408 original air cleaner dimensions, please?

[dwomby]

My car's non-original Chrysler 360 is currently fitted with an Edelbrock performance air cleaner.

Under acceleration, it is quite noisy. I want to forego this one's excellent throughput for something quieter but have been struggling to find something suitable that fits. Can anybody give me the diameter and height of the original factory fitted air cleaner, please? Does anybody know if it was a standard Chrysler item of that era fitted to some of their models? Thanks.

David

[peter dowdle]

David No One Seems Willing To Help Possibly Because You Have A Non Original Motor That May Be Different To The Original. I Will Pass On My Experience With My 411 And 412. The 411 Came With A Standard Air Cleaner With The Standard Cast Iron Manifold Which Holds A Lot Of Heat. I Decided To Replace The Manifold With A Second Hand Alloy Holley Manifold. Great Until I Fitted The Original Air Cleaner And Discovered The Bonnet Would Not Close. I Note You Motor Appears To Have An Alloy Manifold.the Standard 408 Air Cleaner Is Quite Large Which Could Causes The Front Of The Air Cleaner To Hit The Bonnet So You Need To Check Closely Your Measurements.

In The Short Term I Found A Standard Round Air Cleaner With A Lowered Base Plate Which Gave Me The Clearance I Needed. Later On I Had The Top Of The Manifold Machined Down About 1/2 An Inch And I Can Now Just Close The Bonnet .

The Original Air Cleaner Certainly Reduced The Intake Noise Quite A Bit. All This May Not Apply To A 408.

[peter dowdle]

Sorry about the capital letters . I typed it all in capitals and the software changed it to upper and lower

[AndrewA]

Morning - I must admit I was only holding back as I'm unable to answer your specific question. As I may have told you I've got a 410 with a 318 in it. It's got an Edelbrock carb on it and a big circular aftermarket pancake filter. With that set up I only get any induction noise on kickdown and personally I don't find it unpleasant. When pottering/cruising it's quiet. This is helped massively by the other big improvement from when I redid the heater matrix and fan motor last year. Encouraged by Roger on here I paid a lot of attention to re foaming/re sealing all the various joints and gaps and so on between the engine compartment and the interior. I found it a painful process but it has transformed the driving experience - most noise (and occasional smells) now stay outside where they belong.
Andrew

[dwomby]

Originally Posted by AndrewA

Morning - I must admit I was only holding back as I'm unable to answer your specific question. As I may have told you I've got a 410 with a 318 in it. It's got an Edelbrock carb on it and a big circular aftermarket pancake filter. With that set up I only get any induction noise on kickdown and personally I don't find it unpleasant. When pottering/cruising it's quiet. This is helped massively by the other big improvement from when I redid the heater matrix and fan motor last year. Encouraged by Roger on here I paid a lot of attention to re foaming/re sealing all the various joints and gaps and so on between the engine compartment and the interior. I found it a painful process but it has transformed the driving experience - most noise (and occasional smells) now stay outside where they belong.
Andrew

Thanks, Andrew. It looks like that's the kind of air cleaner I will end up fitting subject to finding one that will sit low enough. Good pointer on the heater seals for future reference too!

David

[dwomby]

Originally Posted by peter dowdle

David No One Seems Willing To Help Possibly Because You Have A Non Original Motor That May Be Different To The Original. I Will Pass On My Experience With My 411 And 412. The 411 Came With A Standard Air Cleaner With The Standard Cast Iron Manifold Which Holds A Lot Of Heat. I Decided To Replace The Manifold With A Second Hand Alloy Holley Manifold. Great Until I Fitted The Original Air Cleaner And Discovered The Bonnet Would Not Close. I Note You Motor Appears To Have An Alloy Manifold.the Standard 408 Air Cleaner Is Quite Large Which Could Causes The Front Of The Air Cleaner To Hit The Bonnet So You Need To Check Closely Your Measurements.

In The Short Term I Found A Standard Round Air Cleaner With A Lowered Base Plate Which Gave Me The Clearance I Needed. Later On I Had The Top Of The Manifold Machined Down About 1/2 An Inch And I Can Now Just Close The Bonnet .

The Original Air Cleaner Certainly Reduced The Intake Noise Quite A Bit. All This May Not Apply To A 408.

Peter, thank you so much. I have been mocking up a few sizes of aftermarket air cleaners (the pancake type with opening all round) and used snorkel types from Chrysler cars of the 70s (my engine dates to 1978). This showed anything that sits 3" high on top of the carb and has a diameter of more the about 10" will hit the bonnet! I couldn't work out how the original air cleaner could possibly have fitted!!! I had started wondering if the 360 engine was taller or had been fitted on mounts that were higher because something was clearly different from the factory set up. Your explanation of the intake manifold being higher provides the answer and, looking at the drawings in the spares manual, I can now see the difference. Thank you!

The aftermarket pancake types can be had with a lowered base plate. I also see some can be had where the carburetor opening is offset - thus allowing the air cleaner to sit a bit further back over the engine although I think the combination of lowered and offset may result in the air cleaner base sitting on the distributor ! It's a pity I can't buy a few and test fit them!

Anyway, some more mockups and measurement will need to be done but it looks like it will have to be an aftermarket pancake type that I fit. Hopefully it will help to reduce the noise a bit.

David

[peter dowdle]

David

I love originality and went to a lot of trouble to get my original air cleaner to fit. Could i suggest you try and borrow an original unit and see if there is any way you might get it to fit ( eg machine the top of the inlet manifold or cut out part of the base of the filter canister and raise it which will lower the unit overall ).
As I said I know little about the earier V8 cars but a quick look at photos on Google indicates the 408 had a smaller but higher unit than the 410.
By chance how thick is the gasket/ block between the carbie and the inlet manifold. I found a very thin but effective one made by Holley which did the job.

[dwomby]

Peter, thanks but I doubt I can find an original air cleaner to try that. I am in Florida and Bristols are a bit thin on the ground here!

I do take your point that there may be ways to make something original looking fit the car and I may resort to some. However, the engine is not original anyway (it's a 360 from a 1978 Dodge Monaco) and, I have discovered today, it has a 'hotter' performance camshaft fitted. So I am not sure now how much I should interfere with the breathing in trying to make it look original. My main objection to the current air cleaner is noise when opening the throttle.

I'll keep working on it.

David

[peter dowdle]

I dont actually know but I am sure the unit would be off a chrysler car of that era. Your engine bay and motor looks very tidy and well presented but the air filter is just not BRISTOL.