Air Filter Shoot Out

[Strawdawg]

Most of you guys have probably seen this.  I had not.  My son was up for the holiday and he was watching the Motor Trend App on my TV and this was on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkpsydS8JXI

I remember years ago that Chrysler engineers told us to flip the lip at the races.  I guess they knew what they were talking about.

[Chryco Psycho]

Looking for salad bowls !!

[Brads70]

   Salad bowl?

[Burdar]

Totally shocked at the performance of the stock dual snorkel! I guess F.A.S.T racers aren't losing much by having to run one of those.

[RUNCHARGER]

I imagine the factory put some time into figuring out the optimum shape for stamping the lower half of their air cleaners. Those 383 Air Grabbers on a 69 Road Runner really look nice in their entry.

[Chryco Psycho]

I am trying to remember but I know we dynoed one engine with either the Coyote Duster AC or the 6 pack either way it had the oval filter & the power actually went up with the AC base plate in place 

[Strawdawg]

There were a number of interesting things in the tests.

History and experience have shown us that the more vertical we can make the air flow, the more power we make.  It was nice to see that verified on the dyno without the addition of a moving car and turbulence in the air stream.  It still had an effect.

The taped off filter with the open element only surprised me.  There are forumlas out there telling us how much filter area is needed to flow X amount of air. My take was that the entry of air around the edge of the carb mouth negated any benefit from the vertical flow as that was a stout engine that needs air.

It was no surprise at the end when Steve Dulcich chose the factory air cleaner with the flipped lid as he is a hard core Mopar guy that always like the factory stuff.  It shows the strength of the engineering when one nozzle affected the power as much as it did.  it seems that the factory air cleaners probably worked very well on the level of HP that came off the assembly line.

I suspect that I, and a lot of others, have wasted a lot of money on air cleaner that really did very little other than let more dust into the engine.

All those ads that show how dropped base air cleaners direct flow into the carb don't seem to have panned out in this test.

[Burdar]

All those ads that show how dropped base air cleaners direct flow into the carb don't seem to have panned out in this test.

I've always seen dropped base air cleaners as a necessary evil for hood clearance. By moving the base lower, you are moving the lid closer to the carb opening.  The air has to make more of a bend to get into the engine.  Then there is the fact that a good portion of the air filter is shrowded by the "hump" in the base itself. 

I've never liked the look of those short mesh filters.  A lot of people run those.  They ended up being a huge restriction.  My cousin's husband used to race a dual quad supercharged 74 Vega.  I believe he ran those filters.  Right before a run, one of the filters came loose.  A friend of his removed the filter and he made a pass without it.  He told me that he was SHOCKED at how much power he picked up on that pass.  He thought it felt like 100hp increase.  After seeing that test, he probably wasn't exaggerating.

[Strawdawg]

 

I have run a bunch of those filters that did not work in my time....

[70chall440]

Id love to see a test with the 6 pack or air grabber oval. Given the supposition that its all about directionality, it would seem that they might not work well but then again given the space they might.

[Bullitt-]

  Salad bowl?

I can't find it now but sommers I've seen I think on a track car a bowl shape in a cowl setup..

Shoulda tested a sub-stack

[Chryco Psycho]

Sub stack works 
I think the salad bowl was the volume of air below the filter element that made the big difference .
Need to test a coyote duster I bet it rocks

[Strawdawg]

We could put a Coyote Duster decal on that salad bowl and make some money!