HiPo Air Cleaner

billh_old · April 22, 2007 at 12:05 PM

How do you tell a real HiPo aircleaner from a Repo? I had a double hump air cleaner that was incorrect for my car. I traded it to a friend who has a 289 Cobra and needs this air cleaner. I suspect the one he gave me is a repo, which I have a couple of. The repo and the one that is suposed to be an original are both .031 thick. The quality of some of the repo's are pretty good so for you experts: How to you really tell the difference. (There is no problem here, the guy I traded to will make it right)

Thanks

Bill

BoS_old · April 22, 2007 at 12:12 PM

Hi Bill,

If I don't recall wrong, we discussed

this topic some months ago and the only

way we could separate the real thing from

the repo was by weight.

Search the files and I think you will

find the answer.

/Bo

billh_old · April 30, 2007 at 1:07 PM

After my first post, I had an occasion to compare two re-po air cleaners with an original from a 66 HiPo. I noticed a difference that became evident when comparing air cleaners side by side. Today, I took delivery of another known original air cleaner and it confirms what I suspected last week. Studied them for quite a while, and this is what I found:

• All three had the dimples for the wing nut.

• Metal thickness in all three was the same. .031 to .039

• The outer edge lip on one of the re-po’s exactly matched the original unit in angle and small radius. The other lip had a larger radius and bent down at a perfect 90 degree angle. Hard to see unless you really knew what you were looking at.

On first glance it is very hard to tell them apart. One of the re-po’s had a “Made in Taiwan” sticker on the underside, and a couple times we needed to look at it to be sure. Further study revealed the real differences between the original and the re-productions;

From the center of the air cleaner, the top comes out flat then dips down at an angle to a radius that locates the inside of the paper element. On the original Ford air cleaner, where it comes out from the center and dips down is actually a rather large radius. On both of the re-po’s, this is two angles with a bend in the middle. Apparently when Ford made the OEM stamping die, they incorporated a radius in this area. Whoever made the re-po’s didn’t notice or worry about this. If you look closely, the difference becomes evident.

It’s the difference between a $25.00 Taiwan repo and one made by FoMoCo.

round2K_old · April 30, 2007 at 1:23 PM

How about some pictures??? This is a tough one to understand without some images. Could you post pics of the front and back of each?

billh_old · May 3, 2007 at 11:03 AM

As soon as I can figure out how to post photos (Need to acquire some free web space, which so far has eluded me, any help here greatly appreciated) this will becomes very clear. When you know what to look at, the difference is apparent. It is very easy to tell a repo air cleaner from an original.

RalphJr · May 3, 2007 at 11:36 AM

There are many free picture hosting sites on the web - search Yahoo or Google and you will find them.

Once you post the photo to the "host" site it will have an "ID" or address - this is what you need to put into the HiPo site like this:

(img)your image address here(/img)

NOTE: you need to change from parenthesis to square brackets - I had to do this to get it to show up and not think I was posting a picture.

Most of the hosting sites I've used acutally give you this complete address once you post the picture or ask you how you will be using it or linking to it in the future - then give a list of different formats for linking to the picture - like in another website.

Be sure to resize the picture if it is a large format - you can download a Windows image resizer program for free from Microsoft that works great. I usually make the pictures 640x480 or 800x600 max and they show up great. Resize them, post them to a Web host site, then put the picture address into the HiPo site as outlined above - that is all there is to it.

Edited by - RalphJr on 05/03/2007 11:40:56

round2K_old · May 3, 2007 at 3:20 PM

http://imageshack.us/

I've been using this one for about two years. Very easy: browse and find your image, click to resize, then upload. The link you want to use is the "hotlink for forums" that is next to the bottom of the page.

billh_old · May 4, 2007 at 9:55 AM

The first photo is an OEM Air Cleaner. The area noted is actually a large, constant radius you can see and feel.

[Blocked Image: http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/815/aircleanermz9.jpg]

The photo below is a Reproduction. In the same area, instead of a radius it's more like two flat angles separated by bend, When you feel it, they are actully flat joined by a curve. Apparently, when Ford made the die to stamp the air cleaners, they took some time and machined a radius instead of taking the quick way out and just cutting two flat angles and a small radius.

[Blocked Image: http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/7387/repomediumfd0.jpg]

This information is based on looking at many original and reproduction air cleaners.

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