Now that I have my new X14iED's installed (see no difference so far) was thinking about adding a new air cleaner.

When I looked for some DIY air cleaner/filters I found a couple

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/sport...s-of-pics.html

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/sportster-models/872914-diy-air-cleaner-heavy-pic-content.html

Here's the thing, looking at the ham can AC on my 2012 sportster there is a air scoop on the front. Kinda like the old school car "ram air". Some cars back then had "tunnel ram" - which was a giant box on the hood, that, when going at high speed created a high pressue and forced air into the carb.

The DIY Air Cleaners and other air cleaners that I see are basically "open filters" or an open filter with a sock on it.

It seems to me, a open filter is losing the advantage of the stock (and "stylish") ham can with front air scoop. At 70 mph there has to be some significant overpressure in the ham can forcing air into the throttle body.

In the muscle car era, if you had oversized intake manifold so that the carb stuck out of the hood and you didn't have a tunnel ram or scoop on the hood, at high speed, the air moving over the carb would actually suck gas out of the carb and spray it on the winshield.

Now it seems to me, you have the same situation with these open air cleaners. At speed, there would be a vortex / negative pressure behind the open air cleaner and would tend to work against letting the engine breathe better.

Seems to me, to get these bikes to breathe better work would better be directed to improving (enlarging) the air scoop on the stock ham can than replaceing it with an open air filter.

What do you think?

 

I use the stock ham cover over a Hammer backplate and K&N filter.

 

I definitely like the Kury with the 2 butterfly's on the front. Can't remember the name seeing ive been up over 15 hours on the night shift, forgive me.

 

Pontiac was famous for the ram-air setups on their gto & T/a cars of the 60s
Here is some info on Ram-air/cold-air intake http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram-air_intake

 

If you like the look just keep your ham can and put a K&N element behind it.

 

It's called a Hypercharger, and while many think it looks cool, it's one of the worst performing A/C's out there. It's often referred to as "All Show and No Go".

There have been many threads here about it.

 

You can do that, but it won't give you the same performance gain that a real "Stage 1" A/C will. A high flow filter assembly has as much, if not more, to do with the housing as it does with the filter media.

 

I understand what the OP is saying about running 70 miles per hour and the air being tunneled into the Ham Cam by the 2 inch x 2 inch port and it does make sense but at the same time when sitting still at a light or moving slower on a city street having a more exposed intake will allow better flow into the motor.

Now I'm not an expert when it pertains to intake flow so I like many need to rely on the experts and if the stock Ham Can was sufficient for the intake when performing a Stage 1 upgrade I doubt Harley would be pointing out that it is not. If you like the stock look SE has what they call a High Flow intake cover that utilizes the stock Ham Can keeping the same look but allowing air to enter around the entire filter, cost from Harley $130.00.

 

I get what the OP is saying and thought about it myself, but I bet if you put the bike on a dyno with the stock AC set up and did a mild tune then put an open AC set up and tuned for it the numbers would be better with the open setup. I have the SE stage 1 backing plate with he K&N that is is made for it, then I took my aftermarket ham can cover and cut it so if just covers the front of the filter leaving the filter media exposed then did some custom paint and striping to the cover. The set up I have looks killer and seems to flow very well.

I know HD parts are not always the best for performance, but if you get the stage 1 kit you still use the stock ham can cover, but it gets rid of the "ram air" lookng backing plate and just lets the air suck in from all around the back and the lager opening at the botton of the ham can. So that being said HD must know that the stock set up does not flow all that well or they would just give you a differant filter and call it a day.

 

You need to not only swap out the filter element but also the backing plate to fully open up the air flow. You can keep the stock cover.