Ya know, Fiat Factory, I see you criticize all kinds of stuff that people on here do or try to do. Like you are the only expert on any thing mechanical. My comment to you, STUFF IT. I am sure you don't have all of the answers.
Sorry geno58 but
When I read anything from Steve it's always a pleasure. What ever he talks about or tries to teach, I know it's from his personal hands on experience. He may not know it all but I am impressed with his "old" Fiat knowledge & when he talks it's spot on.
No I do not know Steve personally or ever met or talked to him.
You can make suggestion with out the snide remarks. If you want to give us information from your expereinces great. But many of us like the do it yourself direction either because of money limitations or the satisfaction you get doing it yourself.
Many of us do not use our cars for daily transportation, so filtering out every partical of dirt is a nonissue.
Fiatfactory went on rant about heads, well if money was no object, then perhaps I may send my head out for a pro job. But then maybe not, I may choose to do it my self with a die grinder and a garden hose. If it works it makes me feel great if it doesn't, I learn from my mistakes. I'm 62 years old, never had a lot of money, but a lot of ideas and enough sense to do my home work before I start some thing. So in the end, if what I try works GREAT, if it doesnt, I learned some thing, and I will share with any one who wishes to listen. But to tell people you make me laugh, because they are doing something I don't agree with, then I say STUFF IT. As far as industrial aplications, they opperate on entirerly different perimeter than our car engines. they don't opperate at as high of RPM, or idle to mid, then to WOT. Engine are just pumps the more in and out the more power, period. Every thing you do to an engine to squeeze more power out of it is directly related to its breathing, in and out.
Quote, (You can make suggestion with out the snide remarks.) Geno try not to take things so personally. I agree that FF comes off as condescending at times. But in this instance I have to agree with him on the paper element as being better. Also these air filters that are open under the hood generally lose power because they are suckin in hot air, cooler fresh air is better. thats just my 2 cents.
Its not the first time, he went on a rant about heads as well. If you want to share knowledge, Tell us what you have learned, leave out (the condisending) comments.
And if you (Assies) are all ways like this, you could stand a few lessons from my Mother on manners and respect!
I have the same oval filter in my spider and a chrome k&n in my 128 and frankly i did it because im always obssesively fiddling around cleaning checking tightness etc and the stock cleaners especially the 128 are taking up a lot of space. I may go back to stock on my spider though if only too learn the difference in sound and to see if there is any change in performance. I think Steve is a valuable resource and as a Bronx native i dont think hes brusque or rude at all.
Happy New Year all
One word of warning on the foam filter material used in some of these chromed dome-style air cleaner units; the black foam can become brittle with age/use & begin to crumble, tossing little specks of foam both into the carb throats (& thus into the engine) & onto the top of the carb itself. Some carbs (like on my 850's & 128) have a small intake vent on top for the air correction jets, & the crumbled foam (sometimes as fine as talc) can find its way down into those air jets, causing the car to run like crap (or not at all). Problem is, you can't see it's falling apart on the inside (underneath) & the outside (top) can still look just fine. Btdt, no thanks! Just a cautionary note to inspect/change the foam element often if you continue to use this filter assembly.
Also, as noted by others, using this type of air cleaner unit can actually hurt engine performance due to sucking in the HOT air that's usually at the top of the engine bay directly under the hood, rather than cooler air like a stock a/f housing will do.
I know this is an old thread and I hadn't seen it in a while, thus this late observation.
I like that you imply that a large multi national company makes inherently smart decisions. That's a good one. You have an excellent sense of humor.
Also happy you are making oodles of dough working on big things. Sounds manly. Pointing out that you made a lot less working on Fiats kind of shot your credibility here. I don't think I would have admitted that if I were you, much less bragged about it.
I do like the paper comparison (and I've since gone back to paper via a lunch box), although comparing a babied fiat to a commercial truck engine doesn't seem relevant.
BTW, the question was what to do with the hoses. Any feelings on that or is there something else you'd prefer to lecture on today?
Is there any reason you cant plumb the crankhose breather hose into the underside of the intake manifold? I am rebuilding the engine now and the air cleaner I got has little room for the breather to come thru underneath it. I thought I could feed it into a tee and drop the two legs of the tee into the sensor locations under the intake. That way it spreads the stuff around. IF you went into only one of the fittings you would have two cylinders seeing a slightly different mix of fuel to air, at least I think you would. But with two penetrations, one in each side, it should be fine.
Not sure if it will affect carb adjustment yet, engine is still on the stand. That vented crankcase gas went into the top of the carb before obviously. Im not sure what the make up is of that air but it might affect the carb tuning. Thoughts?
michaelj wrote:
Multinational miners have big fleets of vehicles, and the beancounters always do some sort of cost / benefit analysis, and they use paper filters in most of the heavy machinery for a reason... that's all I was saying, not that they make smart decisions all the time, 'cause they certainly don't.
lecture over.
SteveC
I'm not sure this logic really works. I agree about the cost/benefit analysis, but they are trying to save money - not to improve performance. Without knowing the data there are several possibilites that might explain why they stay with paper filters. Maybe foam filters do improve performance but they deem this as not important.
Don Avery
Dayton, OH/Sarasota,FL
1985 Pininfarina
2011 Eos
2012 Mercedes E550 Cabriolet
the foam oval looks better... but I have always heard the same thing about foam... it degrades rather quick and if it fails = BIG issue.
Paper? Kinda dirty? Autozone probably carries replacements you can buy for a song. Trying to hunt down a new foam filter = interwebs. That being said.. it is pretty... and I am not sure which I will buy.
Ok so no one actually answered this question. I found this thread bc i just bought the same cleaner from autoricambi fo my 78. It came with something that looks like its meant to block off that crankcase hose is that what im supposed to do? So i searched it here. I like the idea of a crankcase breather that seems like viable option, but what is correct ? Idont think pumping more hot dirty air into the carb is gonna help but will blocking it hurt?
