some of you might remember that i put on manual choke on my 78 f250 w/ 400ci. My problem is now that my stock aircleaner assembly won't clear the choke mech. it causes my assembly to not set right on base of the carb. so i beat out little to make it fit better. I am going to put on 8 inch open cleaner, but there is a breather hose that comes off the valve cover on the passenger side on the back of the motor that goes into the aircleaner assembly, is there something of aftermarket breather I can put in the hole or do i just turn it away. I am afraid id i turn it away that i could suck in dust when in dusty conditions. I don't believe that it comes out to easy either. On my 351w in my 82 bronco has one but runs into the bottom of the carb and on the valve cover is the pvc valve. Please give any solutions on this. I was also wondering if there is a site like this with this much info for Harley owners, with message boards, as informative as this one. thanks

 

I just did some of the same things to my 351m. My fourteen inch chrome air cleaner has a male fitting underneath for pcv/breather hook up. I just stuck a piece of 5/8 black hose on it and it is fine. I ran my pcv and tranny vac line into the vacumeport at the rear base of the Holley carb. Air cleaners can be purchased with or without the pcv male hookup fitting.

 

Seems that Many aftermarket things interfear with the stock stuf. There are spacers (plastic) that you can use to raise up the aircleaner till things clear.
I think 1/2" to 3" (extend the mounting bold).
Then just extend any hoses to the air cleaner.Worked for me!

__JOHN__

 

I have an aftermarket open air cleaner. I bought a chrome replacement oil filler/vent cap from Stant. This has a small filter built into the cap, and does away with the hose to the air cleaner. Later I noticed that the bottom of my open air filter has a provision for attaching this hose on the underside. BTW, how is the 351W working out? Do you have headers and if so what kind? I have a 76 that I took a 302 out of. I thought I might swap in the 390 that I just did a top end rebuild on but now I'm thinking I want to leave that engine in the truck it's in because now I think I have some bad rings and the 76 is all ready for a small block. I have the 302 heads from the last motor and they are '85 castings. I was told earlier that I couldn't use them on a 351 because the combustion chamber on the 302 heads would create a high compression problem. I have since seen some info that lead me to believe that an 78 or later 302/351W head are the same. I can confirm this for the years 78-80 but the info in my HP books "How to rebuild a smallblock Ford" doesn't go beyond 80. according to the book, 78-80 have the same valve sizes and combustion chamber sizes. The cheapest and easiest thing I can do is buy a 302 shorblock or rebuild the one I have. I already have a year old Edelbrock performer 289 dual plane aluminum manifold. However If I can reuse my heads then I would only have to buy a manifold and have some alterations to my exhaust. I was somewhat disappointed with the 302 before so I'd like to go for more torque. The crank was bent in my 302 and I had a junkyard torque converter/C6 tranny so the friction on the crank perhaps was costing me some performance. The vent cap is attractive looking and just a couple of bucks, I'd get rid of your hose.

 

On my above post I should have said : If I reuse my 85 heads on a 351W shortblock then....... hope this makes more sense.