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149 Posts
Should I remove my air filter before I race? Does it help or hurt, high 11's car, 454 BBC.
Street night tonight, quick race question
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We usually remove ours,some don't.If you see the black Malibu,come say hi,Brian
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You see many race cars at the track run without them. I have never felt the gain was worth the risk. Some magazine tests have shown a loss of hp when removed on an engine dyno. They claim that the base allows a more smooth path into the engine. I would try both if you are curious.
After a pass in my best friends T-Bird I had to remove a head to get a piece of metal off the top of the piston that went through the carb when I backed off of it after the finish line. Apparently when the nose dropped down it created a vacuum and pull trash off the track up under the hood. The knocking started and was very load for a moment, the part of went through the header and stuck in the muffler the other part stuck on the piston. When I removed the head it looked like a goldish piece of a Holley carb. It Murphy's law, a piece of race part at the race track. The little you may gain is not worth it. Get you a good breather and dont look back!.
X2, there are many little gremlins on the track the size of pebbles that will fly up under a car at WOT, bounce off the inside of your hood and get suck into the carb that is screaming for air.I have seen this first hand and its not pretty. Remember your engine is nothing more than a big vacuum. Valves and pistons really don't like foreign matter during combustion. Is this a rare occurrence, YES very rare. Is it worth the risk, only you can decide that.
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149 Posts
Will do Brian, looks like I will keep it on for safety sakes, lord knows enough can break on its own without me.
It can vary from car to car but in some cases the air filter helps to reduce turbulance of the air going into the carb while at speed. Years ago, one of the mags found a slight increase on the dyno without a filter but when they ran the engine in a car they found it was slightly faster with a filter.
if you're thinking the air cleaner snout is restrictive see if you can turn the lid upside down.
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i did back to back to back tests with different air cleaners on my Nova on a friday night street night, and switching from a late 70's single snorkel stock air cleaner to a dual snorkel ram air setup to a 14X4 open element made no difference at all in my mph.. i made all pases within a 15 minute time frame.
after that, i always just ran the one that got me the best gas mileage- the dual snorkel ram air setup.
after that, i always just ran the one that got me the best gas mileage- the dual snorkel ram air setup.
one of the cars picked up a little MPH in the 1/4 with no air filter and a K&N stubstack installed. On my 70,I leave the filter in place and block off the snorkel on the inside of the CI air cleaner so it only gets the air from the cowl
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149 Posts
Well, this was least of my worries tonight. My second pass the car went into a bad wobble from side to side at the back end. I was a little stubborn not getting out of it, but that was it for the night. I'm not sure what it is, tire pressure was a little uneven by 2 or 3 psi but I'm only running 110 to 112mph, could be a shock or a weld let go in the coil over ladder bar set up.
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My wife's nova runs high 9's with a n/a small block and a 14x3 inch k&n with the filter top, and my n/a small block powered monte carlo runs high 9's with a 14x4 k&n and a filter top. I've run back to back with both cars with and without the filters and both cars run the same with and without. Both cars get fresh air, hers via a hood scoop, and my monte has an airpan that directs all the air from the grill up to the carb and the pan is fully sealed. But the bottomline is the filter doesn't slow the car down in my case.
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