Question about air cleaner lid flip

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87ChevyR10

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Just wondering, since the OEM air cleaner is technically a cold air intake, wouldn't it make more sense to run it with the lid down during the hotter months and flipped during the winter? Wouldn't the extra heat from the engine kill performance during the summer? Am I off base with my thinking?
 

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I think you are right. It defeats the purpose of getting cooler air in with the lid flipped. I would like to put the factory breather on mine but I don't have the tools needed to modify it. There's probably something available for it if you want to spend the money. I'm not sure if the gain would be worth it.
 

ajd89

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You know I have Mine flipped on my 87 never thought about it that way though. I think you have a good point!
 

Honky Kong jr

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You are letting more air in with it flipped and how else are you gonna hear when those 2 gaping holes open up?
 

yevgenievich

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I keep the air cleaner lid down for factory cold air intake
 

vkh

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For me it seemed to be a noticable improvement to have the lid on proper. Also I would wager that when your moving a fair bit of air is being forced into the tube like a ram air setup even with the plastic bug shield. And of course you can cut the shield off to give the air a staight shot, but if you live somewhere with alot of bugs be prepared to shake your filter out pretty often. Mine actually gets filled pretty bad even with the shield.
 

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I doubt either way you would notice in the seat of your pants but the sound is awesome and I don't mean the sound of passing gas. Lol.
 

Honky Kong jr

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I doubt either way you would notice in the seat of your pants but the sound is awesome and I don't mean the sound of passing gas. Lol.
My point exactly.....:waytogo:
 

87ChevyR10

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I doubt either way you would notice in the seat of your pants but the sound is awesome and I don't mean the sound of passing gas. Lol.

Guess I'll have to flip it back before going home from work tonight to see if I can hear it now since the drone is gone.
 

vkh

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Well, if you guys were interested in an estimate on how much of a difference intake air temperature can theoretically make it can be estimated with ideal gas laws. Since we always want about the same ratio of air to fuel we can focus on just the air and assume it's bringing proportional fuel and power. Say 70 outside temps and 120 under the hood, that's about 529 and 579 in Rankine. Gasses expand proportionally with temperature so density goes in the inverse of temperature. So 579-529=50, 50/579=8.6% decrease in volume or it's at 91.4% of what it was. Density = m/v, so 1/.914 = 1.094. So by dropping 50 F from 120 you should pick up 9.4% hp, not to mention you should have a cooler running engine and improved efficiency. Now if the intake tube is restricting flow this would of course offset the power gains, but I think that if you're moving air is actively being crammed into the intake tube, so I bet you're actually getting more flow with the tube than with a flipped lid once you're past 25 mph or so. If that's the case it might be in the ballpark of 15%.
 

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If your 18 yrs old or younger the cover flip is good for 7 hp.
 

1987 GMC Jimmy

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This makes a lot of sense on square bodies since they have the ambient air intake tube. I'm gonna unflip my Jimmy's lid next time I'm home. I don't see how it would benefit on my Caprice, though, since it would normally suck air out of the hot engine bay. At least maybe a higher volume of ambient air would find its way in the bigger opening.
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