This air cleaner appears to be very well made, except for the flaw mentioned below. The base and lid are made out of thick gauge steel and both are well formed. The base is painted black and even the paint finish is nice. The chrome on the lid is exceptional. The air cleaner element is claimed to be correct for the 375hp engine though I'm not sure that it is correct, at least for the early year applications.
I do have one very large concern with the base. The PCV system clean air tube is attached to the base however the hole in the base which the tube passes through is noticeably larger than the tube itself. The result is a large gap between the two pieces which will allow a good deal of unfiltered air to enter the engine! See the attached photo. After considering how this unit is contructed, I do believe this flaw would exists on other copies from the same manufacturer.
Personally I plan to fill the gap with sealer and use the air cleaner, but anyone planning on using this air cleaner or who already has one needs to be aware of this substantial compromise in it's construction which will allow unfiltered air into the engine.
If you already have one of these units on your car, please check it!
Author
Rich-L79 Super Mod
Registered: October 1999 Location: Waverly, NE USA Posts: 16024
Review Date:
Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: $99.99
| Rating: 5
Pros:
Nice construction, nice paint and chrome
Cons:
Sloppy fit of breather tube
Here is a follow up on my original review post. I had to return my first copy of this reproduction air cleaner as I found a dent in the chrome lid that must have occurred during shipping. The vendor (OPGI) paid for return shipping and for the shipping of the replacement which was a very nice customer service effort.
The replacement unit arrived and upon inspection I found that the same issue exists on the new one where the breather tube does not form an air tight (or dirt tight) seal to the base. I will fix it with a small bit of sealer to fill the gap, but I was disappointed to find that multiple copies of this nice air cleaner unit have this same issue. If left unnoticed or unaddressed, this could introduce a fair amount of unfiltered air into the engine which is a very bad thing indeed. If you have or plan to use one of these reproduction air cleaners, please check and if necessary rectify the tube-to-base fitment with a bit of sealer.
One more follow up. I have found that the air cleaner base contacts the float adjustor screw on the back bowl of my 3310 carb thus preventing it from seating entirely on the carb body.
One other item of note, a K&N stub stack will NOT fit under the lid of this air cleaner with the original 14x3 inch air filter element. A 4 to 4-1/2 inch tall element would be required to give the stub stack some clearance.
El Caminos 
