I've been tracing some lines to check what would have to change for a Carter/Motorcraft carb upgrade and realize I'll more than likely have to retire the stock air cleaner system to do so. A modified vacuum route looks pretty simple to me but after all is said and done, I'm left with two pulse air hoses that aren't routed anywhere. What do you guys usually do about this? What options can be explored? I don't live in a smog area but I might move to one in the near future(READ:MONSTERFORNIA) and I want to be able to weigh all of my options of how to modify this system.
Just so you have an idea as to how lost I am, I first considered routing one air line straight into the other. Not sure how that would go but I'm sure at least one person here probably considers that pretty stupid. :/
This (http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/8499/dscf3910t.jpg) is a good visual of what I've got. :)
i don't know if you've figured it out yet, but you can just plug them up...i cut the rubber on mine down to the big check valves where the lines switch to metal and plugged them with rubber stoppers and hose clamps. i left just enough hose on the valve to cram the stoppers in. that's an easy way, other way is to remove them completely and weld the hole in the cat shut and the other side is attached to intake/exhaust, i forget which.
I've seen the inexpensive valve-cover breathers inserted into them. You just need to keep the dust out so it doesn't damage the reed valves and vacuum valves, using the stock air cleaner was just convenient from an engineering & maintenance perspective.
You could also get some JB weld and some tin snips and just epoxy the base from the Motorcraft carb air cleaner onto the bottom of the stock air cleaner. Most emissions places would never dig around enough to notice the difference.
Use a CTO valve connected to manifold vacuum to activate the upstream valve when the engine is cold and the downstream when the engine is hot, that closely mimics the way the computer controlled them. It'll pass tailpipe emissions tests that way and not overheat the cat.
I was digging through my stuff and found an '82 intake/exhaust without the AIR ports in the exhaust manifold. If I don't do the 4.0L head swap and EFI, I may swap it in.