I am currently restoring a '70ss396 with standard ss hood. I recently purchased a '70 ss el camino parts car primarily for the guage package and cowl Ind hood and air cleaner assembly. My question is will the addition of an after market intake (stealth/perf rpm) and carb (Holley,etc) interfere with the mating of the air cleaner seal to the hood? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

chad88,

I have a cowl hood on my 70 SS396. I also have a GM higher rise intake on the car (from a 69 427 I believe.) The hood *CANNOT* be closed with the complete cowl induction air cleaner setup. I tried it w/o the carb spacer and with the sealing flange. No dice. I tried it with just the snorkle air cleaner and w/o spacer or sealing flange. The hood would close, but the effectiveness of the Cowl Induction is probably nil (the effectiveness of the completely stock cowl induction is up for serious debate anyway).

After vandals stole my snorkle aircleaner and my BRAND NEW Diehard Gold 900 (luckily the spacer and sealing flange weren't installed) I re-installed the open aircleaner that was on the car when I got it. I'm using the stock carb spacer to get a straigher charge. I'll eventually install the stock manifold so that I can have a fully operational system.

My point is that I don't think you can do what you're thinking. But if I'm wrong, someone please enlighten me.

I believe if you use a low profile intake, this should work. LS6 cars came with a holley. Check the hieght of a original intake and compare. If you do not have one, I will have mine off in the next day or so. Let me know and I will measure mine.
Good Luck
Bart

My bad. I could have sworn that he asked about a high rise intake. I could have sworn!

He did!! He did!!! He did ask about a high rise intake. I had a Weiand intake on my 396 car, I can't remember which one it was, though. It was an open plenum intake, be it a team G, or stealth, or something else, but my C I air cleaner fit, without the spacer on the carb.

Bart and all,

Thanks for the input. I do not have the original intake so Bart, any measurements off of your original would be greatly appreciated. After I put this question in, I noticed another entry a few lines down that asked pretty much the same question...sorry. The reply to that one was that an Edl. Performer would work. Any one have this set-up? Thanks.

I did a 70 396 overhaul for a guy and we used a Performer RPM and with all the correct cowl hood, air cleaner and seal it will hit. the Performer will work corrctly and the air cleaner lid wont hit.

Hi, I was having the same problem as you. The cure is to use the air cleaner base unit from a 1968 or 1969 L88 Corvette (still available from GM part# 6423907 or one of the Corvette supplier's) I found this cure from reading the March 99 Hot Rod Mag. article about a 1970 SS that a GM worker built at the GM testing ground's in Phoenix AZ. I contacted Scott Leon at GM Phoenix,he told me how a Corvette L88 base cleaner has a lower profile than the Chevelle unit. The Vette's used a high rise manifold on the L88 so GM came up with the cure. You may need to fiddle a little with the spacer to get it to work right. Any question's feel free to e-mail me,Nick P.