My Screwup Forced Me to Turn a 14" Air Cleaner Base into 13"

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harrisonm

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So I bought a Mopar performance air cleaner assembly so I could powder coat the lid. Once I was done powder coating the lid, I did my valve covers too much. Then I went to put it all together. I got the valve covers on, and when I tried to put the air cleaner on, I ran into a problem. My old air cleaner was a drop-down 14 inch assembly (the base dropped down about 1.5 inches for hood clearance). The assembly I powder coated the lid off of was a 13 inch that was NOT a drop-down. I did NOT notice the difference until it was too late. The new assembly stuck way too far up, and base from the drop down air cleaner obviously was not going to work with a 13 inch air cleaner filter. So I had to cut, hack and fabricate to turn the 14 inch drop base into a 13 inch drop base. It took about 5 hours. Another lesson learned the hard way. As it turns out, there are 13 inch AND 14 inch air cleaner assemblies. Lol. Moral to the story is check things out before starting a project.

This shows the 14" drop down base on the left. It would give me the clearance I needed.
ac01.jpg


So I marked off a 1/2" wide ring from the 13" base to give me the 13" base with the lip.
ac02.jpg


Ring cut out.
ac03.jpg


This shows the base after I cut it to accept the 13" ring.
ac04.jpg


This shows the 13" ring attached to the cut down 14" base with magnets, ready to weld.
ac05.jpg


Welded and ground smooth. Ready for the 13" filter and lid.
ac06.jpg


All done. It would have been nice If I had noticed this earlier.
ac07.jpg
 
How much room do have from top of carb to bottom of lid/ top of filter?

Looks good regardless
 
Harrison, My base, like yours, was too tall and made the 340 four barrel Pie Plate run into the new hood pad I used. So, I cut a .500" tall section out of it right above the carb entrance. My welder is good and made it look and fit correctly. Turns bads plates into more expensive base plates when things have bene altered from stock!
Tom
 
You did a great job and that in itself has to be satisfying, For anyone who doesn't know, Mancini sells the drop base you needed.
 
How much room do have from top of carb to bottom of lid/ top of filter?

Looks good regardless
The drop base plate gives a 1.75" drop from the top of the carb to the bottom of the air filter, and the filter is 2.75" tall. So it is right at 1" from the top of the carb to the top of the filter.
 
You did a great job and that in itself has to be satisfying, For anyone who doesn't know, Mancini sells the drop base you needed.
Crap. I didn't even think about that. I could have saved myself a lot of work. But it was so much fun.
 
You did a great job and that in itself has to be satisfying, For anyone who doesn't know, Mancini sells the drop base you needed.
I know. That's where I got mine! After what these guys did, I feel like a slacker! Although, I built a new, sealed, fresh air cleaner since then
 
So, the Mopar Performance lid was a 13" when everybody and their brother makes the 14" as the most popular. That figures coming from Mopar.
 
I just reread this posting. He cut the ring off the 13" base and welded it to the cut down 14" base. So he does not have a good 13" base. I'll get my son to fab one up from a standard 14" base.
 
So, the Mopar Performance lid was a 13" when everybody and their brother makes the 14" as the most popular. That figures coming from Mopar.
If you check most of the original Mopar air cleaners from back in the 60's & 70's took a 13" air filter element...

The 14" came from certain Chevrolet performance engines... That base with all the hard angles & the two pushed out areas intended to clean Holley center hung float bowls? Take a look at an original 375 HP 396 Chevelle... Stock chrome air cleaner...

FL0112-122091_4.jpg



Which design do you think most of the aftermarket is going to produce... And if you own a Mopar which would you prefer?
 
If you check most of the original Mopar air cleaners from back in the 60's & 70's took a 13" air filter element...

The 14" came from certain Chevrolet performance engines... That base with all the hard angles & the two pushed out areas intended to clean Holley center hung float bowls? Take a look at an original 375 HP 396 Chevelle... Stock chrome air cleaner...

View attachment 1716058234
Now that's a thing of beauty.
 
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