Air cleaner question

[Guest]

If I change from the stock air cleaner to a chrome oval, what do I do with the hoses that were connected to the stock cleaner? This is for my Buick Centurion Convertible 455.

[Guest brh]

Plug any vacuum lines, find a breather that will work on your valve covers, and simply remove the hose for warm air intake. Also prepare yourself for one heck of a hesitation until the engine gets to operating temp.

[NTX5467]

As you have a Buick you're working on instead of a "more common" car, why not do something "uncommon" and get your existing air cleaner chromed or paint it crinkle black? The hot air tube from the manifold would also be something you could get bent at a muffler shop and also chromed or painted crinkle black too.

If you're building this car to impress people, sometimes the "road less followed" can be the way to really make your car stand out from "the pack". Plus, having a car that looks like everyone else's and runs crappy is not cool!

The carb calibrations and such are optimized to decrease exhaust emissions and require the air cleaner intake air to be at least 100 degrees Fahrenheit in temperature for those things to work. Hence, the hot air stove on the exhaust manifold for initial warmup and cold weather running.

Instead of having the intake manifold looking like there's a lot missing on it (from hole plugs and such), why not take the time to build a loom of plastic tubing (similar to many imports and late model GM cars) and really give things a custom look under there plus keeping everything operational? You can buy the plastic tubing at NAPA (or similar) for some truck air brake applications and then add the rubber plugs at the end. Or even bend up some smaller diameter brake line tubing with the rubber plugs on the end. Then you can polish the tubes with 600 grit Scotchbrite and some polish and have a chrome-like finish.

Enjoy!

NTX5467