I have an oval air cleaner on top of a Holley 4150. The oval air cleaner is always crooked and needs constant realignment. How have any of you dealt with this? I thought about trying to weld a key onto my carburetor flange, then cutting a little keyway into the carburetor base, but I'm scared to try to weld on the potmetal carburetor... Any suggestions or experiences dealing with this?
Hello, It is easier to modify the air cleaner base than mess with a carburetor flange. There are many ways to "level" a crooked air cleaner. But no way to fix screwing up a carburetor with heat and welding. One easy way to see if it is uneven is to rotate the air cleaner around until it is drastically noticeable or just even when rotating it around. Before you add something inside of the air cleaner base to level it, put it on a flat surface and use a real bubble level to see where it is uneven. Rotate until the problem area is found. Then use a method of sanding or cutting the extra on one side to even out the bubble level. Keep checking on the carburetor to see if it is still uneven or level. Sometimes, it is just poor casting or the fitting is slightly off base. A belt sander should be able to grind off what is needed, little by little until even. Jnaki When we put on three individual chrome air cleaners on our Tri Carb 348 Impala motor, one was usually off. We rotated it around until it was somewhat even with the other two. Or, moving around the others to make all three relatively even. Three small air cleaners are not as noticeable as one large 4 barrel air cleaner. So, you will have to do the bubble level and possibly some grinding of the air cleaner base. YRMV Your oval one will not rotate as much, so the bubble level should tell you where it is uneven, on the carb or on the table.
Mine did it too. I hated it. Bought a chrome mushroom style filter and now I can’t tell if it rotates or not! Looks more traditional too.
I had that problem once, used a rubber seal and it still rotated. Thought about it a bit and picked up some square silicone cord stock from McMaster-Carr and made a gasket....worked like a champ.
I had the same issue. The Edelbrock 1406 I was running had 3 notches around the air cleaner plate. I simply put 3 J B weld blobs on the bottom plate of the aicleaner to align with the 3 notches on the carb.
So the air cleaner rotates? Jam nut on the stud at the top of the carb to prevent it from backing off.
@Choppedcoupe It would be much easier and less risky to weld a tab on the air cleaner base and file a matching notch in the carb flange than your proposal of doing it the other way.
Just a thought here from personal experience. A friend had a 4150 Holley on a 390 Ford that kept turning the aftermarket air cleaner. We found that the top of the throttle arm on the carb was contacting the underside of the air cleaner base near full throttle and turning it.
I had a Cobra air filter on my car for a long time . It would rotate from time to time a slight bit . It was cast , so I drilled and tapped to set screws in the proper place , I dab of blue locktite and away I went no more turning . You do not have to crank them down tight a touch over hind tight and , your good to go . By the way the Cobra air filter was worth way more to the guy that bought it that it was to me , so it and the matching open letter Cobra valve covers left a long time ago . The chrome 289 HIPO works just as well and I don’t have to polish it so often .
I noticed some gaps in the ledge around the aircleaner flange on the carburetor. I will try to tig some teeth on the aircleaner that will key into these gaps. Thanks for all the suggestions!!
Stock air cleaners almost always have tabs that fit in notches in the air horn of the cab to "locate" them. Such as these on a 4150 on That Scott sold in the classifieds last year and I borrowed the photo. All photo creds to Scott. I'm not sure if you could affix some tabs to the air cleaner bottom or not but that would keep it square. Dang, I hope it didn't take me over 33 minutes to find that photo an post the answer but you are on the right path.
The Jalopy Journal
