Air cleaner question

[priya]

I'm putting a clifford intake and Holley 390 CFM four barrel on my 258.  I want to use a stock style air cleaner with a cold air intake and  hot air door for cold starts.  After a great deal of searching I found one that slides onto the Holley, but after recently looking at some pictures and reading some people's air cleaner threads I see the factory air cleaner has an offset centre hole to clear the master cylinder/brake booster.  I've cleaned and painted my new air cleaner but now I'm concerned that it won't clear the brake booster/master cylinder.  The distance from the centre hole of my air cleaner to the edge of the pan is 7 and 1/8 inches.  Could someone measure their factory air cleaner lid from the centre hole to the nearest edge(the one that mounts next to the master cylinder/brake booster) and tell me if mine will clear?

[Draekon]

The stock air cleaner measures about 5 1/2 inches from the center hole to the nearest edge.

I have a MC2150 installed, and I measured about 6 inches from the center hole to the master cylinder/brake booster brake fluid reservoir thing.

Supposedly you can modify a stock air cleaner to fit on the motorcraft carb, so you should be able to do the same with your Holley.

[priya]

Darn, that's not what I wanted to hear.  I'm pretty sure I threw away my stock air cleaner.

[GRONK]

Priya, send me your email address and I'll send you a PDF file showing the step by step conversion for the air cleaner.

[priya]

Message sent, Gronk, Thanks!

[priya]

I had a look for my stock air cleaner and its nowhere to be found so I guess I did throw it away thinking it wouldn't fit my carb so there was no use for it.  I talked to my husband about it he figures perhaps we can cut away part of the pan on the air cleaner I do have, weld in some sheet metal and make it fit, but we'll have to wait until the intake and carb is on to check for sure.

[priya]

Yup! I've just got a little Holley 2bbl, not sure on the cfms, & all we had to do to make it fit was cut the "lip" off the bottom of the stock air cleaner housing & grind the hole in the lid a bit bigger. Still need to find a nut that fits the bolt, though, as all that's holding the lid down right now is duct tape (don't worry, I'm not driving the car, though the lid does rattle something fierce when the engine's running )

How did you cut it so you got a round hole exactly the right size for the carburetor?

[priya]

Just took a grinder with a cutting disc on & started cutting. When you look at the bottom part (the pan, as you say), you'll see a kind of lip, where the bottom of the opening has been "rolled" so there's no sharp metal edge (you'll understand better when you see it ). We just cut that lip off; though mine's still quite ragged, as I didn't care in the least what it looked like, so long as it fit. I can go pull it off & take a pic for you, if you'd like

I'd appreciate that but I hate to put you to the trouble.

[priya]

Thanks Regalwizard!