Coming from the NASCAR world. You'll be surprised on how much air filter height and the base of the air filter works I've seen 20-25 horsepower on a chassis, Dino!!
As long as a filter has enough capacity to not restrict, it can often smooth the flow through the carb giving a better more consistent signal to the venturi..
@@woods-garage I came to the comments to say this exact thing. I worked at a local drag strip for a few years and watched many 1/8th mile index racers looking for 1 tenth or so and can't find it. Then they slap an air filter on and break out by a tenth+. It's crazy that the things they we assume will hurt power will actually help make more power.
Way back in the mid 80’s I ran a tall filter kit by Moroso that I felt the difference in performance. It was about 5 in tall but fit under the hood and had a much more dramatic radius curve in the base pan, to help it fit under a hood.
The plate creates what is called the Coanda effect and the air filter creates diffusion thus making the fuel vaporize more (droplet break up) making the fuel burn better.
Steve, it actually makes a bit of sense that the filter helps it. If the filter is super non restrictive, I could see how it would improve. Think of a gas lense in a tig torch. It evens out the airflow and causes it to be laminar instead of turbulent. In this case, it’s probably smoothing out the way the air is entering the carburetor. With the amount of air that engine is moving, it’s almost definitely turbulent due to the air velocity. However, not all turbulence is the same (think small and big bumps when riding in an airplane). If it’s reducing the amount of turbulence entering the engine, the fuel mixture and distribution are probably a lot more consistent and evenly distributed due to the lensing effect of the air filter. Interested to hear your thought on this idea.
One of my friends had a nearly identical combination (his was 513 cubic inches, single 1050 Dominator). It pushed a 67 Mustang fastback deep into the 7s.
So it must be fairly light,well under 3000 lbs.I raced a 3500 lbs Malibu with blown 538 bbc and calculated that even high sevens would require well over 1200 hp.What is deep sevens more accurately?@@owggarage723
Agree with most of the airflow comments below. That cyl. head intake combo looks awesome. Engine sounds sweet. Nice combo , would be good to see one that Steve can tweak more. Many thanks.
Back in the early 80s I built a iron block 490ci 385 series BBF with 429CJ heads and a built 750 carb flowing 780+ she pulled 823 hp @8500-9000 on good pump gas on the dyno and it had a big stacked air cleaner on it to and yes those BBFs like rpm and will live thru it.
The filter allows just enough airflow to slow/settle down for it to be more evenly distributed throughout the intake at the same time allowing for fuel mixture to optimize more evenly. All wile creating a bigger vaccume
Agree with the smoother air flow comments. With the filter media I believe the air flow gets very laminar and the engine is able to digest more CFM as a result. Love your content - thanks for sharing.
I love to see you working on the NA stuff! It's so awesome hearing you talk about the old cup engines and pro stock stuff, because it was a time of innovation and finesse in engineering.
More Ford Content! Great feature. People constantly overlooking the BBF in favor of the BBC, it's the hidden gem of the motor world lol. I would also say a few things with respect to the power gain: 1) did you run the "Base Combo" again? I would be interested to see if it picks up power after a few runs warming the oil and settling the cam and rockers in. 2) One hypothesis is that the Filter acted almost like another manifold, slowing or sort of trapping air and therefore making it easier for the carb to pull it through. I see you turned the fans on right before each run, they appear to be pushing air out of the room? If that is the case that would also pull air away from the engine (which would make sense that a large filter which traps air and slows it down would make more power)...This affect would probably happen even if the fans were pulling air from outside and pushing it into the room. I could also be very wrong though. Great video either way BBF FTW!!
The inlet manifold may be a little excessive for the application, and once the filter is applied, it creates a better Venturi effect, causing the power to be increased
Agree. I love the deep tone of a well built BBF. Such a unique tone. I used to be able to ID one at the strip just from the sound. Now I’m just old! 🤷🤣
Weeeeeeell someone applied their master's degree in fluid dynamics appropriately !!! Great job to whom ever designed the initial blueprint and air inlet carb set up etc. I'm sure tuning has a little to do with its success but the design and initial blueprint got you there so credit is definitely due there !
I believe the reversion that comes all the way out of the carburetor hits the air cleaner lid and helps with pulse wave tuning, just like header length matters. It picked up throughout the whole curve. But what do I know
The filter gives a better signal to the carb, and its enrichening the mixture just the right amount, or somehow the restriction helps lol. Or a combo of all three or just two. Enjoyed the vid
The base improves because of the rounded edge, the filter improves it because the restriction lowers afr slightly, meaning carb could be richened up a bit maybe. Ive had it happen with my motorcycles 🤷♂️
Engine masters tested different attachments on the carburetor and the salad bowl shape made the most power, by a good bit if I remember correctly. Does anyone else remember better than I do?
Steve you have to be the most down to earth man. You seem like my brother or best friend the way you teach us about your engines, which are more superior then them all. I love your channel please keep the videos coming. Thanks for sharing and God bless you and your family and friends.
Awesome Thanks for Another great Lesson professor Morris!! Thanks for sharing, Also love seeing sugar Momma in the intro !!! Great Channel Keep up the Amazing Work !!!!
I believe having just the base on would be creating a better path for air into the carburetor. Then adding filter could make the air entering more uniform and can syphon the fuel better. It might also help how the fuel is mixed into the air for better distribution to the cylinders . I wonder if the EGT temps were more even with the filter. Great stuff .Thanks for sharing.
