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Air Cleaner Lids
Pontiac V8 Air Cleaner Lids
What Everyone Sees First — Air Cleaner Lids for Pontiac V8s
The air cleaner lid is the one part of a Pontiac V8 engine bay everybody sees with the hood up, and it is also the cheapest way to change how the whole car reads. A lid swap costs one bolt and no tuning, which is why most builders buy the base and element once and the lid more than once.
Butler stocks steel muscle car and filtered lids, cast aluminum ball milled and full finned tops, billet lids from Billet Specialties, and CNC milled custom logo lids with Pontiac, GTO, Trans Am, Firebird and cubic inch options.
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1. Steel, cast aluminum or billet
All of these fit a 14 inch round air cleaner. The material sets the look, the weight and, in one case, the airflow.
| Muscle car style steel | 14 inch round in chrome or black for the factory look. Note that this lid does not come with hardware, so add a stud and wingnut if you do not have them. |
| Filtered steel lid | the same 14 inch round with a cleanable element built into the top, which flows better than a solid lid. Offered with a black or red filter on black paint. |
| Cast aluminum ball milled | 14 inch, polished or black, and supplied with a cut-to-fit bolt. |
| Cast aluminum full finned | 14 inch in polished or black for a nostalgic finned look. |
| Billet aluminum | Billet Specialties lids in mirror polish or black powder coat, with stainless mounting hardware. |
2. Custom milling: what you actually choose
The CNC milled lids are configured in three steps rather than picked off a shelf. You choose a large top logo, then a cubic inch or engine number, then a smaller lower logo. Butler mills these in house from 6061 billet aluminum on the Billet Specialties lid, in polished or black powder coat, and the lid comes with its mounting bolt.
3. Fitment and hardware
Two details decide whether a lid works on your car.
| Diameter | these are 14 inch lids and they need a 14 inch base and element. A 12 inch oval assembly takes its own lid. |
| Hardware style | steel lids use a stud and wingnut, cut to fit. Cast and billet lids use a low profile tapered head screw, also cut to fit. Some lids include that hardware and some do not, so check before you finish the order. |
| Carburetor | the lid itself does not touch the carburetor, but the assembly under it does. A Dominator will not take these bases, and Edelbrock or Carter AFB carburetors want a flat base rather than a drop base, which changes how the lid sits relative to the hood. |
| Airflow | a solid lid seals the top of the element, so all the air comes in through the side. A filtered lid adds a cleanable element in the top and flows better, which is worth having on a bigger engine under a tight hood where you cannot run a taller element. |
For a Pontiac running three throttle bodies there is a separate Tri-Power billet lid set of three, made from 6061 billet aluminum. That set is lids only and does not include the 5/16 inch wing nuts, so order those alongside it or buy the full Tri-Power air cleaner kit with the bases and filters instead.
Not sure what your Pontiac needs?
Call our tech team at 866-762-7527. Tell us your engine, heads, car, and power goal, and we will put the parts together as one combination that works.