Air cleaner clearance

[Matt13]

My rebuilt 360 is in the engine bay, and the rebuilt Thermoquad is on. Aftermarket intake manifold but it's not really that tall. Issue is the hood needs about another inch to close completely, with either the Mopar Performance black air cleaner or the stock Chrysler air cleaner. Suggestions for a really low rise cleaner?

[Mr Cuda]

 When I put the flat hood on my 440 Cuda,  with a Holley street dominator intake,  the hood didn't close.
I used a standard blue ford air cleaner  bottom,  and cut away the body, leaving enough edge to fold up on the perimeter.  Instant 1" of drop. Same size air filter element diameter,  and of course,  clears Holley and Carter carbs.

[Matt13]

When I put the flat hood on my 440 Cuda,  with a Holley street dominator intake,  the hood didn't close.
I used a standard blue ford air cleaner  bottom,  and cut away the body, leaving enough edge to fold up on the perimeter.  Instant 1" of drop. Same size air filter element diameter,  and of course,  clears Holley and Carter carbs.

@Mr Cuda , what year 302 and was it a 4 bbl?

[Mr Cuda]

 All ford air cleaners are 4bbl base, even 2bbl. Any air cleaner 68-76 has the same body.
If you get one too new,  it will be flat where that is a smooth dome.
You should be able to trip over one in a junkyard.

[chargerdon]

There are also "drop base" air cleaners available for sale for the 13" air cleaners.   I have the same issue with my 360LA engine on my 74 Challenger with the base flat hood .   Part of my problem is that the Intake manifold is the Edlebrock RPM Air Gap that is taller than the old cast iron intake manifold.   

To correct, i did three things to get barely enough clearance.
1) With the Mopar Performance air cleaner i cut and rewelded the base plate to gain about 1/2 inch of clearance.   A lot of work and time and effort but got the result.   You got to be careful not to go to low or you will have interference with the throttle and choke rods.

2) With the 14" Mopar Performance Air cleaner the filter element is the part that holds the top lid.   So experimenting and with help from my NAPA parts dealer we found a 14 inch element that was about a 1/4 of an inch shorter.   I tried one that was nearly a half inch shorter, but, noticed a definite performance drop with it...wo went back to the 1/4 inch shorter and no performance drop so used it.

3) Finally still needing more clearance i finally decided to put 1/4 inch steel plates between the frame and the K Frame thus raising the body a 1/4 relative to the engine.   It was easy to do...just drilled bolt holes large enough in each plate, removed the K Frame bolts one one side (while supporting the engine and frame) and put in the shim plate.   Repeat 4 times.    I did NOT notice any handling changes. 

[usraptor]

I had the same issue with my '70 'Cuda 440 Shaker hood after using a aftermarket intake and Carb.  I solved the problem by buying a Holley air cleanerbvdrop base. However, I will admit that after installing the drop base the shaker was then too low and I had to add a carb spacer to raise it back up to the proper height; but that was an easily solution and a carb spacer helps performance anyway.