Factory Air Cleaner vs. Aftermarket-which is better?

3328 Views 71 Replies 19 Participants Last post by gehlsurf, 14 d ago

ChrisReyn

Discussion Starter · 26 d ago

As I wait for my Jeep to get done at the shop, I'm thinking on things I might want to do.
One of the quetions I have is about the air cleaner. It currently has an Edelbrock 14" open air filter housing ( see picture).
It seems to me that this potentialy exposes the paper filter to a lot of moisture? It seems like it would get soaked in a heavy rain and I live in an area where thunderstorms are commonplace. As well as splashes from water crossings..
I have the opportunity to pick up a factory air cleaner housing for a decent price.
So my question is, do the "open" air cleaners acually pull so much more air that it make a difference?
Is the motor more or better protected by the factory " closed" air cleaner?
Am I creating an issue in my head that doesnt realy exist?
Future plans are for a Sniper EFI so I want to make sure its the best set-up possible to protect that investment
Edit: after the rebuild and Sniper, I'll have about $5-6000 in this motor, I dont want to waste that by sucking water into the intake

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JEEPFELLER

· #2 · 26 d ago

Unless you are gonna hook up all of them doors and sensors back up for "warming up"

I'd stay just like it is

Water?

Look at this 258 air cleaner

Tire Wheel Automotive tire Hood Car

That there accordion hooks onto the back side of the grille (there's a rectangular hole high on both sides) The air that comes thru them

comes thru the slats of the grille in front of the radiator.

When it rains---the water does not magically "not" blend in with the air!

In fact, A little moisture getting on top of the pistons knocks carbon off!

I feel sure that if you added a snorkel to one so you could submarine around in a lake, it would not be sealed enough to

work, you would have to use a 100% fool proof fixture over the carb.

-----It'll be OK!

My buddy says they are being careful not to scratch up your Jeep or break stuff while they have been frolicing

around from mudhole to mudhole in it.

He did say, as nasty as it's looking now, it is still attracting a lot of females like a magnet!

----JEEPFELLER

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Off Grid Access

· #3 · 26 d ago

Personally, I like the factory TJ, ZJ, etc... style of air cleaners. The ones that JF posted with the accordion are good as well. They seem to do a really good job. The only thing I would change about them is to put a snorkel or some type of tube on it temporarily. Not for water but for dust. In the fall, some of the roads I go on get really dusty and I can plug up an air filter in a couple of trips to the cabin. From what I have heard, the snorkel was really meant for dust mitigation, not water. Which makes sense to me after spending about 10 years on theses roads in the fall.

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benjaminiesen

· #4 · 26 d ago

Don't drive through standing water above the bottom of your doors, jeep not canoe. Small amounts of water, splashes, rain etcetera won't hurt the engine. What causes engine damage is ingesting enough water all at once to fill a cylinder, or rather the compression space above the piston. It can come in through exhaust as well, if you are at high throttle and let off rapidly you can actually suck through the exhaust valves. That's why full fording kits have the exhaust going way up over the roofline.

An open intake is an open intake, if it doesn't have a snorkel to pull cool air in it will just suck hot air from the engine bay, no matter who made it. Get a pre-filter for your Edelbrock if you are going to run in sand/dust and enjoy. If you are planning on deep water you will need a carb hat and snorkel apparatus to pull air from somewhere higher up.

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keith460

· #5 · 26 d ago

Hands down, the factory air cleaner assembly. Provides low dust, cool air from outside the engine compartment and controls the air temperature during cold startups.

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pedal2themetai

· #6 · 26 d ago

HI,_
Yeah.. if the under hood finder skirts are still there water is not going to get to the top of the motor.. The problem with open air filters like you have is all the hot under hood tempiture well be sucked into the motor hot air does not mix good. you well get cooler air with the factory set up as it pulls air in from outside of the hood in front of the radiator. In summer air of 100* compared to 200*+ under the hood.

good luck take care be safe
tim

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ChrisReyn

Discussion Starter · #7 · 26 d ago

OK, so moisture isnt much of an issue but drawing hot air from the engine compartment is.. that makes sense tho I didnt think of it along those lines

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254Triple

· #8 · 26 d ago

Not sure what carb you are running but on my AVS2 4bbl, I found a complete air housing with snorkel that was on a late 60's BB Chevelle. They had punched speed holes in it but that was easily fixed. I do want to get a intake hose from the snorkel to probably behind the headlight bucket but this is working great so far.

