If you have a BBC with sbc motormounts, will the aircleaner fit if you use a air gap manifold with a holley carb? The hood is a factory steel cowl hood. I would like to use at least a 2" air cleaner. Will this work or am I stuck with using a regular rpm manifold??

To the best of my knowledge.. Maybe!

On my 69 (there are subtle differences in mount heights on 67-8 and 69s apparently), I have a BBC on SBC mounts. I have a Victor Jnr and a Holley 4150 and all the cowl unduction parts with a steel GM hood. My Victor Jnr is only slightly taller than your Air Gap.

Firstly, why don't you switch to BBC mounts? This will give some extra room, not much but it will (3/8"?). It will depend on what trans and crossmember you have as to whether the crank pulley hits the crossmember. Anyway..

My Victor Jnr has a carb height of 5.90". Your Air Gap has an average height of 5.225". (Average height because it has a 4* tilt toward the front.) So already you are 11/16" better off than me.
The only modifications I made was milling the carb flange 1/8" off at the front to give me the OE 4* carb angle because the cowl air cleaner base requires it. And I lowered the outer surround of my (repro) cowl air cleaner base by 7/8". Because your Air Gap is lower by almost this amount, you should be OK. ..and you should fit a 4" element and OE lid no problem.

I hope this helps.
Look at the base, you wouldn't tell it's lower if I didn't already tell you! This all fitted as you see it.
http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/3609/bbcnov04f9cu.jpg

Blackoutsteve, you have your cowl seal upside down/inside out. :-)

Really?? That's the only way the darn thing fits!
It's impossible for it to fit any other way. If I turn it over, there is no way it fit will fit onto the base. This is the way it's always been (and before any mods I made).
Are big block seals different to small block seals? Maybe I have the wrong one or ??? but that's the only way it fits! :confused:
Thanks.

It may be just me, but I can't see the seal flange. It should sit on top of the air cleaner base, and the seal should be attached to it. That may be the way you have it, but I'm old and half blind. (I don't need glasses, though!!)

Blackout,

Thanks very much for your input. I really wanted to run a vic jr but I was worried about the hood clearance. That is my prefrence anyways. I am running a muncie for now. If the others had not noted about the cowl seal, i would have done it the same way, as that is how I had it when the 396 was in the car with a q jet and a performer carb.

I have always noticed that my seal appears different from pictures I'd seen of restored 69s.
I just assumed that this was how the repros were made. I have never thought much of it and it has always sealed and functioned as it should.
I wouldn't let my unusual seal put you off your intensions of fitting your manifold of choice. The seal would be the least of your worries and the only part that will definitely fit and work.
"Unreal" has noted that he can't see the flange.. I wonder if he means the extension that only small block cars have..?

I'll take some better pics and post them for you all to look at and tell me if something is wrong.. :beers:

Blackout, I was referring to the flat ring that the seal is attached to. The ID is the same as the OD of the base, and the OD is the same as the diameter of the seal. The seal attaches to the little lip on the outside of the ring. The extension ring is a different piece that fits into the air cleaner base, and the flange then attaches to the extension, on small block. There are actually 2; a tall one for 350 and a shorter one for 302. As you pointed out, the B/B does not use this extension, so the flange fits directly onto the top of the air cleaner base.

That's what I was hoping you meant.
I did try to fit the seal around the OD of that flat ring but there is no way it will fit. -the seal will tear if I force it.
The only way the seal fits on is the way it is pictured.
Maybe it's the wrong seal..??

I'll still get some pics to show..

Unreal & DrDave69, I have taken some pics of my cowl base and seal so you can see what I mean.
This image shows how the ID of the flat ring is far too small for the seal's lip to fit into.
http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/1449/miscpics0052sb.jpg
As you can see from this side shot, the seal's lip is at least a 3/4" larger radius (1.5" dia) than the flat ring's ID.
http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/416/miscpics0081jm.jpg
I know that this is how I always expected it to look, but there is no way it will fit like this.. Here it is just sitting in place like the first image.
http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/8493/miscpics0113ra.jpg
Do you think I have the wrong seal? It came with the #C689 cowl air cleaner kit from Classic.. It does look a little different to pic of the #CC080 seal they have seperately but I've known their pics are not always acurate. :confused:

Here is how it should look :) 2 different cars

http://www.brainerd.net/~knudsen/69RS/UnderHood/69302ZCowlSetup1.jpg

http://www.brainerd.net/~knudsen/69RS/UnderHood/DCP_0016.jpg

They must be different seals to mine.. There is no way I can fit mine like those examples.
However, they are how I always expected mine to fit..
Thanks.

Steve,
You can't flip the seal over and fit it over the outside lip of the flange? The ID of the flange should fit the extension (Since it's a small block)

No I can't fit it around the outside of the flange.
It's hard to see in the middle pic, but the "L" shaped lip on the seal points in the wrong direction, -as if to fit the inside of a flange and not the outside. Do you know what I mean? (If you were to look at that middle pic, that lip is just like this letter L and is "pointing" to the right. If it were around the other way it might fit but...)
I'm becoming quite sure I have the wrong seal.

Sounds like it might be wrongside out????

The seals are shipped inside out; you have to turn them "outside in". Howver, once they have been installed wrong, they take a heat set and are stretched too much to fit right when turned outside in.(Found that out)
joe