From the very beginning hot rodders scavenged the most interesting and best bits from other cars to build their cars. Nothing was off limits. If it worked better than the stock stuff on their car, or added some styling inside or under the hood, it was fair game. When it came to dressing up a hot rod’s V8 engine the air cleaner assembly was one of the first upgrades. There were several cool air cleaners on factory cars back in the 1950s and early 1960s and one of the most popular salvage yard finds was the deeply shrouded air filter housing found on various Mopars, including the 300D, 300E, and D500 on such engines as the dual-quad Poly 318, 392 Hemi dual-quad, and others.
These air filters had the appearance of an enclosed air filter housing, but without the “ugly” snorkel hanging off the side. In essence, they were in fact an “open element” air cleaner, just with a deep shrouded cover over the filter media. Many would paint or chrome plate the air cleaner top for an effective, yet unique air cleaner solution. Even the Mopar Poly 318 air cleaner for a single four-barrel offered a similar design, but in a much larger diameter. For the typical hot rodder of the day, the smaller dual-quad version was preferred. Obviously, running dual quads made the smaller size mandatory. Today Speedway Motors offers a beautiful spun aluminum air cleaner housing design inspired by these 1950s and early 1960s air cleaners found on Corvette, Studebaker R4, and Pontiac Super Duty engines (to name a few we drew inspiration from) that works with most carburetors for a great period look with the ability to provide 360-degrees of air inlet to feed a healthy engine all the air it needs in a more standard fitting 8-inch round assembly.
There’s something about aluminum engine components that we all love to see. Aluminum valve covers, intake manifolds, and of course air cleaners. These bits are right on top of the engine and really draw in the eyeballs when the hood is raised. Polished, brushed, raw, or otherwise, that aluminum is an attention getter. With that in mind, we opted to create our 8-inch Poly 318 inspired air cleaner in a spun aluminum design. The spun finish provides a natural satin-like look to the air cleaner housing that will go with any engine theme. Polished, painted, or a mix of both, our spun aluminum air cleaner will blend right in and accentuate your engine’s looks.
We make our air cleaner housing out of .050-inch thick 3003 aluminum that is spun and then formed to shape. You will find 3003 aluminum used in many of your outdoor aluminum fixtures due to its high corrosion resistance, so it is right at home in open engine compartments found in T-buckets and other hot rods. The top features styling/strengthening ribs along with a recessed center that allows the included tri-bar wingnut to sit flush for maximum hood clearance (if you are running a hood). Measuring in at 7.80-inches in diameter and 3-inches tall, our Mopar Poly 318-style air cleaners are large enough to use on single two or four barrel applications or can be used on dual quad applications if the center-to-center distance between your two carburetors is at least 8 inches.
The included chrome plated steel air cleaner base provides an industry standard 5-1/8-inch inner diameter that direct mounts to Shop Two Barrel Carburetors and Shop Four Barrel Carburetors carburetors with 5-1/8-inch top mounting flanges. This also includes many popular Shop Carburetor Style Retrofit EFI Systems systems. We recommend our Super Seal air cleaner Super Seal Air Cleaner Base Gasket to prevent any dust or dirt making its way between the air cleaner base and your carburetor.
We also include a 4-7/32-inch adapter ring to fit our air cleaner to earlier carburetors such as the Carter WCFB, Carter AFB, and Rochester 4GC models. The semi-enclosed design of the air cleaner includes a high-flow paper air filter element, sized at 6-1/4-inch by 2-3/8-inch. Alternatively, you can choose to upgrade the air filter element to our washable and reusable Reusable Performance Air Filter with a much longer service life and increased air flow ability. Whatever you mount our 1950s dual quad-style spun aluminum air cleaner assembly to it is sure to add the perfect style and performance you’re looking for.