Beautiful!! I’m ready to see some five second passes!! I see you just go right to a 5.8.. just like I joked that that funny cars should just go straight to 341 mph and skip 340 all altogether.. lolol .. the fact that actually happened is a bit mind-boggling, but I digress 😂
Stated in other comments also, buy my idea is that w/ no filter, the area an inch or so above the venturi's is very turbulent and the filter prevents the air from getting 'dirty' just before it is pulled in the carb.
love the dyno pulls! But I would like to see/hear the pull from outside the building. Yeah, where the exhaust goes out. Bet it sounds awesome! Just my weirdness coming out.😆
Like others, I believe there may be air vortices when run w/o the base, and the base smoothes out the flow and then the filter adds more favorable smooth air flow.
I know air flow into the carb makes a huge difference. As in the way it swirls or the direction it enters. That air filter probably straightens the air flow and coming in from the sides through the radius base plate accelerates the flow, rather than going straight in from the top. At least that's what I've noticed about airflow.
I had a 2bbl claimer engine that picked up 3 when I stacked a cpl of air cleaners on it. And another one with a proper tall filter. My theory was that the tall filter provided enough air to not be a restriction but cleaned up the turbulence into the carb.
Kinda what I’ve learned just messing with dirt bikes. With a filter it creates a little more of a vacuum effect in the carb pulling more fuel volume through the jets. Also smoothing the pulse creating a more consistent flow for the venturis to work. As long as the filter isn’t restricting the amount of air needed to match the fuel it usually picks up power.
filter raises the peak flow point to half way up the filter for better inflow. you can see the sand fabric pull in deeper concave at the mid height point on the filter... higher flow velocity as air is detached from the plate.
Back in my supermoto days there was a saying for the guys that ran no air box just filter. Because it literally was proven to slow you down. The air box would provide "cleaner air"
Amazingly smooth sound at 9,000 RPM. You are not thinking about the combined effect between the shapes of the bottom and top of the cover holding the filter. It is obviously aligning the air, probably more laminar flow by eliminating turbulence.
Lot's of Big Block Ford fans commenting, More Big Ford Stuff Steve ! I would Love to see what this killer piece does with Two Dominators sitting on top, Very nice set-up tho, that intake manifold is beautiful.
Ive actually read some awesome studies about this very thing back in the day. Theres been tons of research done about the effects different filters have on the fuel delivery/atomization through carburetors. Its amazing how different filters, spacers, and of course intakes effect atomization of fuel. You can adjust a spray nozzle into a perfect mist, but when you spray it into a fan on high, everything changes. Sorry to ramble, just a very interesting subject i dove into years ago while dirt track racing. Every little bit counted when it came down to the stringent rules given for the class i ran. A good filter will actually help power by improving the atomization of fuel delivered by the carb. A nice clean burn is good for power. That can be achieved by stopping turbulent air and cleaning up the delivery. Lots more goes into this, but thats a very quick amd dirty synopses.
With limited air intake (one carburetor) you get very high speed air which can cause some "stand off" and air disturbance above the carburetor. I think the cover over the top of the air filter and the quality filter are helping "smooth" the air flow which is giving a more consistent signal to the boosters in the carburetor.
Old school racer here. Carburetors need a certain amount of disturbed air flowing across all of the different orifices and ports to actually atomize the fuel and allow that mixture to more efficiently into the combustion chamber. The smoother the surfaces are actually create increased air drag. A slightly dimpled surface will release that surface tention. The best example is golf balls. Over the decades there have been intricate studies to find the most efficient design for coefficient of drag that will allow that ball to travel the farthest. By finding the best combination of dimples and lines, the average golf ball today travels significantly farther than any time before. Each additional change on that single throat carburetor allows the air to dynamically change just enough to disturb that too smooth air and actually reduce air fuel mixture drag. Turbulence is necessary for more efficient mixing and coefficient of drag. The same applies to exhaust gas release in non-power adder engines especially because there is only a specific amount of natural air flow generated by the engine itself. NASCAR uses all of the different types of air flow tricks and technology to help gain the most minuscule increases to remain legal and still somehow find an advantage to beat that restrictor plate. It's all the same, certain types of surfaces create the right combination of disturbance to break the surface tension and increase air flow.🤙
The air filter is a vary small restriction witch causes laminar airflow.The venturies respond with better atomization and distribution increasing horsepower. Nice build !
It's amazing how much time, money and effort goes into squeaking out a few extra horsepower from these machines at this level!!! Every time the "rule makers" set a new rule, someone somewhere is developing a new way to get around it, and it looks like these folks have indeed found a way ;-) Well done gentlemen 🙂
Much like we used to do in the early to mid 90s to improve ait flow for maf engined, rather smoothing air flow when going from say a 65 mm throttle body to a 90mm unit. The air becomes extremely turbulent causing a power production issue. Was magnified with boost We would put chicken mesh before the maf which stabilized the air flow into the maf causing power protection to be more tunable and resulted in more power. The carb on that motor has a massive choke hole causing turbulent air. The mesh from the filter smooths the air flow causing stable tuning resulting in more power production. Or in your case allowing the tune to be stable and the engine to utilize all of what your feeding it
The air is coming in with less turbulence due to the direction of flow caused by the filter base and filter. This is resulting in better fuel atomization passing the venturis and probably even resulting in slightly more air into the cylinders. Without the base and filter the air would have been rushing into the vacuum above the carburetor from above, sideways and below causing the air to swirl around above the carb. If I could draw a picture, it would explain it better, but I think you get my point. Nice build, I like it!
K&N had those carb velocity adapters, back in the day, for carbs with and without a choke. I tried one and definitely helped my car run smoother while cruising.
