Inliners International Forums General Discussion Engines Air breather - need snorkle?

My engine is a stock '67 230 with the single monojet. The snorkle tube was bent up so I removed it from the breather. I thought it might increase my mileage and power if the engine could get a little more air anyway. Now when the snorkle tube was on the engine it had has only about a 1 1/2 hole to get air....now with it removed it has a square hole 2"X3" or so. A lot more air!
I have hesitation at mid to WOT after the gas has burned from the excellorator pump.
As far as I know there is no other adjustment screws other than the idle mixture on the monojet.
Does the monojet need the restriction of the snorkle to run properly??

Thanks, Clyde

I doubt thats your problem. Need more info.
Still running points?
Are the simptoms consistant/repeatable?
Only does it at certain rpms?
What else have you messed with since it started doing this?
Does it matter if the engine is cold or hot?
Is the intake getting heat?

I have replaced following in the last 6 months just because the car sat 10 years before I got it: points, cap, rotor,wires, plugs, rebuilt the carb, fuel pump, fuel line, fuel tank. Issue shows at mid to high range not under load. Hot or cold does not seem to matter. The intake has stock exhaust heat.
Driving it it is not as easy to notice. Just reving it. Last night I noticed that #4 plug was black as if gas fouled. I cleaned the plug and swapped it with #5 and replaced the wire on #4. Ran the engine 30 min or so and the plugs looked fine... but my issue is still there. I tried restriction on the breather and no change. Car does not smoke a bit..... so no oil issues. I do have a pop (irregular puff of exhaust) every few seconds in the exhaust at idle.

Thanks for the help, Clyde

I assume you checked the dwell?
Have you put a vacuum gage on it?
fresh gas?

possibilities are:

improper dwell
vacuum leak
low float level
power valve not working
plugged metering jet
broken valve spring
burnt valve
blown head gasket between cylinders
air pump divert valve malfunction (Califonia Air pump equip.)

checking compression (with all plugs out) would help eliminate some possibilities.
A tailpipe sniffer would help with others.
If the vac gage bounces, that will tell you about the valves also.

It has fresh gas. I gapped the points but did not check the dwell. I will check the compression in the next day or so and reply. It is not a cal. engine so no air pump. So where should I connect a vacuum gauge?? Base port on the carb?

Thanks, Clyde

You want manifold vac, not ported vac. Otherwise you won't get a reading at idle. If there is no manifold vac at the carb, then hopefully there is a tap in the intake manifold itself.

An old time friend of mine was an engineer for GM. He explained that the single snorkel on most of the lower performance engines was designed for noise containment! The venturi designed into the snorkel allowed the air to enter, but was restrictive to the resonating sonic waves generated when the throttle blades were open. This trapped them inside the air cleaner, and contributed to a quieter engine bay. They were in no way restrictive for the smaller engines, and used only on the lower performance applications (even on the bigger engines) where quiet operation was expected by the customer.

Exactly. just imagine the difference with one of those old batwings. Look cool, but I doubt they were much help.