Carb to air cleaner lid clearance

[ED69]

How much clearance is recommended between the carb and aircleaner lid I have a 493cid motor in my 69 charger with an edelbrock RPM intake and a 850 vac secondary Holley. Between the choke horn and the air cleaner lid their is around 1/4 to 3/8" clearance. With the drop base on the air cleaner the set up I have gives me a little less then a 1" between the hood and air cleaner. Should I go to a HP style carb with out the choke horn or will this do. The other question is this motor has alot of vacuum 12" at idle and at WOT 8". Its a 10.3.1 motor Edelbrok RPM heads Comp cam XS282S 520-540 lift 242-250 duration at 050. any any help would be great thanks

[red79]

I use this whitepaper as a good rule of thumb for carb/air cleaner questions:

http://www.diamondbackengines.com/technical-white-papers/carb-tuning/

Basically, having only 1/4" between the lid and the top of the choke horn will create a major restriction that will hurt your engine's proper breathing. IIRC the minimum recommended is the diameter of the main venturis.

[elacruze]

Mine was a lot closer than that, and even with unrestrained stock engine mounts it never left any tracks. Mopar M1 single plane intake, Holley DP850 with Moroso 14" drop base air cleaner.

[BSB67]

How much clearance is recommended between the carb and aircleaner lid I have a 493cid motor in my 69 charger with an edelbrock RPM intake and a 850 vac secondary Holley. Between the choke horn and the air cleaner lid their is around 1/4 to 3/8" clearance.

This is not enough IMO.  I would get an air cleaner element that is .5, maybe .75 taller, and a carb without the choke horn.

[FLG]

Just buy a k&n filtered top cover, problem solved.

[ED69]

I had bought a K&N filter top and that when i noticed the problem the filter top rested on top of the vents. the metal filter top had more of a dome and it cleared barely. Any suggestions on a differant intake that would be a little shorter than the edelbrock RPM ??

[AirborneSilva]

Just buy a k&n filtered top cover, problem solved.

That's what I was thinking, that way it will "fall" directly into the carb and not have to make it's way in from the sides.

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

I was running a drop base air stock aircleaner as well for a while.....I changed the main body of my 750 to an HP mainbody to remove the choke air horn to get a little more flow