Just wondering what to do with the hoses. My old man bought one from supercheap auto for the VL, not sure of the brand but it's a chrome housing with element the same as the K&N. I can see that the hose from the rear of the left rocker cover will need to be adapted as the port on the aircleaner housing is slightly smaller than the factory one. Also, there's another hose going into the factory housing, looks like a vac hose maybe, what do I do with it as there doesn't look to be anywhere on the new one to connect to. Finally, the warm air hose that runs from the left exhaust manifold to the air cleaner intake snorkel, remove it? Plug the exhaust manifold hole? just leave the hose as it is? Thanks for any help.

wtf are you talking about?

the rocker cover hose is the intake for the crankcase breather and NEEDS to have filtered air unless you want **** getting in there so connect it to the housing or put a smaller filter on it. the vac hose is off a manifold t peice?? i think so... plug it and see what happens??!! probably for an emission related thing. the long hose from the exhaust is the warm air thingo. just remove it. you dont have to plug the manifold either. you may notice a slight hesitating when its a cold morning and motor is cold but generally doesnt bother them too much!! hope this helps

Thanks Simo, that pretty much covers it. The vac hose does go to the manifold t piece thing (mine's brass, heard that means it's aftermarket, and better than factory plastic), the other end is what I wanted to know where to put. On the factory setup it connects to the air cleaner housing (not sure what for, don't know enough about these motors, yet). With the aftermarket one I have, there isn't anywhere to connect the hose, so just block it off? NZ EVLHSV: Sorry you don't understand. I'm better with the N/A 6's, this is my first ever V8, so I don't know much about what's what and where it all goes.

Chuck up some pics of what you are trying to do

My old man has the car at the moment, I might be going there this arvo so I'll take the camera and try to get some snaps. I've got a Max Ellery manual but it isn't overly helpful in pointing out exactly what I mean. Basically if I can find instructions, or a write up on fitting the K&N filter, and those like it, I should be right. The one we bought has no instructions or guide to help out.

The Filter and housing you have will not be emissions legal and as such will not have all the connections on it that the standard air cleaner housing does. You will need to lose or modify some of the hoses as was pointed out above. The hose from the rocker cover will need to be connected to the air cleaner to make it semi legal, this is for recirulating crankcase fumes back through the carby. Alternatively you can fit one of those small filters onto the rocker cover but they are not emissions legal. It is illegal to vent to atmosphere. They look pretty trick though guaranteed to get you a yellow sticker from the jacks.... The large pipe from the manifold to the air cleaner is an air preheat pipe for cold starts as mentioned above, just store that one in the circular floor file... Not needed. In fact if you fit extractors to the car they will most likely be missing that attachment. See here - The vacuum hose you mention I have no idea what that is for, unless it is connected to the air flap located inside the snorkel part of the standard air cleaner. I am racking my brains to remember if they even have one. Some pics would be good as mentioned... See how you go with that info and try to get some snaps up... TEMPA Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Here's a few photos of how my car is currently. Looking at them I guess I should remove the hose from the back of the carb and block the port, does that sound right? Not sure what the thing in the air cleaner housing is that the two hoses run to either. Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Ive just had to set up all the correct breathers etc on my motor. I drilled a hole into the base plate for the K&N housing, whacked an L piece in there and put it all together, no worries with a RWC. Dont worry about the hose that goes from the exhaust, all it does is takes some of the heat from the extractors into the motor so its not sitting in the bay, if anything its bad for the car. Just take it off, its not a roadworthy requirement and has nothing to do with emissions. Thats it that affects the filter, the rest of the vacuum hoses will go into the back of the carby.

As TWO89 said, Piss the hot air pipe off from the exhaust manifold to the air cleaner. You don't need it. Remove the vacuum hose, toss it over your left shoulder and plug the port on the carby. Then all you need to do is arrange a connection into the bottom of the filter plate to connect that big, oily breather hose from the rocker cover to the filter assembly. That is an emissions requirement. Bob's your uncle. Cheers, TEMPA

Sweet, so I just need to organise something to connect the breather hose to the air filter housing and somehow incorporate and oil filter into it, something better thsn the piece of foam as in the factory set up. Thanks again for all the help given here. NZ EVLGMH: Hope this all makes sense now Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

^^ Mate, I've got a HDT cold air tray on my VH (as shown in the pic above that I posted) and where my breather connects to the filter base there is no filter there. I can't see that it is necessary. Unless your rings are stuffed and you have excessive blow by. The breather is only meant to carry fumes from the rocker cover back into the carby to be burnt in the engine. It shouldn't be carrying oil/ Although the breather hose on your pics does look oily... Anyway mine has no filter on it, just a plastic hose connection that bolts to the filter base and the breather connects to that. TEMPA

Ok, thanks. The only thing with my new one is that the hole is inside the filter so is open directly to the carby. The little filter in the pic looks oily but it's really just dirty, and probably been there since day 1. I guess the air coming in would have some oil particles in it that would build up in the filter over time. I'll whack the hose straight onto the adapter and keep an eye on it, then make up a filter if it needs it. Thanks again guys for the help, I'll look to fit the new filter this afternoon. P.S. My new filter setup looks like yours Tempa, can't think of the brand just now.

