Air Cleaner Question

Steven

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Warning: Newbie question here, please don't roast me. Not a full on gearhead here, but aspiring, and always trying to learn.

I've noticed what I believe are two different air cleaner configurations on various cabureted coupes: the stock grey airbox, and what appears to be individual air cleaners on top of each separate carb. Is that anatomical understanding correct? Is it just a matter of preference (ie original vs mod), and any benefits offered by those individual air cleaners (better air flow, heat reduction, etc)? I suspect the non stock airboxes I've seen may also be on donor motor cars, so perhaps this is also just not an M30 thing...

Thanks for bearing with what may be an unbearable or stupid question for some.
 

Stevehose

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Usually the non stock, separate air cleaners have been installed when someone has removed the original Zenith carbs and replaced with a Weber version. Unless an adapter is fitted, the original air box won’t fit so on go the single filters. I am of the opinion that properly setup Zeniths are a better carb for performance, and the original box will allow cooler air to be fed to them.

Welcome to the forum btw.
 

Steven

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Usually the non stock, separate air cleaners have been installed when someone has removed the original Zenith carbs and replaced with a Weber version. Unless an adapter is fitted, the original air box won’t fit so on go the single filters. I am of the opinion that properly setup Zeniths are a better carb for performance, and the original box will allow cooler air to be fed to them.

Welcome to the forum btw.
Thanks so much, Steve, and your kind response makes me feel less stupid (much appreciated).

I’m running dual Webers with the original air box (with adapters), and was trying to deduce if there was any benefit to one or the other.

Greatly appreciated!
 

Stevehose

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My vote would be to keep the stock air cleaner. Only downside is that with the adapters it can have hood clearance issues, hopefully not in your case
 

Dick Steinkamp

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In addition to feeding cooler air from outside the engine compartment to the carbs, the stock air cleaner also feeds preheated air off the exhaust manifold during engine warm up.
 

jmackro

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Only downside is that with the adapters it can have hood clearance issues, hopefully not in your case

The other downside is that the more common adapter (made by "JAM") shifts the air cleaner rearward. There was a thread a month or so back that discussed a different, somewhat better-designed adapter that would maintain the stock fore-aft location of the air cleaner. See: https://www.e9coupe.com/forum/threads/wtb-weber-adapters-for-stock-air-cleaner.34626/#post-288720

Steven said:
Warning: Newbie question here, please don't roast me.

We don't do that here. Welcome to the grown up corner of the internet.
 
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Steven

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The other downside is that the more common adapter (made by "JAM") shifts the air cleaner rearward. There was a thread a month or so back that discussed a different, somewhat better-designed adapter that would maintain the stock fore-aft location of the air cleaner. See: https://www.e9coupe.com/forum/threads/wtb-weber-adapters-for-stock-air-cleaner.34626/#post-288720



We don't do that here. Welcome to the grown up corner of the internet.
Greatly appreciate the info and the gentleman-ship!
 
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