Monster Air cleaner
I had a working 305 cid installed in the car and it had a 2 barrel carb. Since it was a running engine I want to use it to test that the gauges work properly. Unfortunately, it doesn't have an air cleaner. On one of my garage sale hopping trips, I came across a small chrome air cleaner (7" dia) for a 4 barrel carb for sale for 50 cents. I picked it up and went to the parts store to find an air filter for it. Unfortunately, its an oddball size and there were none available. They did have a very tall filter (6" high) on sale for $2.00. Well for $2.00, I sure can make it fit!
2 barrel monster air cleaner
All I had to do was make a 4 barrel to 2 barrel adapter. You can buy them but they tend to be on the expensive side. Anyways, I found that a gallon paint can lid has a ridge in it that is almost a perfect match for a 4 barrel carb. A little bit of cutting with a die grinder and a hole appeared for the two barrel carb. I soldered the new adapter plate to the bottom of the air cleaner plate.
Unfortunately, there was interference with the accelerator pump and the bottom of the air cleaner so a spacer was needed. On my next trip to the wreckers (I live there!), I found that late 70s/early 80s Chev vans with 2 barrel V8 engines had a beautiful spacer. It is about 3" in height and I needed about 1". I figured that I could run over to the machine shop and cut off the excess on a lathe - bad move!
Thin metal is dangerous on a lathe!
As I found out, thin metal is very dangerous on a lathe. As the bit was cutting through the metal, the metal couldn't hold its shape and distorted. At 640 rpm, it didn't take too much distortion before the piece caught in the bit and was thrown out of the lathe's jaws and off the closest walls. I was very lucky that it didn't shoot out my way. Now I'm more cautious and run it over with the machinists what I plan on doing first. To machine thin metal, you have to put a solid piece of round stock inside to prevent the distortion while cutting.
I found another spacer at another wreckers, went home and got out the dremel tool and had it cut down in 5 minutes. The last thing to do was to make the rod to hold the air cleaner to the carb. I used threaded rod, some 1/4" diameter tubing from the local hobby shop and a couple of nuts. I cut the threaded rod to size, cut the tubing about 1 1/2" shorter. I put the tubing over the rod and used the nuts to hold it about the center. Screwed the piece into the carb throat and voila, you are ready to put the air cleaner on.