Well I finally got around to fitting the new filter, looks good. Only problem now is I have noticed the front edge of the top cover is rubbing on the bonnet liner, an arc of around 10-15cm I'd say. Any one else have this trouble? Will update the post shortly with pics. Another thing I noticed, the car has always seemed to idle high when cold, around 1500-1700 rpm. When changing the filter over I noticed that where the solenoid is to push on the throttle actuator for cold starts, if you push it manually to open the throttle (as if you wanted to rev the engine were it running), it doesn't rest back against the piston of the solenoid. Again I'll get a pic to help show what I mean. If anyone has any ideas or explanations for these two things that would be great. Cheers.

[quote=Waughy]the bonnet liner/QUOTE] Bonnet liner? What's that? Is that the horrible black thing on the underside of your bonnet that you rip off and turf cause it looks so grotty and s hitty??? TEMPA Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Lol, yeah that sounds like it, not sure what it's called and couldn't be bothered looking it up. Get rid of it you say? This one's actually in pretty good nick, bar the gouge from the filter cover now.

Mines long gone. TEMPA Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

i think your referring to auto choke which will hold open the throttle until the carb knows when the engines warmed up (pretty complicated system but i can give you the basic run down), and the solenoid your probably referring to is the AC high-idle speed solenoid (screwed onto the front facing end of the carb, passenger side, with the single black wire coming out the bottom?), nothing to do with the auto choke. dont worry too much if the accelerator lever doesnt rest up against it, when you switch on the AC this should activate the solenoid which will cause the little piston to shoot out and press against the accell lever and keep the idle above average. I remember you mentioned you didnt want to do major work to the motor but have you considered taking out the emmision gear? Do you realise how corked up the VL 5ltrs were from the factory? For instance, look at the driver side exhaust manifold. Inside there is a valve that closes to block gas flow when the engines cold, which forces ALL 8 cylinders of gas flow to go through the passenger side manifold through the crossovers in the head and manifold. Pretty restrictive, and even a set of half decent extractors would wake things up a bit. A lot of people bag the VL V8 for making only 122KW but when you do some research, you cant really blame it when you find out how restricted it was for it to pass emission testing back in the day. Theres a whole bunch of other things i can go on about but ill leave it at that, just something to think about.

vlcalais8: Thanks for the info, you are spot on with the parts I'm trying to describe. SO I guess I need to get the cold start idle sorted out, it only sits that high for a few minutes, but still seems pretty high, I have been waititng about a minute then giving the accelerator pedal a few squeezes to get it back down, takes about 3-4mins usually. I don't like attempting to drive it before it drops as with it revving so high then trying to put it into gear it gets this godawful clunk as it goes into the selected gear, can't be good for the auto. This is my first V8 ever so I really know nothing about them, one reason I won't touch too much on it, for now. Extractors are on the cards, have been quoted on a system including advance headers and a 2-1/2" cat back system, with what the guy called a metal cat and a longer hotdog style resonator to give the car a nice note but not drone through the car like a straight through pipe can do. So even just doing the exhaust I should see a marked improvement? That sounds pretty good. Still tossing up the idea of getting the motor rbuilt when it's time (after 300k it still seems to go quite strong, only dramas are a few oil leaks), inject it or repalce it with an injected motor. Plenty of time to think about that anyway. As for the bonnet liner thing, I might try just cutting a small section out where it's rubbing and see how it goes, hopefully the air filter cover won't rub on the bonnet itself. Still have to take the photos. Fitted some gas struts to the bonnet too, makes things a lot easier for working under there, drive belts are next. Just have to do a little remodelling of the inner guard channels where the struts sit as they're rubbing and making the bonnet sit up very slightly, not noticeable if you don't know about it, but I know. Anything else I'll just ask here, the knowledge base of the users here is priceless, and I appreciate everyone's input. Hopefully this car will be anice cruiser in the very near future, or a total beast if I find the cash anywhere. Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

by the sounds of it from what you describe the auto choke is working perfect, the car is meant to sit on high idle for a few minutes then after a blip of the throttle resume normal idle. The choke system on the Rochester carb (which is what the VL's run, an excellent carb rated at 750 CFM) is adjustable in two ways, first the amount of high rpm idle in three steps, then fine tuning of the RPM speed via a little screw, very similar to the idle adjustment speed procedure. You can even have it idle at say 1100 to reduce that clunck when you engage gear, if your not sure how to do this just take it to a carb shop and I'd be surprised if they dont show you and adjust it for free. As for the air filter, are you using the filter that came with the chrome housing? I used one and didnt have any probs, even went and bought a higher one and it still fits under the bonnet. Try your local parts shop and you might be able to buy a slightly lower air filter itself for peanuts, this could save the hassle of cutting etc etc etc. And as for the exhaust system Ive been told by numerous respectable shops that one of the most simple mods that will give you good gains is the proper extractors/exhaust combo. In fact one shop dynoed a few VL 5ltrs that just had a nice set up, and they each ran around the 210-220 HP at the flywheel. Not a bad jump considering from factory they made about 165HP at the flywheel.