Ram Air Cleaner Assembly Height

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What's the best way to measure how tall your air cleaner housing can be? I swapped out the intake manifold to one that's 1" taller, so I know reducing by 1" would work, but If I knew there was some wiggle room in there and only needing to modify the cleaner housing by say 3/4" would work, that would be better. What have you guys found works best as a way to measure height from top of the carb to the ram air panel under the hood??

 
Get hold of kid's modeling clay, and put a lump of it on top of the tallest point under the hood.  Next, close the hood gently, open it again, and measure the height of the squashed clay.  Same sort of thing you do when checking valve to piston clearances.

 
Not wanting to blow your bubble, but having many year of building prototype air cleaner experience, it won't be as simple as cutting the outer shell to take 3/4 - 1" out of it. If you want to keep the ram air plenum in place, you will have to cut the center carb base (horn) and subtract 3/4"-1" so it maintains it's original height if that makes sense. I'm trying to explain in the simplest way I can. The only other way would be to try to find a lower element and I doubt that will happen. Either way, you don't really have the room to make it work. You would need to do some very accurate measuring to figure out if it might be possible. 

This is a pic of a friends car ram air. The pic of my a/c horn, non ram air of course, so very different, X marks where to remove IF POSSIBLE. In the other pic, Y need to remain in this same relative position. Hope that makes sense.

IMG_3081.JPG

IMG_1485_LI.jpg

IMG_1484_LI.jpg

 
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I dont have the pictures now but they should be in my build thread. What i did was to cut down the lip that holds the rubber plenum gasket. This will allow the gasket to fit lower and allow more compression of the gasket. Then you either reuse the stock gasket or get a smaller gasket. I have not found a smaller gasket that fits and looks good. I tried one for older mustangs that i cut to length. It gave me about 1" more clearance but it looks goofy. Now i went back to the stock gasket. I have a Blue Thunder manifold with a 1/4" spacer and thats the maximum i can safely fit.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

 
I dont have the pictures now but they should be in my build thread. What i did was to cut down the lip that holds the rubber plenum gasket. This will allow the gasket to fit lower and allow more compression of the gasket. Then you either reuse the stock gasket or get a smaller gasket. I have not found a smaller gasket that fits and looks good. I tried one for older mustangs that i cut to length. It gave me about 1" more clearance but it looks goofy. Now i went back to the stock gasket. I have a Blue Thunder manifold with a 1/4" spacer and thats the maximum i can safely fit.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
 
Well, Tony, if that would work, it would definitely be easier than my thinking. As I don't have ram air, it's harder for me to visualize exactly what solution would work best.

 
429 air cleaner assemblies don't have the extra metal part between the seal ring and the filter housing, but the principle is the same for lowering the outer portion of the air filter housing to keep the seal at the same height while allowing the carburetor, filter and lid to stick farther up inside the hood plenum:

http://429mustangcougarinfo.50megs.com/stealth_aluminum_intake.htm

 
Here is a picture with a narrow gasket. I didn't like this setup but if looks are not important it will increase clearance.

20170523_235115.jpg

As you can see in the next picture, the challenge I have not yet completed is how to fix the stock seal after cutting the lip. Right now is laying on top of the plenum fixed by a couple sections of the old lip. When I cut the stock lip I was thinking that I would be able to find a replacement gasket, but I didn't. In hindsight would have been better to leave the shortened lip all around the circumference instead than the few sections. This winter I would weld back some pieces to be able to hold the stock gasket. In all, the modified "lip" would allow the gasket to sit lower.

20190508_214619.jpg

This is the height you will gain by performing said mod:

20140914_124914 mod.jpg

EDIT PS: I kept my stock plenum untouched. All these mods are on a used one I found through this forum.

 
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