Chromed Air Cleaner with a 2 inch dropped base. They are easily avaivable at almost any Automotive Parts Store (Pep Boys, Kragens, Autozone). Try one to see if it will fit, you can always take it back if you are not satisfied with fit. I changed the paper element that came with it to a cotton fiber. I have a BDR with a 351W with an Edelbrock Air-Gap Intake, so there is not a lot of hood clearance on top.

[bermblaster41]

I have looked at those but my hood opening left to right is only eleven inches.. Berm

[pmfranke]

I would love it if it would work on the Edelbrock FI system .Mine has a sensor and throtle linkage that sticks up above the rim of the throtle body maybe 3/8 of an inch.Hopefully your custom base might accomidate this ? Oh,I think I only have 101/2 inches in width.Summit has a drop base air cleaner for under 15 bucks like SSquirl's.

[cdnus]

RedBarchetta
I also had this problem & after much deliberation decided that no matter how much I dropped the base I was still "Air restricted" by the lid clearance between the air horn & lid. I have the usuall scoop about 10" wide so the lid for a 14-15" drop base would not clear the hood. Plus in order to clear the scoop on the top side I have to keep the lid almost on top of the vent tubes.
So I set out designing the largest oval unit I could, with as much drop in the base as I could. Actually ended up pretty nice. 9"X16 1/2" using a K&N E3710 filter, the largest I could fit in the scoop
The end result is my Pro Systems XE 950 hp with as shipped jetting gives me a almost perfect A/F ratio on my 408" windsor. I drive with a LM-1 on the car at all times.
Due to my inability to post photos on this site ( the fact that the only service available in this area is dial up does not help ) I can not show the results here, but I did manage to post a few in my gallery. Have a look & if you would like to see more I can E mail more of them to you.

Craig

[RedBarchetta]

Craig, what kind of cobra chassis do you have your Windsor in? Also, what type of motor mount are you using? With that Edelbrock Air-Gap intake, you should have a little more room for a standard 2" filter with your dropped base. Something's not adding up to me here. As least you have your A/F dialed-in.

-Dean

[cdnus]

Dean,
Don't need to go there ( too many bad memorys) Let me assure you the motor is absolutely as low as it can go in the chassis so I dealt with it.
Don't I wish I had more room, life would be easy then.

Craig

[bermblaster41]

Craig thanks for the post and pics! Can you post pics in your gallery of the drop base with out the filter and top? I am in the middle of fabbing a drop base for my oval filter. I will post photos later. One thing that I found was clearance issues with my distrb. Just a road block. Berm

[davids2toys]

Originally Posted by MFE III

I'm very interested as well. Maybe another thread would be better to be sure you get a guage of the interest level.
Matt

So whatever happened to this? Is their another thread somewhere?

[RedBarchetta]

Here's the solution I came up with:




Had the airhorn on the base machined off. Then I carefully measured where the float adjustment nuts hit it and used a one inch hole saw. Then used 1" valve cover/PCV grommets to fill the hole and it's a nice snug fit. Drops the air cleaner a good inch and even with a one inch carb spacer I still have a good 1/2" of clearance at the worst point (front edges of the lid).

Also, this solution still provides enough clearance on the throttle arm side...no relief machining was needed.

-Dean

[davids2toys]

Very nice job, what are the dimensions of the element?

[RedBarchetta]

Originally Posted by davids2toys

Very nice job, what are the dimensions of the element?

Thank you. This was one of those no-name eBay specials that you can buy for $60 (lid, base and element). I believe the re-usable element is 15"x2", but it sits taller on the car.

[davids2toys]

I was asking so I could figure out the cfm, what is the width?

[RedBarchetta]

Originally Posted by davids2toys

what is the width?

I believe 8.25-8.50".

[davids2toys]

Still does not seem like enough CFM , but way better than what you had for sure. I dont know how to figure out the area for an oval, just flat or round, and I would need the area to plug into the formula, should have paid better attention in school I guess!

[danc30]

Here's a calculator.

http://www.secondstrike.com/Technica...leanerCalc.asp

Mine is the following with RedBarchetta's filter he described above

622 PHP @ 5800 RPM 482 CI, high performance street
oval, oiled felt, 8.5 x 15 x 2, 1 filter

RPM Pressure Loss (percent) Horsepower Loss
3,800 0.40 % 1.77
4,300 0.54 % 2.89
4,800 0.68 % 4.10
5,300 0.80 % 5.08
5,800 0.88 % 5.47
6,300 0.91 % 4.99

[bermblaster41]

In case some have missed my other post on the finished drop base I will post a couple of photos. Berm

[RedBarchetta]

Berm, how do you seal the lower edge? I see by eliminating that lower lip you didn't have to trim the throttle arm on the carb. I have seen another custom drop oval base like yours where more trimming was required. I was considering doing something similar but was concerned that dropping the base too far below the same plane as the carb air inlet would disturb/restrict the air flow. Have you dyno'd your results with and without?