I got there in the end
Here is the 80's hiace filter housing. They come from this model hiace:
They are very common in wreckers.
The filter housing is quite hard to find, initially. Open the sliding door, there's a door that gives you access to it on the bottom left of step inside the door opening. They are fiddly to get out.
Once out, they look like this:
That's a 1.0 filter housing below it for reference.
Here's one in a 1.0 sierra, mounted on the LHS because this car has a K6A 660cc turbo. It's had the front end of the 660cc filter housing attached to it, is it contains the blow-off valve for emissions reasons. I've also welded a 3" inlet onto the box, facing up for the pseudo-snorkel this car runs.
Here's one sitting on the RHS of the same car. You can see that ideally the battery needs to move ( but that's not a bad thing in itself for COG and balance reasons. It might be possible to mount one all the way forward behind the headlight, but I think it's a nice fit like this. Obviously, it's not mounted in this photo and is just sitting there.
Here's the 1.0 and hiace boxes pulled apart. The Hiace box has a proper dust trap and drain in the end of the end cap, and a cyclonic widget to make the box work properly.
And here's the end cap, which is 58678775765857X better than the stupid little clips suzuki use on their boxes.
I've fitted 1.0 boxes and Jimny boxes to sierras, but I don't like them. The Jimny box is a car box. It's not designed for off road use. ( I don't think panel filters have any place in an off road car.) The 1.0 box just doesn't seal well enough for my liking.
Anyway, short of a donaldson cyclopac, I think this is an excellent airbox, and it's a clear winner for the $$. With a donaldson centrifugal precleaner like this:
On the inlet side, I reckon you'd be opening the air filter box annually. I have a hiace filter in my car ( no precleaner) I't's been in there for about 12 months and I haven't touched it. There's something to be said for having a large enough filter for the job.
Steve.
