Difference between stock air cleaner and aftermarket?

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73c20jim

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Nonstop

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Also a power steering filter?

I think I've been doing it wrong this whole time..

Nah, I had run across the coolant filter in the junkyard. Common on medium and heavy duty trucks, Diesel guys use them too. Figured why not! Not sure how much it helps. My coolant is cleaner, but there is still some **** floating around in the system.

As for the power steering filter - was having trouble with crud in the system and did not want to screw up my replacement hydroboost unit. Also figured it would be a good way to add capacity to the system!
 

78C10BigTen

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My '79 K15 was a original California emissions truck. It had the short air cleaner lid and no fresh air snorkel tube. Between emissions tests, I was running a 14" x 4" open air cleaner, which definitely helped with breathing and getting the secondaries to open quicker. One thing I did notice was in the summer months when running the A/C. It ran like crap at idle when sitting at a red light.

I switched over to the taller OEM air cleaner lid (2" taller than stock) and ran the snorkel tube to the core support. On all my squares, I've cut the cover to the "bird cage" cover on the front of the core support. It gives you more of a Ram Air set up (pictured is my '85). With these changes, I noticed the truck ran much better in hot weather due to the cooler air and I still had the same performance level the open element had given me. The other nice thing is I didn't have to do anything to prepare for my bi-annual smog tests.

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I believe i have one of those air cleaner setups.... i may do this to my 78 carb instead of the open air element and see how she reacts. Any lil improvemdnt makes me happy! Shes a complete dog right now so...
 

78C10BigTen

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I go with the old school lid flip. I like to get as much air as I can.

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I did that on the ol 94 gmt400 burb but it have that silly "tornado" thing inside the air cleaner. No diff lid up or down...
 

78C10BigTen

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I have aftermarket air cleaner. I like the looks of stock with snorkel. Especially dual snorkels.

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Funny i had that same air cleaner sticker (except 502) on both sides of my 87' s10 front fenders and some dumb ass really asked me at the gas pump one day if it had one in it..... :shakehead::laughing1:
 

78C10BigTen

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I have aftermarket air cleaner. I like the looks of stock with snorkel. Especially dual snorkels.

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Funny i had that same air cleaner sticker (except 502) on both sides of my 87' s10 front fenders and some dumb ass really asked me at the gas pump one day if it had one in it..... :shakehead::laughing1:
 

RecklessWOT

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I go with the old school lid flip. I like to get as much air as I can.

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I did this for years. Sounds cooler but no real gain. When I started to get cooling issues I figured anything I can do to reduce temps would help, so I decided to stop sucking in hot air from my engine bay
 

82sbshortbed

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I did this for years. Sounds cooler but no real gain. When I started to get cooling issues I figured anything I can do to reduce temps would help, so I decided to stop sucking in hot air from my engine bay

I don't think it makes much difference unless you have a cold air intake for a throttle body with a metal tube to suck up the colder air like I have on the 2000 SS and putting on the 2015 camaro I just got. Otherwise on the older squares I don't think it makes much difference.
 

Fortarel

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Hi, I think or hope I'm replying to Craig85. where did you get that hose material for your intake? I need to do this on my 81 3&3. looks like you were able to keep your stock cleaner and the hose material was easy to mold around it.

I was pleasantly surprised to see those ports specifically for this purpose on the wall of the radiator support. Tells me that somewhere, someplace some trucks came from the factory with it in place - probably a different air cleaner
 

82sbshortbed

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And maybe some wipers.

@82sbshortbed

That's funny you mentioned that. I ordered new ones from advanced about a week and a half ago and went by again today. Had them on back order and their vendor just got some in stock. They'll be here weds and they payed the shipping. So next week I should have them.
 

gotyourgoat

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That's funny you mentioned that. I ordered new ones from advanced about a week and a half ago and went by again today. Had them on back order and their vendor just got some in stock. They'll be here weds and they payed the shipping. So next week I should have them.
Haha sure. This is like the friggin front fender lights all over again.
 

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