air cleaner recommendations with stock 34 pict carb

[tperazzo]

My first trip off road resulted in a clogged idle jet and dust inside the carb. Obviously, not good. I was running a cheap chromie with a foam element.

Should I find a stock oil bath, or is there a proven aftermarket filter rated for trail use?

What is better? paper or foam or both?
Thanks,
Tom

[LeeVW]

Tom,

Paper filters the best, but it will clog very quickly in a dusty environment. A dual stage oiled foam / cotton gauze combination is far less prone to clogging while still providing adequate filtration.

I, and almost all of the other buggy people I know, have had good results with a K&N oiled filter with an oiled foam filter wrapped around it. K&N makes an oval filter that goes right onto the stock carb. There's even a provision for the stock crankcase breather hose. UNI makes a foam outer filter that fits onto the K&N. You can run a similar setup with dual carbs using the correct filters for your carbs.

Oil the K&N filter with K&N Air Filter Oil ONLY! Oil the UNI filter with UNI Foam Filter Oil or another suitable type of foam filter oil. I prefer the stuff that comes in the bottle. The stuff in the aerosol can is too thin. Don't go overboard with the oil, just make sure the filter elements are saturated but not dripping with the stuff. A good trick is to pre-oil another UNI foam filter or two, put them in Zip Loc bags, and take them on the trail with you. Pack some nitrile gloves to keep your hands clean and you can change outer filters as needed. If you do that, you just have to clean the K&N filter every once in a while.

I have found that the best stuff for cleaning the K&N filter is Simple Green and water. Warm water is best, but don't get it too hot or you will shrink the cotton. The BIO Cleaner from Twin Air works great on the foam filters. It's a granulated cleaner that comes in a black and orange bottle. Mix with water. Hot water works well here, as do nitrile gloves. Soak the filter in the solution for half an hour or more, rinse, and it will look like new.

Lee

[TC/TeamEvil]

If you don't mind the weight and how it looks, a stock oil bath is the best of them all. The horsepower drain is the least as well. Of course, extra bracing is needed for off road. You might also use the stock filter from a Karmann Ghia or Bus where the rubber connector clamps to the top of the carb and the oil bath filter is mounted to one side of the engine and bracketed/braced accordingly.

Luck,

TC

[dirtbugger]

For a standard solex I basically make my own by starting out with a couple of oiled foam pods that are usually used for bikes. I mount them to a simple "T" shaped manifold I made from PVC pipe (65mm I think).

I found that on their own they are useless and need constant cleaning because they can get so many large particulates clinging to the outside. They make the engine a pain to look at and work on.

That's why I spice them up a bit by covering them with a dry media filter that's often used in the HVAC industry as air filters in office buildings. I wrap the media around the pods and then just use a stapler to hold the seams together.


Once that's done I cover the lot in a cheap heavy denier stocking I buy down at the market.

In almost 10 years of doing filters this way, I have never once seen evidence of particulate ingress beyond the dry media, let alone inside the carb and I have only had to clean an idle jet once when I was out on the sand. Shamefully I had to ask a friend which one was the idle jet because I had to do so little service, I simply forgot where it was.

[tperazzo]

I'm considering this one from CB performance? Anyone use this successfully?

http://www.cbperformance.com/catalog.asp?ProductID=563

Dirtbugger, any pictures of your homemade one?
Thanks,
Tom

[dirtbugger]

I'll see what I can find, but I actually got the idea of making it from the Hibbard Buggy book. There's a pic of a "T" shaped filter in there somewhere.

Another thing that was a big plus was that here in Oz there's a very common rubber collar you can buy in just about any hardware for about $1.50 that connects the pipe from a toilet cistern into the rear of the pan.

It just so happens that they are a perfect fit for the top of a solex carb to join it to the PVC pipe.

I'd hazard a guess that you would probably not use the same collars in the states for your dunnies. (colloquial for 'toilets")

[dirtbugger]

As requested, this is the home made job I use when I run the standard solex.

I was going to do a full service to show what the oiled foam pod inside looks like but when I peeked under the external dry media, it looked perfect so I couldn't be bothered.

Instead I've just put a new stocking cover on one side and I'll do the other before I put it back on the buggy.

In a manx the tee piece can't be straight, you must use a 45 elbow to get it to fit before you add the tee.