I got tired of fishing leaves out of that air intake. I tried two solutions. First I got an IPD "snow cover" for my daighter's '84 240 and installed it. It works pretty well but some smaller leaves will still blow in under it.

For my '88 240, I tried copying the air intake screen from my 940 which has an aluminum mesh just under the air intake openings. I took an aluminum mesh gutter guard for the house rain gutters and cut pieces to fit under the air intake openings. Then I carefully slipped this mesh in through the widest air intake opening slot and worked it along until it fit under all the opening. I held up with surgical forceps while I fastened it in place with small zip-ties. To make it easier to get the zip-ties around the slot dividers and through the aluminum mesh, I heated the ties slightly on a soldering iron and bent the ties in a half-circle. It's actually pretty easy.

This mesh has worked very well to keep junk out and the installation looks pretty good. I've got pictures now and I'll try to post them. The total cost of this is very low. I don't recall the cost of the gutter guard mesh but it was surely under $5.

The cowl vent is one of the 240's weakest points. Leaves and junk get down in the vents and eventually block the drains on the bottom of the rockers causing rust to form. IPD sells what is called a "snow cap", simply a plastic cover which snaps in place over the vent/vents and helps to prevent leaves from dropping into the fenders and rocker panels.

Pull off the plastic door sills and the kick panels and pull back the carpet from the rockers. You will see a series of plastic inspection plugs that, once removed, allow access to the inside of the rockers. I duct taped a smaller vacuum hose to the shop vac and vacuumed out the rocker panels and front fenders. If you are feeling really ambitious, pull out the vent door on the driver's side for better access to that side. This is a good time to clean up the contacts on the fuse holders as well. Before putting it back together, stick your head under the rocker panels and make sure the drain holes are open and clear. IIRC, there are 5-6 "D" shaped holes along each rocker panel and one or two in the bottom of each front fender.

Good Luck!



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don hodgdon '89 744ti, '81 242t, '71 D-35...just waitin' for the glue to dry :-)

Chop down the tree. Move the car first.

Seriously, that's the fresh air intake (cowl is, I guess, the proper term) and someone sells a cover that fits over it and still lets air in. JPStyling, maybe? Someone here will be able to tell you. I don't like the way they look but if they work they couldn't be too bad.
Cleaning the stuff out is something I have not needed to do, but it sounds like a chore. Maybe I do need to and just don't know it. Something has to have got in there in 25 years.
There were a couple of recent threads on the subject. Search for "pine needles," or "cowl question." These appeared within the last couple of weeks.
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'80 DL 2 dr