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JEEPFELLER

· #9 · 26 d ago

Even better!

Mine was missing on Willy when I found him dying in the cornfield. This was

back before the internet, so I went with a plain Jane aftermarket air cleaner.

I may find another one now and put it on---this will be cheaper than paper filters nowadays!

How Oil Bath Air Breather Works

itstillruns.com

-----JEEPFELLER

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Off Grid Access

· #10 · 26 d ago

JEEPFELLER said:
this will be cheaper than paper filters nowadays!

Not a bad idea. My first car(1949 Chevy) had one. It was great. An awesome idea that got faded out due to convenience.

Mister4x4

· #11 · 26 d ago (Edited)

Replace the paper filter with a K&N, and the oil will help keep down moisture intake (obviously, it won't prevent it altogether, but if something were to splash onto it, the majority of the water would be repelled.

I also have an Edelbrock filter (like yours), but I'm thinking I might go with something a little more modern, like a cold-air intake style aftermarket set-up. Since my fenders open up, I would need to engineer something along those lines that would be stationary to the radiator/grille itself, and probably have the filter live on the driver side, since the passenger side will be loaded up with A/C hoses & dryer - OR - I'll just not worry about it and stick with the Edelbrock filter... it never seemed to bother my pal Jim with his 304-powered '75 CJ-5. Drive it all over the place and periodically pull the filter and clean it.

One of the coolest home-grown ideas I ever saw was another friend (Toby Harrell) used a giant pot, with the lid as the base on his throttle body, and the 'lid' upside down with a snorkel punching through the firewall to a remote air filter. Completely sealed up, since he was constantly buried in the mud bogs back in the '90s in his Great Pumpkin Blazer (with which he won Four Wheeler's Top Truck Challenge twice). Here's the article: 1975 Chevy Blazer - Four Wheeler Magazine

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jeepdaddy2000

· #12 · 26 d ago

keith460 said:
Hands down, the factory air cleaner assembly. Provides low dust, cool air from outside the engine compartment and controls the air temperature during cold startups.

This.
The snorkel will channel air at speed into the enclosed housing. The dust and dirt will pick up speed and carry it into the air cleaner in front of the snorkel opening. This will leave a dirt spot there but keep the rest of the filter relatively cleaner longer.

As for gauze filters, IMHO, they don't filter fine dust well and are a mess to clean. They flow better but if both filters flow ratings are above your current usage, then the numbers are worthless.

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ChrisReyn

Discussion Starter · #13 · 26 d ago

@Mister4x4 :
Eric, we used to make an air filter set up kinda like that for the First Gen Dodge deisel trucks with the 12valve I6. BHAF( Big Honkin Air Filter--Fram filter for a Kenworth ) in a CAP( Cold Air Pot)..
Did the sight glass mod on the Getrag transmissions too....
I bought the factory intake and will attach a air tube to the grill for the time being and see what my usage dictates from there.

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benjaminiesen

· #14 · 25 d ago

Mister4x4 said:
Replace the paper filter with a K&N, and the oil will help keep down moisture intake (obviously, it won't prevent it altogether, but if something were to splash onto it, the majority of the water would be repelled.

If you're using enough oil on your K&N to repel water you are grossly over oiling.

FYI a paper filter won't pass water, they will stop breathing when wet... and the engine will still pull air, the filter will collapse and deform from the vacuum and the water will just go past anyway.

Off Grid Access

· #15 · 25 d ago

benjaminiesen said:
Your filter (paper, k&n, other) will collapse and deform from the vacuum and the water will just go past anyway.

I saw one filter from a Ford Excursion V10 that was ran on the same roads that I do. It was so plugged that it had collapsed and started to get sucked into the intake duct. We pulled it out like a wad of tissue paper. Who knows how much dust had been pumped through that engine. She was having troubles with it and letting her (at the time) husband "maintain it". The entire vehicle was basically a loss. Transfer case literally fell off as she was driving it down the road (came unbolted from the transmission and landed on the road), transmission was shot, engine not running right and without a filter for who knows how long. Front axle needed a complete rebuild.... Sad to see.

