Currently playing around with hooking on the air filter on my 71 charger with a 440 in it. My car has an air grabber on it and the base is different than what I am used to. I have had trouble digging up a lot of documentation and have a couple of questions.

1. I am not 100% this is the right air grabber base for my set up. The car originally had a 383 in it but now has a 440. Is there a way to verify that this is the correct base? Do I need to worry about height between the different engines

2. There appear to be 3 places for hoses on the base. One currently has a hose attached but then there are two other nipples at the font of the base. Reading around I think all three might be drainage hoses but having 3 of them seems excessive.

The two fittings in the front are water drains, the one in the rear connects to the passenger valve cover breather, is not a drain. The drain fittings had short pieces of hose attached originally just long enough to clear the engine. Yes, there is a height concern when going from a B to RB block, a little over a half inch, two different bases, check out Nick's Garage for identification process.

Nuts. It looks like I have the wrong base then. What is weird is when I look at a place like year one they only offer one base. Is there a conversation that you have to do between the kits then? If I use the current kit what will my main issues be? Is it just a matter of the seal not fitting or will the hood not actually close?

the hood will not close if you have a 383 base .

What intake is on the 440 ?

If it's basically not the stock intake you will have the same issue of the hood hitting the air cleaner ... and potentially braking the air grabber box on the hood.

Intake Manifold is an Edelbrock 2191 and have the Edelbrock 1407 Carb on it. Had no idea that the aftermarket manifold would cause me to pick up that much height compared to stock. I am thinking with my current setup there is not way I will ever get the air grabber working. Is there any good solution to will allow me to bypass the air grabber and at least get the hood shut?

It looks like this problem is beyond what I was originally thinking. This whole thing is way taller then I was expecting. I went out and ran a string across the fenders and the filter is stick out over where the hood would be. Any quick fixes to get the filter lower so if I put a different hood on the car?

The neck can be shortened (see pic), BUT the air cleaner may still sit above the fender line (see pic). This is my son's 440 Dart with stock intake and flat hood (has '69 Super Bee scoops) and is a shortened 383 air cleaner.

I think your intake is about the same as stock height. A 440 base will be lower and maybe you can find a filter the same diameter but shorter height. What filter is on there? I think it should be a Fram CA305 if I remember right. Also, isn't there a bulge for the hood to add some clearance?
You could probably place the hood on it w/o hinges and see what happens.
The base is available for 440 at Roseville if you have to get one.

http://www.rosevillemoparts.com/product_...roducts_id/5358

The factory Fram CA305 is 3 1/8 inch high , your filter looks to be 1/2 inch or more taller than that.
Plus your 383 base sits 1/2 inch higher than the 440.
Not much, but that inch may help.
Also how thick is you carb base gasket...The thinner, the more gain.

Don't mean to be a Smart A** but as allot of us want things to be "correct" its not a Air Grabber on a Dodge, Ram Charger please : )

There are some really good ideas here. How low do you think I would have to get everything to get it to fit under the hood? Would just under the string be enough? I might have to unbury the hood and hook it up to see.

I am worried that I picked up to much height. The 440 would have added an inch of height. Moving from the stock to edelbrock intake manifold would have adding another inch and a half. So I am not sure that just moving to the 383 base platform would be enough. I need to take a look and see if I remove the air grabber equipment from the hood if that will give me more clearance. Just for clarification this is the hood that has the moving door that can open and close. If I take the under the hood gear off maybe I can just prop the door open.

I still don't think the intake is a big factor. Its basically an aluminum version of the stock 440 intake. I think you are very close to having the hood being able to close. Hoods bulge upwards for clearance The only concern from what I see is filter height and the 383 base. Don't have to disassemble the hood scoop door. Take off the filter, place the hood down and see what you got. Then put on filter w/o the air cleaner lid, see what you got for room. Just above the string "could" be ok. Hoods are not completely flat level to the fenders, especially your hood.
You can temporarily put on a small or standard air cleaner assembly if you want to run the car.

tman may be right. I unburied the hood and put it on today. I was shock when I was able to lower it all the way. It just seems to tap the air filter at the end. I am thinking I have two options. Take off the part of the air system from the hood or buy the new plate. I am going to play around with the hood some more tomorrow. I don't have the sick feeling I did yesterday when I started playing around with all of this.

I would not sacrifice the look of a neat functioning air induction system by removing operating parts to achieve your goal of getting the hood to close.
Trimming the base or trading up to a 440 base seems to be what you'll need to do.

I agree, don't mess with the system attached to the hood. Alter the base, get a replacement or modify current one.

Don't cut up an original base....PLEASE, those things are valuable to people!!! What I did was buy a fiberglass repro, and modify that one. I have a much higher than stock manifold and I bought a fiberglass reproduction and cut the base off that, and with an old base I had around molded the 2 together and arrived at the exact height I needed and kept the original steel base

I've seen the fiberglass, I'll keep my son's modified original steel and modify another for my Barracuda.