Jasond56 said: I just received the rubber ring on Tuesday. Haven't mounted it yet, just placed it. Definitely takes away from the aesthetics :( From what Vman73 is saying, it seems the rubber ring is necessary?
It serves a purpose. At the rear edge of the hood is a vent frill...behind that is an electrically operated door the is closed until about 1/2-3/4 throttle. With the door open, it allows cool outside air into the air cleaner assembly. The rubber seal seals the air cleaner to the bottom of the hood. Without the seal all you'll ever get into the engine is hot, underhood air. WITH the seal, once the door opens, you'll get nice cool air into the engine...which helps it run better. It doesn't really do any good for fuel mileage, since you have to mash the throttle down for the door to work, but...it does work well otherwise. This system was only used from '73 to '75, but the '67-'69 L88/ZL1 cars had a similar set-up, without the electrical door, except the air cleaner assy on those was completely seals....there were no snorkels on those as the '73-'75 cars have.
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