I am using an Edelbrock 1403 carb on my new eng and want to use the original air cleaner assemblly. The Edelbrock carb needs a 5.125″ hole in the aircleaner base and the stock air cleaner hole is way too small. Looked for adapters but haven’t found any that go from a large carb to smaller aircleaner and can’t find a replacement base with the larger hole for the 15″ diameter top.
Anybody solved this problem and if so what did you do?
You need to cut the center from a newer air cleaner and weld it into the base of your original. I got a spare original base so as not to hack up mine. Alternately, get an aftermarket air cleaner. You can use an aftermarket base under the stock upper lid, as the lit simply seals on the filter. This will leave an opening around the base of the lid, which lets in more air like an open element air cleaner, but will look stock from the outside.
Have a couple of original air cleaners, both in good shape and hate to hack one up. I’ll keep an eye out for a trashed one with a decent base. Guess any 15″ base with no drop would do.
Great idea about the new smaller diameter base under the bigger stock top. Hadn’t thought of that. New bottoms are cheap, I”m going to give that one a try right off.
I think you’re right. I tried to buy a replacement for the stock element already. The air cleaners I have use a 11 1/4 diam filter, or something close to that, which bumps up against an air deflector inside the top. One is the AC filter spec’d on the decal on the air cleaner snorkle, another is a Napa. They crossed the Napa to a WIX and now it’s a 10″ filter. Inside diam is the same and it locates into the recesses in the top and bottom. No way a 14″ will fit unless I tear out the deflector, which I won’t do.
So I ended up getting a nice billet alum air cleaner riser with an “O” ring from Summit for $18.00. It’s a 2″ riser that fits the 5.125″ Edelbrock carb. The stock air cleaner bottom outlet fits inside the riser with the O ring against the air cleaner. With the shorter Edelbrock carb and the air cleaner outlet fitting down inside the riser it places the air cleaner at about the same height as the stock 4GC with the air cleaner mounted. It’s a little smaller outlet in the air cleaner than carb but Edelbrock didn’t think it would be an issue. You look directly at the primary and secondary carb inlets when the bottom is mounted up so it looks like good airflow should be achieved with a fully orig air cleaner. If there appears to be an issue I would go with Joe’s suggestion of modern 14″ base. Does anyone think air flow would be an issue with the stock bottom?
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