If you take the soup bowl off, how does it effect the performance of the engine, how much louder would it get inside of the cab, and wouldnt dust get into engine?

 

I cut mine off, it's one the best things you can do, and at no cost. The result was less smoke when climbing hills, it seems to have more power and there may be a little increase in noise in the cab. Cutting out soup bowl does not allow dirt to get into the engine, the air filter is still sealed all around on the lid and the bottom of the housing. From what I have read here, the soup bowl was for noise, but to me it seems to be an air restriction. Remove it, you will be happy

 

well i cut it off and its seems to have a slight bit more power. Its not any noisier in the cab and i havent been able to get my truck to smoke. thanks for the reply.

 

FWIW, I have seen pictures of two different "soup bowl" air cleaner lids. One has a flat top when viewed from the outside and when you flip it over there is a big bowl-shaped section welded to the bottom of the lid. That is what you want to cut off - if you have this type.

The other type I've seen the top of the lid is dished and has a big soup-bowl depression in the center of the lid. You can see the dished center from outside the air cleaner. The one I saw a picture of looked like it was either aluminum or brushed stainlessl. Obviously if you have one like that you can't cut the soup bowl out because it would leave a big hole in the middle of your air cleaner lid.

There is also an air cleaner type that has a flat lid with no soup bowl. With these, the bottom pan is different than the soup bowl model. There is a slightly domed plate welded inside in the center that reduces the intake hole in the bottom of the air leaner from 4" down to about 2.5". That is the type of air cleaner that was installed in my 86 F250.

I bought one of the soup-bowl air cleaner bottom pans with the full-sized 4" hole for the intake from Spectramac (thanks man), and put my flat non-soup-bowl style lid on it. VIOLA' - the best of both types. No soup-bowl on the underside of the lid AND the full size 4" opening in the bottom.

 

I had the no soup bowl style with the restrictor plate or whatever you want to call it in the bottom, simply cut out the restriction, have the full 4" now... Took less than 2 minutes with the air hammer...

 

Come on fellro, an air hammer, no respect for the beast. How about a die grinder with a small cut off wheel. Mine took a full 2 minutes maybe, and left a nice smooth cut. Second best performance mod next to bigger exhaust and ram air- oh I guess that makes it third.

 

It cut nice and clean with the panel cutter chisel...Had a nice line to follow as well... Have you seen my beast? That was the least of it's worries...

 

Well, since Malcom sold me the bottom pan for $10, I figured it was worth it to not have to risk butchering my one and only air cleaner.

Besides, now I have one to cut the snorkle off of when I'm ready to do a dual intake setup.

 

When I was at the salvage yard I got the flat intake lid off a 86' F250 for $25. A little steep but it really improved flow.

 

I just used a cut off grinder wheel and made her smooth. The best thing is that i got that one from my fathers old truck. So if i want to i can go back to stock.