Map63Vette
Well-Known Member
When I first did my 5.7 swap years ago I started with a carb and a factory hood. The engine placement and hood clearance meant at the time that I had to get creative with my air cleaner. I've had everything from a little triangle foam Edelbrock cleaner, to a homemade fiberglass and PVC monstrosity with ducts and cone filters, to the latest which is a Spectre ring style cleaner with a drop base and a flow through filter top. I've long since swapped the hood over to a fiberglass one with a built in 6 pack scoop, so I've got more clearance to work with and my current cleaner is looking pretty rough from age. I'm also now running spacer rings to get it back up in the airflow of the scoop, which sort of defeats the purpose of the original drop base setup, plus the rings are cracking and I'm not convinced they seal that well.
So all of that said, I'm looking for suggestions on what to replace it with. I've been thinking about something like the Mopar Performance cast aluminum style setup, but am on the fence on whether I think that would look good with my combo or not. I do need PVC provisions as I am currently running that and would prefer a style of air cleaner that filters the PVC inlet (so the port on the inside of the filter ring, not a tube on the outside like some of the old factory stuff. I toyed with the idea of getting an old style wrinkle black setup as well, but with the scoop I'm thinking an open filter design might make more sense. Or maybe I get creative again and get a snorkel style hood that I just port to the hood scoop for a ram air effect? Would look kind of goofy when I pop the hood, but could be fun to play with just for the novelty of it.
Here are some pics of how it's looked over the years for reference:
Edelbrock setup (this may never have made it to the Hemi, might have been too tall)
My homemade monstrosity:
Latest Spectre setup:
Seems like the wrinkle black finish might work well with the black valve covers, but I feel like I might want a little more "pizazz". If someone made custom pie plates to go on them that could be pretty neat. I'm not sure I've seen a wrinkle black cover with a filtered PVC port though. Not that it would be that hard to drill a hole myself, but it's always nicer the less mods you have to do. I also don't need any of the notches/cutouts/reliefs of the old covers if someone makes a plain round one.
So all of that said, I'm looking for suggestions on what to replace it with. I've been thinking about something like the Mopar Performance cast aluminum style setup, but am on the fence on whether I think that would look good with my combo or not. I do need PVC provisions as I am currently running that and would prefer a style of air cleaner that filters the PVC inlet (so the port on the inside of the filter ring, not a tube on the outside like some of the old factory stuff. I toyed with the idea of getting an old style wrinkle black setup as well, but with the scoop I'm thinking an open filter design might make more sense. Or maybe I get creative again and get a snorkel style hood that I just port to the hood scoop for a ram air effect? Would look kind of goofy when I pop the hood, but could be fun to play with just for the novelty of it.
Here are some pics of how it's looked over the years for reference:
Edelbrock setup (this may never have made it to the Hemi, might have been too tall)
My homemade monstrosity:
Latest Spectre setup:
Seems like the wrinkle black finish might work well with the black valve covers, but I feel like I might want a little more "pizazz". If someone made custom pie plates to go on them that could be pretty neat. I'm not sure I've seen a wrinkle black cover with a filtered PVC port though. Not that it would be that hard to drill a hole myself, but it's always nicer the less mods you have to do. I also don't need any of the notches/cutouts/reliefs of the old covers if someone makes a plain round one.