Trouble with ram air fitting on 429

[71-429Mach1]

I have a 71 Mach I 429, CJ heads, torker II intake, Holley 770 CFM street avenger carb, aftermarket 429 air cleaner assembly and aftermarket ram air setup. My problem now is the hood needs another 1” or so to close. Does the top circle on the base air cleaner go through the ram air hole in the hood or does it just touch it with the hood closed creating a seal?

 

[timachone]

The top circle of the base air cleaner has to have a rubber seal which just touches the counterpart on the hood, it was not meant to go through! I think your Torker intake is too tall for the ram air...

 

[71-429Mach1]

Was thinking the same. Does anyone know the height of stock intake manifold? The torker II is 3.870”

 

[stajp]

The top circle of the base air cleaner has to have a rubber seal which just touches the counterpart on the hood, it was not meant to go through! I think your Torker intake is too tall for the ram air...

Correct. Too tall. Two options. Use a stock height intake (i.e. edlebrock performer), or start cutting. I cut my air clear base and the air box to make it fit and function. Generally, all the ford ram air systems of this era wont fit without modification when you go up in intake size.

 

[71-429Mach1]

I had the performer on there before this and it’s even taller than the torker II! Might just end up running an open air cleaner to fit. Costing a fortune just testing t]different parts on this thing.

 

[Big Red Mach 1]

I had this problem on my 73 Q code. I know it's different in a lot of ways, but I made mine work by using the shorter 71-72 mounts and the 73 shorter pedistals and trimming a bit from my air cleaner. You can't tell though. It still looks completely stock. I'd look into shorter pedistals and cutting your air cleaner down.

 

[71-429Mach1]

What do you mean by shorter mounts and pedestals? Engine mounts?

 

[Big Red Mach 1]

What do you mean by shorter mounts and pedestals? Engine mounts?

Yes. A 73 had taller captured mounts and shoter mount pedistals to make up for that difference. I used the shorter 71-72 mounts combined with my shorter 73 pedistals. Got me 5/8" down. The rest I took from the air cleaner. I'm not sure what the options are on a 71 429, but it might be worth exploring something similar. I did have to lower my fan shroud, but other than that, it really wasn't a hassle.

 

[Big Red Mach 1]

Here's where I got 1/2" out of the air cleaner. The rubber gasket used to sit 1/2" above the rim. Now it sits right on the rim. Only a Concours judge would catch that, and I'm not even sure most of them would either.

 

[71-429Mach1]

So did you cut off the top ‘ring’ completely where the old rubber use to attach? That would definitely get me enough room. I guess you just used rubber cement or silicone to attach the rubber ring to the lower base?

 

[Big Red Mach 1]

No. I cut right under the top ring that the rubber attaches to. I then cut the "riser" area for lack of a better word until there was just enough to re-tack the top ring and get the gasket to fit. I can get you some more dimensions and photos if needed. I thought about some doble sided tape or adhesive, but I didn't trust anything to hold you have the hood forcing it down, plus vibrations, and heat. Didn't seem like it would work to me.

 

[71-429Mach1]

Thanks. I looked at the air cleaner again and was wondering if you cut off where the line in the middle of the two rings are and removed one half.

 

[Big Red Mach 1]

I brought it down to where there is only a 3/8 visible gap with the rubber off. This is the perfect amount to still get the gasket back on with nothing left to spare.

 

[Big Red Mach 1]

You are cutting off all of the flat vertical rise. The angled part remains but gets trimmed down just a bit.

 

[tony-muscle]

Here are couple of ideas that I have been using depending on how original you want it to look.
Seal alternative: https://7173mustangs.com/threads/looking-for-alternative-ram-air-plenum-seal.40780/
I also cut and rewelded the top lip about 3/4". Unfortunately when I cut mine I did it in pieces instead of the whole thing so there are breaks on the lip. I actually bought another plenum from a member here and cut that one so I kept the original unaltered.


Before:

After lowering 3/4":

 

[tony-muscle]

Here is how it looks after cutting it and using a smaller seal per my post above:

 

[mjlan]

Not sure if you are aware- the ram air air cleaner base for a 429 is different than the aftermarket version- the aftermarket version is for a small block which sits closer to the firewall and requires the seal to be offset forward to line up with the hole in the hood plenum.

I messed around with my Dynacorn repop small block ram air base and removed the adapter flange portion that offsets the seal so that it would work on the big block. This will reduce the height some, maybe enough to work for you?

Small block base, pre-hacking, you can see the section that offsets the seal mounting ring forward:


Post-hacking up, the offset section is gone, and the seal mounting ring was removed from the offseting flange and attached directly to the base:


Let me know if you want more details as it might not be that clear what I did...

This isn't enough for me because I'm using a Stealth, so I'll need to do something like in the link below which is WAY more involved. So I'm just running a regular open element air cleaner that sticks up inside the RA plenum...

Stealth Aluminum Intake

 

[JJU9507]

I read the torker II is low rise, maybe 1/2 inch taller that stock. Are you using a factory 429 ram air base? Below is a REAL 429 ram base on fleabay. The torkerII is as short as old port-o-sonic intake, some is amiss here. Are you running carb spacer?. I bought old 460 linclon air cleaner base from junk yard, cut out dome , and riveted base to moroso drop base, added a lbracket to rim and presto- clears ram air duct with taller stealth

 

[JJU9507]

I have a 71 Mach I 429, CJ heads, torker II intake, Holley 770 CFM street avenger carb, aftermarket 429 air cleaner assembly and aftermarket ram air setup. My problem now is the hood needs another 1” or so to close. Does the top circle on the base air cleaner go through the ram air hole in the hood or does it just touch it with the hood closed creating a seal?
View attachment 68728

 

[JJU9507]

Discussion Starter · #7 · Mar 12, 2005

Few interesting comments from Clubcobra.com
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Edelbrock Torker II: 3.875"
Edelbrock Performer 460: 4.10"
Edelbrock Performer RPM: 5.48"
Weiand Stealth: 6.0"
Edelbrock Victor 460: 6.30"
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An