Finally got a chance to start looking over the engine in the car that followed me home from the upper northeast a couple of weeks ago. I've had several slants in the past couple of years with the typical 1bbl and air stock air cleaner. Something seemed different about the new one, and then it dawned on me...the end of the snorkel has a plate across it with holes in it. I've not seen that before. Presumably it was for keeping road kills from entering the filter perhaps? Looks like another way of restricting air to the carb though.

You don't say what your car is, but that is probably to pull warm air from over the exhaust manifold during warm-up. There should be a flexible hose running from the snorkel to the manifold.

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aed
/6>V8

The plate is probably a silencer.

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"Mad Scientist" Matt Cramer
'66 Dart - turbocharged 225
My blog - Mad Scientist Matt's Lair

I'm gonna guess that the plate is a flapper door with a temperature sensor to open it when it warms up.

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aed
/6>V8

Ah, I see, we're thinking of different ends. The silencer is a baffle at the inside end of the snorkel.

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"Mad Scientist" Matt Cramer
'66 Dart - turbocharged 225
My blog - Mad Scientist Matt's Lair