73LS4

Unfortunately some previous owner of my car didn't like what Zora had engineered... so he replaced the original air cleaner with a K&N assembly. Fortunately he did save the original base for the air cleaner. Looks like he also gutted the flap in the hood, and wiring for it.

Though I had a 73 new, that was 30 years ago, and I don't remember much... and doubt I'd have even noticed then, since it was all stock and correct. As a result, I have questions on the parts I need.

Seal (air cleaner to hood): I can't remember if the original seal is one continuous circular piece, or if's got a splice in it. Can anyone tell me if there's any difference between an original and a reproduction seal?

Flange (seal fits onto the flange which then sits on top of the air cleaner): I've seen some vendors advertise that their flange has 3 cutouts, unlike others... so how many are there supposed to be?

And I'm assuming that since all 3 engines available that year had Quadrajets, they all have the same air cleaner assembly, and cowl induction mechanism and wiring. Anyone know different?

And, I don't know how many years these parts were used (I've seen some say 73-74... some 73-75). Anyone know?

Can anyone describe what the wiring harness looks like, what it connects to, etc.?

Michel B

I can answer your last question, the wireing, if you look at the tranny detent switch above the gas peddle, you will see two wires, the orange one goes to the tranny and the brown one is for the cowl vent. the wire goes through the fire wall and should follow the bundle that goes to the front of the car..

CGGorman

I was gonna say that 73 still had the short hood and wiper door... I guess not!

I can't help, then...

73LS4

I've been afraid to look under the dash at the accelerator pedal, mechanism, and wiring, for fear what I'd find :-)

Just looked... the switch is still there... brown and orange wire as u say (they both look tan to me). Looked on top of the engine. There's a suspect plug sitting on top of the LH valve cover... wires going to it, and nothing coming out. Looks like one of the tan wires goes to the idle solenoid, then the other tan wire, and a blue and green wire feed into that plug. Whatever was plugged into it is gone. One wire was probably for operation of the cowl vent, and I can't imagine what the blue and green were for.

This is a 4 speed car, so I don't think any wiring or linkage associated with the accelerator or carburetor goes to the transmission. The car doesn't have a/c... and the alarm doesn't work, if those are any clues.

There's also a vacuum line that runs from the carburetor to the PCV valve near that plug and it "T"s at the PCV valve... and it's capped on one side of the T that would seemingly run from the T towards something near the firewall, based on some other pictures I've collected of 73-74 LS4s. I have no idea what that should connect to either.

Amazing what we did to cars back then, and then threw the parts away.... and I'm as guilty as anyone else... but I usually keep the parts to pass along.

The smog pump and plumbing are also gone, but I'm not going to worry about that unless Arnold decides we need all our smog stuff again.

Pedro'74

I believe the original seal has a splice in it, and it came with a piece of cloth tape over the seam.

The flange has 3 cutouts (2 for the "snorkels"; 1 for the breather).

This cowl induction set-up was used from 73 to 75.


-Pedro

carl a

i just got my cowl door opening last year,there is a ''jack'' located in the wiring loom by the frt head lights,, look i bet its still there! mine was. anyway i bought the small wiring loom that runs up to the cowl door.there are holes in the rail of the underside of the hood that the new wiring clips into(the wiring kit comes with the clips) its in the corvette central catalog,, the gas pedal switch activates the cowl door when its depressed ,,energizing the door..i have the origional air cleaner for my 73,,but the problem i am having is it hits the ignition shielding,,because i am running a holly street advenger and the design of the carb wont allow the stock air cleaner to mount up ,unless i remove or alter the shielding,,,one thing you probably noticed is even thou the door opens for fresh air,,you are still getting hot engine bay air due to the fact that the air cleaner has the 2 snorkle ports,,i was thinking of a way to run 2 ducts to a area next to the radiator,so the snorkle inlets will pick up ram air from the grill while getting cowl air,,buy the way the gasket is available and the lid for the air cleaner ....after lars got done tweaking in my timing and carb at the chicago tuning for beer tour,,,i dont think the cold air will make a big difference compared to the difference when lars got done with his hammer!!,,,,,,,,,,,,let me know how it works for ya,,,,carl

hunt4cleanair

There is a difference in the air cleaner for smallblock versus big block...smallblocks the flange offset is concentric while the LS4 has an elliptical offset to the rear. Both are dual snorkel gloss black. As observed cloth-like black tape covers the seam on original seals.

I believe the CF has a couple of 73 specialists and there is another who hangs at the NCRS tech forum (Lyle) who knows his stuff and probably has parts. Look him up if interested.

73 LS-4

Is the flap mechanism still in the hood or has the entire assembly been removed? If it's gone this maybe the hardest part to recover, but I'm not sure. The original seal did have cloth tape holding it together, at least mine did and it was a 47k mile car and everything else was intact on the car when I got it. The wiring harness if it's been removed will run up the drivers side of the hood to the flap assembly cover. I removed my assembly but left the wiring in place and still run the seal (new) with the stock K&N replacement air filter and a 11" K&N extreme lid. If you need some stock part numbers off of some of the equipment I can get them out of the tupperware and check them out for ya. I saved everything.


Pat Kunz

Kid Vette

Here's some pics of a stock '73 engine compartment that may help.