408 original air cleaner dimensions, please?

[dwomby]

Originally Posted by peter dowdle

David No One Seems Willing To Help Possibly Because You Have A Non Original Motor That May Be Different To The Original. I Will Pass On My Experience With My 411 And 412. The 411 Came With A Standard Air Cleaner With The Standard Cast Iron Manifold Which Holds A Lot Of Heat. I Decided To Replace The Manifold With A Second Hand Alloy Holley Manifold. Great Until I Fitted The Original Air Cleaner And Discovered The Bonnet Would Not Close. I Note You Motor Appears To Have An Alloy Manifold.the Standard 408 Air Cleaner Is Quite Large Which Could Causes The Front Of The Air Cleaner To Hit The Bonnet So You Need To Check Closely Your Measurements.

In The Short Term I Found A Standard Round Air Cleaner With A Lowered Base Plate Which Gave Me The Clearance I Needed. Later On I Had The Top Of The Manifold Machined Down About 1/2 An Inch And I Can Now Just Close The Bonnet .

The Original Air Cleaner Certainly Reduced The Intake Noise Quite A Bit. All This May Not Apply To A 408.

Peter, thank you so much. I have been mocking up a few sizes of aftermarket air cleaners (the pancake type with opening all round) and used snorkel types from Chrysler cars of the 70s (my engine dates to 1978). This showed anything that sits 3" high on top of the carb and has a diameter of more the about 10" will hit the bonnet! I couldn't work out how the original air cleaner could possibly have fitted!!! I had started wondering if the 360 engine was taller or had been fitted on mounts that were higher because something was clearly different from the factory set up. Your explanation of the intake manifold being higher provides the answer and, looking at the drawings in the spares manual, I can now see the difference. Thank you!

The aftermarket pancake types can be had with a lowered base plate. I also see some can be had where the carburetor opening is offset - thus allowing the air cleaner to sit a bit further back over the engine although I think the combination of lowered and offset may result in the air cleaner base sitting on the distributor ! It's a pity I can't buy a few and test fit them!

Anyway, some more mockups and measurement will need to be done but it looks like it will have to be an aftermarket pancake type that I fit. Hopefully it will help to reduce the noise a bit.

David