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Mister4x4

· #16 · 25 d ago

benjaminiesen said:
If you're using enough oil on your K&N to repel water you are grossly over oiling.

You're right on that account, but I'm pretty sure even you know that's not what I meant. My bad for not being more specific.

When you spray the oiling agent onto a K&N (or similar), it does add a level of water resistance to the filter material - just enough that some occasional misting or splashing will have the water running off, rather than getting sucked in, since there's so much surface area drawing air through, the pressure is not great enough to just suck down a big gulp of whatever happens to find its way onto the filter element.

If there's such a concern for water and whatnot splashing all the way up to the air filter, then it might not be a bad idea to slow down and/or come up with a better air filtration system for the intake, as Chris is doing.

lschirm4

· #17 · 24 d ago

ChrisReyn said:
As I wait for my Jeep to get done at the shop, I'm thinking on things I might want to do.
One of the quetions I have is about the air cleaner. It currently has an Edelbrock 14" open air filter housing ( see picture).
It seems to me that this potentialy exposes the paper filter to a lot of moisture? It seems like it would get soaked in a heavy rain and I live in an area where thunderstorms are commonplace. As well as splashes from water crossings..
I have the opportunity to pick up a factory air cleaner housing for a decent price.
So my question is, do the "open" air cleaners acually pull so much more air that it make a difference?
Is the motor more or better protected by the factory " closed" air cleaner?
Am I creating an issue in my head that doesnt realy exist?
Future plans are for a Sniper EFI so I want to make sure its the best set-up possible to protect that investment
Edit: after the rebuild and Sniper, I'll have about $5-6000 in this motor, I dont want to waste that by sucking water into the intake
View attachment 4185810

When I rebuilt my 304, I did a few simple things to boost its power. I upped the compression from around 8.0 to 9.5. I added Pertronix electronic ignition. I changed the intake and carburetor to 4 barrel. I swapped the exhaust manifolds for headers and added dual exhaust out the back. Finally, I also added a 4" snorkel made from ABS plastic pipe, plus a 4" aluminum flex hose for a dryer, going to a fully enclosed air cleaner cover. The snorkel delivers not only cleaner air, but also cooler air by the top of the windshield. that cooler air is good for about a 10% bump in horsepower. My original engine was rated 150hp at the flywheel, my rebuild job is now 250hp at the wheels on a dyno. Zero in on my picture and you can see the snorkel.

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at.real.ask

· #18 · 22 d ago

The set up you have draws inefficient hot air into your engine.

Originally your CJ would have drawn cold air through a hose connected to the radiator support/grill. Cold air is denser and improves combustion.

Many aftermarket setups, depending on where the filter cone is placed, draw hot air and do nothing to improve performance. They also may allow larger dust and dirt to enter the engine by trading off less filtering for more airflow.

There are variations of the schematic below but they're all similar. The rectangular hose coming off the front of the air filter housing would attach to the back of the radiator support and introduce cold air into the engine. After market parts are available eBay and other sources.

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ChrisReyn

Discussion Starter · #19 · 22 d ago (Edited)

at.real.ask said:
The set up you have draws inefficient hot air into your engine.

Originally your CJ would have drawn cold air through a hose connected to the radiator support/grill. Cold air is denser and improves combustion.

I have purchased a stock airfilter housing, and the Cold Air Tube and Radiator Support Horn, and plan on going back to that exact set up.
I plam to ( in the future) look into hooking up the warm air valve and tubing from the exhaust manifold for cold weather.. alto I dont know if the Sniper EFI will need that..

EDIT: and the thought just occurs to me.. I dont have the factory carb on here, its a Holley Avenger 4 bbl. Wonder if the opening on the stock air cleaner housing is large enough and of not, how I'll trim it......I have too much time on my hands and think of things I prob dont need to....

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Hurricane4

· #20 · 22 d ago

My 304 OEM air filter housing fit my Edelbrock 1901 AVS2 500 cfm 4-barrel just fine. Should fit your Holley 4-barrel.

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